It's a bit more complicated than that. There are fixed or per-vehicle costs: * signage, lighting, snow removal, etc. * weather-related wear and tear from fre

It's a bit more complicated than that. There are fixed or per-vehicle costs: * signage, lighting, snow removal, etc. * weather-related wear and tear from freeze/thaw, thermal expansion, etc. * capacity (more lanes needed, driven by passenger vehicles, not trucks) So yeah, semi's should probably be paying $100k/year in road tax based on wear, but that doesn't meant that your car's road tax should be $1/year. There's also a great argument that all the suburbs are not paying enough in property taxes. Those paved roads have high costs to maintain over time, and service just the traffic to/from some large houses. Some have gone so far as to call suburbia a scam, on the basis that it has to perpetually grow to pay for maintenance.