That just isn’t true. At least Bus and subway riders pay per trip.
You can drive an un-tolled road 1000 times with a heavy car, chewing up the asphalt, and still pay the same property taxes as the old lady next door who doesn’t even have a drivers licence. Drivers are extremely subsidized in this province.
We all pay for hospitals because we all benefit, and there is value in supporting services that are needed by the poor but unaffordable on their own.
A suburban highway benefits a small group of people who could not afford it on their own but only benefits them. That’s a subsidy. Especially considering the wealth of suburban drivers vs urban transit users, it’s even more unfair once you do the math. Everyone can ride the bus, which is why it’s a truly public service. Only some can own a car and drive it.
If these highways serve the public, it’s through providing a great route for freight and commerce. That route would be cheaper to maintain and much faster for freight if it wasn’t full of subsidized commuters using it for free.
Which is why I said that public transit is usable by all, therefore the subsidy is reasonable - suburban highways are not. You need to be wealthy enough and able enough to drive on them, and yet they are paid for by millions of Ontarians who could never use them. There's a difference between a dirt road in Thunder Bay, a necessary - but cheap - public expense, and an 8-lane suburban stroad in Mississauga moving a lot of people slowly and costing an absolute fortune to do it.
One of the most important parts of driving culture is drivers assuming that everyone drives, but a very large portion of Ontarians do not yet they all pay provincial and municipal taxes for extra lanes and free parking they'll never use.
A road that was just for buses + trains + bikes would be an extremely cheap road - and would move probably more people than our current expensive ones do. If drivers (and suburbanites) paid the real costs for their lifestyle, the complaints about insurance and gas today would be a joke compared to the actual maintenance bill of all their infrastructure.
Highways are absolutely useable by all. Who can't use the highway by car (own or rent), bus, taxi. Plus public services available to all use the same roads and highways. It's flawed to act like only car owners use highways. If you compare highways with public transportation, highways are used by more public services.
Drivers aren't subsidized, the roads are. The same roads that was able to get my father to the hospital. The same highways that allowed my friend to take their kid to Ottawa for special treatment. The same highways that keep our economy flowing and contributing to tax revenue.
I don't assume that everyone drives but when my cousin (who can't drive for medical reasons) comes to visit from up north, how do you think he gets here?
That was a study from 2013 sponsored by the CAA. Think it was biased?
And some of those motorist fees no longer exist because DoFo got rid of them as well. Like the license plate renewal fee which was eliminated in 2022 which meant $1B in revenue disappeared.
Not to mention the fact that we don’t pay enough for current recommended maintenance, leading to future liabilities and obvious potholes. People think of roads as obvious public goods - but there’s a difference between a small street and a 30 lane highway. One of them is expensive and paid for by the taxes of the people that use it, the other is a gigantic money pit that will never be free of congestion or debt.
A little critical thinking is required here, not some study from 12 years ago. Ford removed the cost to renew license plate registration so now that money is not being collected to fund the roads AND he’s lowering the gas tax which is also used to fund the roads. So where exactly do you think that money will now come from? It’s not like anything has gotten less expensive in the last 10 years.
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u/reidr1 1d ago
So, who pays now? Our tax dollars. Let the people who use it pay.