[arrosenberg]

> Stop the insane energy policies that raise gas prices by 45 cents per gallon (in CA for example) for 0.0001% change in climate

You mean the gas taxes that fund road maintenance? That tax is a tyranny imposed by how much we rely on cars, not by climate change.

[throw_that_away]

It's funny how other states must use magic wands to fix their roads, obviously since the gas prices are not jacked up as high elsewhere.

[arrosenberg]

I don’t understand the sarcasm. Comparable states like Texas and New York charge far more in tolls than California. Many states have far fewer roads (with less usage), or they underfund their road maintenance, don’t repair them, and then rely on federal funds to make emergency repairs after something critical breaks.

[tomrod]

The tolls are 1. Used to fix toll lanes, much more prevalent now than in the past 2. Payments to private companies who siphon the proceeds out of the area they services

Gas tax is much better in this regard, but all of these are pretty extortionary.

[throwaway48476]

Last I checked I think 60% was getting siphoned off to an LLC and only 40% of the toll was for the road.

[AnthonyMouse]

Not only that, tolls suck for privacy (de facto installation of ALPR cameras, database presumptively controlled by a private company selling the data to anyone with money), are a regressive tax on the poor, and are often used to implement "taxation without representation" by sticking the tolls near a state border to extract rents from people not eligible to vote against them.

New York has even taken to explicitly charging higher rates to out of state residents, which is of questionable constitutionality.

[hirako2000]

I would like to be able to say that in Europe, tolls are managed by the state, but they aren't.

[throwaway48476]

But think about all the poor politicians who would miss out on their kickbacks.

[datavirtue]

Driving is a privilege. You can walk on the walking road, thingy.

[nobody9999]

>Last I checked I think 60% was getting siphoned off to an LLC and only 40% of the toll was for the road.

Which tolls on which road? At least where I live there's more than one toll road in the area.

[aydyn]

Underlying the sarcasm is the assertion that California is not fiscally responsible with its budget. Understand now?

[arrosenberg]

Nope, still don’t get it. We aren’t any more or less responsible than other states, just much bigger.

[sokoloff]

California is more responsible than Illinois or New Jersey, but there are plenty of states who are more responsible than CA.

[aydyn]

You sure about that?

[arrosenberg]

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

[mpalczewski]

California has the worst roads of any state I've driven in. San Fran and San Jose, rank among the top 10 in the country of the worst roads. Whatever they are using it for, isn't for road maintenance.

[ToDougie]

Agreed. Texas, Arizona, Nevada, Washington, Florida..... visited all of them in the last 12 months during various seasons.... they ALL have significantly better roads than California. HOW!!!!!! HOW!

[onlypassingthru]

California has the second highest total lane miles by state[0] and it has the highest number of registered vehicles of any state, by a big margin.[1]

Being a such a populous big state with only tiny, regional public transportation systems means everyone and their cousin drives everywhere, all the time. That's how.

[0]https://blog.cubitplanning.com/2010/02/road-miles-by-state/

[1]https://www.bts.gov/browse-statistical-products-and-data/sta...

[ToDougie]

Germany has an equal GDP to California with double the road miles. Their roads are ranked higher.

California can do better, it just doesn't.

[onlypassingthru]

Germans roads are often very nice. The autobahn is awesome. Germans also pay $2.76/gallon in fuel tax.

Californians only pay $0.68/gallon. You up for an additional $2.08/gallon in taxes to pay for those sweet, German roads?

https://taxfoundation.org/data/all/eu/gas-taxes-in-europe-20...

https://taxfoundation.org/data/all/state/state-gas-tax-rates...

[ToDougie]

No. If that's the difference maker, definitely not.

[dekhn]

I've lived in California for 30+ years now and what I've observed is that we spend huge amounts of money on infrastructure and a lot of the spend seems to be absolute waste. For example, there is no realistic reason for high speed rail to cost what it does per mile; I am certain that a very close inspection of the process would uncover huge amounts of waste, padding, and theft. On top of that, people have been able to limit development using enivronmental rules and other legal methods to slow down things that are truly needed.

I'm sure somebody has written a book already about how ostensibly wealthy societies can fail at basic infrastructure that they previously mastered, driven by greed and complacency and other socioeconomic factors. I think this has happened over and over again (Rome, and many other societies).

[sly010]

> I'm sure somebody has written a book already about how ostensibly wealthy societies can fail at basic infrastructure that they previously mastered, driven by greed and complacency and other socioeconomic factors.

How about Foundation by Isaac Asimov.