http://www.icta.org/press/release.cfm?news_id=12

http://www.icta.org/doc/Real%20Price%20of%20Gasoline.pdf

An interesting report done in 1998 on the actual cost of oil dependence. Including the actual cost of gas per gallon when all other costs associate with it are factored in. Including defending the resource, environmental impacts, traffic delays, urban sprawl, government subsidies, infrastructure costs, and more.

Government Subsidies: $0.32/g to $0.95/g
Protection Costs: $0.65/g to $1.05/g (protection of oil interests)
Environmental, Health, and Social Costs: $2.00/g to $8.13/g (urban sprawl, increased upkeep, environmental degradation costs)
Other Economic Costs: $1.59/g to $3.95/g (travel delays, accidents, cost of US oil import dependence)

And this was when gas was at $1 a gallon. The actual price, with all that taken into account, ranged from $5.60 to $15.14 per gallon. Just imagine what it is now.

An even easier solution: Don't bother jacking up the gas tax, just cut some of that government welfare spending by cutting all those new freeway projects out of the state budget.

Caltrans is going to spend about $100 million on HOV lanes through Rancho Cordova, and only after a huge legal battle are they willing to spend $8 million to enhance light-rail service and bike trails along the same corridor, enhancements that will help reduce traffic more than adding lanes (and adding lanes to a freeway to ease traffic is kind of like dieting by buying bigger pants!)

Maybe they need a new name--instead of calling it a "freeway," just start calling them "expensiveways."

So we're sent to another post on another site to read more by the same author, including a comment in THAT post saying that more will appear in another post (at an unknown time and place). Please post articles rather than treasure hunts. If there are links to support an already complete article ("for more information...") that's great, but just linking us to something else that appears somewhere else is somewhat spam-like.

CA has it easy. Other parts of the US have toll-highways, every 10 miles you drop a few coins or you pay for the pass that tracks you and sends you a bill later.

Tolls are part of the true cost of driving. Some libertarians proposed only toll roads and privatizing all roads. Thanks.

Our oil companies should be federally regulated for profit. The news tells us of profits in the billions for each quarter that is insane. how much greed does it take to be happy. Go ahead and add a tax to us in california, but get the oil companies from federal regulaion to drop their price of oil. Smud and PGE need legislation to get an increase in their operating expenses why not the same for the oil companies?
What gives when Venezuela and Argentina pay in US currency - 16 cents and 8 cents a gallon? While this is not the end all solution it will certainly give the American consumer something to cheer about in this depression and all the while work on getting alternative fuels, like the electric car moving forward with greater speed. our environment cant take any more fossil fuels.

This seems to be a marketing problem. We need a company to build and market an electric vehicle, (or alternative fuel source), that looks great, is wicked quick, fun and cool to own. Consumers jump to flash an fashion quickly.