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Some people think that motorists should pay for building and maintaining roads, while others think that the government should pay the costs of such infrastructure. What is your opinion? Give reasons for your answer, and examples from personal experience where appropriate.
Since not everyone drives a car, many people argue that only road users should pay for road infrastructure and maintenance, while others take the position that these fees should be financed by government consolidated revenue. Although private vehicle owners certainly get more use from the roads than those who walk or use public transport, all people benefit from road infrastructure. I thus agree that to the extent that roads serve the common good, they should be paid for by the general public through taxation and fees levied by the government.
Firstly, it is important to remember that a country’s road network carries out many roles that are beneficial to non-motorists. For example, the public transport system, relied on by people who typically do not own cars, operates for the most part on roads. Further, most items that make up a country’s economy transit via a road network. Workers travel to work on the roads, goods are carried on the roads, and essential medical services are rushed to ill and injured people on the roads. It is thus clear that a lot of what occurs via road infrastructure is in service to the common good and not just motorists.
It is understandable why many people believe drivers should pay a little more for the privilege of using the roads privately. However, this should be carried out relative to the extra freedoms they receive, and in many countries these payments are already being levied. For instance, as a motorist myself, I privately incur the expenses required for registration of my car and for my driver’s licence. These are two sources of government income that non-motorists need not pay. Such charges are in proportion to the extras I receive as a person free to drive on the roads, and so this arrangement is clearly fairer than motorists taking on the funding of all road expenses.
Weighing up both sides of this argument, it is clear that the responsibility of building and maintaining roads is best borne by governments and not individual motorists. I argue this to be a fair payment system that should be adopted by countries everywhere.