[Vwdiesel] Per mile costs

[Val Christian]

> Val,
>  
> I don't disagree with the thread going on here, only with the wastage of  
> monies on the part of the States.  At roughly $25,000 a year in fuel taxes  per 
> truck, there ought to be enough money available to gold plate every road in  
> the State.  And, that assumes an average of 6 miles per gallon per  truck.
>  
> Emmit

A point of several GAO reports over the years is that the heavy trucks are
not paying "their fair share" and that lighter trucks are. at least
relatively speaking, overpaying.  

The reality is that rail pays for their roadbeds.  Even the most rail
critical of the studies I reviewed emphasized that the rail subsidies
prevalent at the time didn't begin to touch the interstate system 
subsidies.  (That is a political, not technical issue.  This group 
tends to lean towards technical issues.)

The rail infrastructure, with all it's big diesel engines, appears to
be in a permanent shrinking mode.  This is something which will likely 
continue, however in the interest of roadbed cost containment and fuel
efficiency for long haul, rail has a decided advantage.

The problem I have with all of this is that I pay more tax on diesel
fuel than I do autogas, because there is the assumption that I'm driving 
a truck.  The fuel tax is on the fuel modality, not the vehicle type,
but the vehicle type is assumed.

The most recent GAO data I saw, supported the old 9600:1 ratio of a 
large truck wear given a single car, traveling the same distance.  My
Jettas and Rabbits do not burn 1/9600 of the fuel of a large truck,
and my guess is that if we added all the taxes and user fees, they would
still be well below the 1/9600 ratio.

Oh, the wear data was collected in several states over the time frame of
the 1950s through 1980s.

The VWdiesel we drive down the highway, has a better than 10:1 wear
savings over the SUV that just rocketed by.  And then one can add in the
fuel savings.

BTW, a 80,000# truck, while it wears the road much more than a 50,000#
truck, only burns 14% more fuel.

Val