TREAT THE ROADS LIKE PRODUCTIVE ASSETS.

I'm pleased to see Streetsblog's Kea Wilson taking up the cause.  There are ten steps. some of which are more easily implemented than others.

First, toll roads.

Expanding toll roads into our cities is a simple and effective way to make drivers think twice about hopping behind the wheel when a greener transportation option is available — and help bring the real costs of our auto-centric road network into better alignment with what drivers pay to use it. (Reminder: they only pay about 51 percent of road spending now.)

I wonder if there's a way to sell more widespread road tolling as a way to provide property tax relief, since in much of the country that old Monopoly hazard, being assessed for street repairs, is still part of the town budget.

Second, congestion pricing.  Why not?  As more tolling authorities move to electronic collection-in-transit, how difficult is programming the devices to collect different amounts at different times of the day?

Third, surge pricing for parking.  The suggestion appears to be pitched toward municipal governments, apparently the road socialists are behind the capitalist curve here.

Fourth, increase gas prices.  That's primarily about adding money to the highway trust fund, but perhaps there's some corporate welfare to cut out.  "[T]he U.S. is long overdue to increase its federal gas tax, which hasn’t been raised since 1993. Ending oil company subsidies probably couldn’t hurt, either."

Fifth, taxing vehicles on a miles-travelled basis.

What might be even better than increasing gas taxes is to get rid of them altogether and replace them with something better. After all, when your road network gets more funding from a fuel inefficient vehicle than a hybrid or an electric car, you give lawmakers a perverse incentive not to clean up the vehicle fleet. Wouldn’t it be better if our transportation system rewarded people who drove less — and simply scaled down our road spending as car-focused roads empty out and revenue drops?

First, it's not up to the legislature to clean up the vehicle fleet, the best politicians can do might be to price the assets they own in as efficient a way as they are capable, and rely on the constituents (including the non-voting ones, people respond to incentives) to choose the method of transportation that best serves them at the prices they see.  Second, given that localities are collecting tolls, wouldn't the easier approach be to bundle some of the local road maintenance expenses in with the tolls on the arterials?  That's less challenging than having to keep your electronic toll device current AND filling in a road use tax form each spring.

Sixth, pay-per-mile car insurance.  "It makes a ton of sense for insurance companies, too: a car you leave at home, after all, is literally never going to be found at fault in a crash that triggers an expensive pay-out." Perhaps that's a reason drivers will be less resistant either to a vehicle miles travelled tax or toll transponders, as their insurance company is getting instant updates on their speed and direction from a smart-'phone application.

Seventh, public spaces, including what look like streets, that are closed to cars.  Whatever.  Perhaps the author should have stopped at six, as what follows verges on the Utopian Wonkery.

Eighth, limited issuance of vehicle registrations.

In Beijing, private vehicle ownership is actually capped by a vehicle permit lottery, which limits how many new cars can legally be sold and put on the road. Residents have just a one-in-2,000 chance of winning the lottery, which happens bimonthly; if you don’t win, your transportation needs will still be covered, thanks to the city’s excellent public transit network.

The Chinese government is not exactly forthcoming with their roadway stats, but one report indicates that Beijing’s roadway mortality rates decreased 34 percent between 2014 and 2016. The license lottery has been in effect since 2011, so it’s a pretty good guess that reducing cars on the road had something to do with that astonishing dip.

That's China. Consider the sources. Multiple times.  Is it really prudent to mimic the Soviet methods of distributing refrigerators and televisions?

Ninth, Jimmy Carter style gas rationing, only for the streets themselves.

Here’s how it typically works: every day, drivers whose license plates end with certain numbers are banned from using the roadways outright, or they’re limited to driving during non-peak hours, or only outside of highly congested downtowns. Drivers who violate the ban get ticketed; drivers who don’t get to enjoy less congested streets on their designated driving days; sustainable transportation users, meanwhile, get to move freely along streets with fewer dangerous vehicles threatening their lives.

When market incentives such as parking charges and tolls are available, does it really make sense to create perverse incentives, such as a black market in stolen license plates?

It’s a complicated system that requires a lot of communication, especially when cities adjust their rations dynamically, as some do. But still: isn’t all that bureaucracy worth it if we can save even a single life?

No. Next question.

Finally, perhaps getting rid of the existing system of subsidies and bureaucracies might be preferable.

Hey, we collectively subsidize driving in all kinds of ways, from free parking to debt-fueled car infrastructure to government grants to oil companies and auto manufacturers. Is it really so outrageous to give a cyclist or a bus passenger a few bucks a month, simply for choosing a mode that doesn’t cost carry outrageous costs to society?

Price the roads and parking lots properly and cut out the corporate welfare, and the cyclist or bus passenger is getting those additional bucks, because the taxing authorities aren't extracting that money any more.