(07-12-2017, 07:20 PM)MidTowner Wrote: p2ee, which U.S. highways do you have in mind? A lot of turnpikes in the U.S. do charge tolls, and you're right that they're low, but the tolls do not cover the entire cost of the highway. Some have tolls set to cover maintenance, but not the capital costs of the highway.
Thanks for the info on 407 ETR profit. Doesn't that suggest that, were the tolls 25% lower, they would cover the cost of the highway? That level would still be rather higher than tolls in the U.S.
I am thinking of the Illinois tollway, which is almost entirely self-funded, including their capital costs. Here's an accounting of their 2017 year. Page 44 has the high level accounting. I just calculated a 90 km trip on that network would cost me about $3.75 USD. I'd be looking at about 4 times as much cost on the 407.
But more than comparison to the US, it's just overly simplistic to compare the tolls on a for-profit highway owned by a foreign company as cost of maintaining road, and as danbrotherston already mentioned maintaining city and local roads is significantly cheaper than highway. The 25% lower tolls wouldn't just cut it to eliminate the profit - they have to pay private sector salaries to executives which likely run into millions per year per executive.
Speaking of capital costs, I'd be interested to know if the subsidy described in that opinion piece covers capital costs for transit or just maintenance. The math for vehicular subsidies seems a bit more thorough (albeit naive in terms of actual costs) than the math for transit subsidies.