I do think that a lot of people think that public roads are "free" and cost nothing to build and maintain. It is really hard to make people think about where the labor, materials, and funding come from.
Really this shows that the operators of 18-wheelers should be paying a lot more. Looks like diesel tax is 20-30% higher, not proportional to the thousands of times more damage the 4th power law implies. (A half-full 18 wheeler is about 40,000 pounds so, let's say 10x the weight of a passenger car).
If I extrapolate how much more road wear is caused by a bus and multiply by a EV fee we pay in NZ ($8 NZD / 100km), it would be cheaper to just zoom every passenger in their own Uber.
It's probably fake, but recently someone circulated a figure how much a $5 or $6 bus fare actually costs in Auckland - it's about $40 IIRC.
On flip side I do love rapid bus innovation in Auckland, when it works it works pretty well.