Do you think the gasoline tax rate is unchanged since 1976? How many 1976 vehicles are still in regular use today?
How do you propose total miles versus miles driven in different states should be resolved?
My point was simply that, adjusted for inflation, a given model of vehicle paid $5.00 per 100 miles driven in 1976 and pays $3.12 today.
The gas tax was about .12 per gallon in 76 and is .50 today. National average of course. That’s very nearly unchanged when you take inflation into account.
I’m not proposing a comprehensive solution. The only truly comprehensive solution would be national, which I don’t like because I prefer to keep our limited remaining federalism.
But that doesn’t mean I am prohibited from pointing out challenges faced by the present “system.”
BTW, as some have noted elsewhere in this discussion, urban drivers produce tremendous subsidies for roads in rural areas.