Reply to DDOT wants to charge $8/hr for street parking, require payment 24 hours/day

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]

Pfft. Drivers pay for everything. We finance roads in this country through a combination of taxes and fees. Drivers pay the gas tax. They pay outrageous registration and inspection and tag fees to the city. They pay laughably expensive traffic citations. Both DC and the feds have a highly progressive tax system, which means rich people pay nearly all the taxes. You think your surgeon doesn't drive a car?

If you're a bike riding car hater who makes low six figures (or less), you're the freeloader here. [/quote]

Everyone who pays taxes pays for the roads, including those bike riding people who don't put nearly as much wear and tear on the surface.

And no, the cost for gas is highly subsidized and the taxes on it don't come close to paying for the roads.

ironically it is the people who are driving heavily subsidized cars who are the freeloaders.

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The lion's share of income taxes are paid by drivers, who obviously also pay the gas tax and and an almost impossibly long list of fees on top of that. The notion that they're some kind of welfare queens who are sponging off the rest of us is just bizarre. If drivers aren't paying their own way, then no one else in any other conceivable category is either, except maybe the crazy rich. [/quote]

This is not hard. But yet you don’t seem to get it. So let me explain it for you.

If you pay taxes and don’t drive, you are subsidizing those who drive.

If you pay taxes and drive, your lifestyle is subsidized by those who don’t drive.

The more you drive, the more your lifestyle is subsidized by those who don’t drive or drive less.

Drivers are not, by any measure, paying their own way.[/quote]

By this logic metro riders should also pay "their own" and fares should be substantially higher. Metro fares would need to be around 10x their current level for riders to fully cover their share of metro costs. This means that your one way trip (during weekday hours) should cost anywhere from $22.5 to $67.5 and a one-day unlimited pass should cost $135. [/quote]

Apparently you do not understand externalities. Please enroll in an Econ 101 class and get back to us when you have the basic knowledge required to have a meaningful conversation on this topic.[/quote]

I absolutely do understand externalities, I have a degree in Economics lol. There is no reason to insult people because they point out information that you dislike. My point is that transit is heavily subsidized as well. So this ideological argument that user fees should fund 100% of road use is comical given that you want people to ride the metro where fares only cover 10% of WMATAs annual budget. [/quote]

Ok … tell us whose trip is more heavily subsidized: you driving alone in your car; or me on the metro with 400 other pax? [/quote]

Also, there's a reason we subsidize transit: it's a public service, like schools - which are also heavily subsidized. [/quote]

and roads?[/quote]

Roads are also heavily subsidized. As is street parking. It is possible to discuss [u]whether[/u] they should be subsidized and if so, by [u]how much[/u]. But not [u]that[/u] they are subsidized, because that's just a fact.[/quote]

The same can be said for the freeloaders riding the metro, who only cover 10% of the cost for the service they are using. [/quote]

Nobody, but NOBODY, has said that fares pay 100% for transit. So I don't know who you're arguing with.[/quote]

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