motoring taxes drastically exceed government spending on roads. UK drivers generate roughly £35 billion a year through fuel duty and Vehicle Excise Duty (VED), but only about one-fifth of this (£7 billion to £12 billion) goes back into maintaining and building roads. The rest funds general government services.
The impact of cars is not just the wear and tear on roads though.
The cost of health impacts, deaths and injury from collisions, and congestion all impose costs.
Estimated £42b from casualties and injuries.
Physical inactivity: £7.2b
Congestion (wasted time): £42b
An £17b is needed to fix the worn out road network.
Campaigners have warned that the continued growth of motor traffic risks undermining the Government’s aims for economic growth. It also threatens the Government’s ‘missions’ to protect the NHS, overcome barriers to opportunity and achieve ‘net zero’. They are urging Ministers to take action to...
lowtrafficfuture.org.uk
Compare this with a well planned cycle path which is a net economic benefit. They actually have a negative cost, owing to the local economy
Also:
Clogged up Britain
theconversation.com
"In Germany, 90% of people living in large cities have access to a tramway or underground train system. In France, it’s 80%.
In the UK, the figure is
less than 20%, a similar level to the US.
But the US has vast amounts of space, where brand new roads are regularly
built to ease congestion. And so the UK has to deal with a population density comparable to the Netherlands (at least for England) and the urban transport choices of
Texas."