Road damage goes up at the 4th power of the axle weight. It would be simpler to just make commercial trucks pay the entirety of road taxes. Easy to collect, and it would spread out the cost to everyone who benefits from commercial trucking (i.e. you really do want roads even if you don't own a car).
But on many city streets a very large percentage of heavy vehicles are... public buses. Not sure it makes sense to shift the cost for road repair to the public transit agency.
Buses carry many more people, so the damage-per-user-mile is mitigated.
Also, buses don’t require storage at the destination, aka parking. Cutting parking space allows the city to be more walkable, further mitigating vehicle damage.
And increased density is also good for the tax revenue per square mile, which is also good for the city’s bottom line.
still a massive win considering that the F-150 is the top selling vehicle in the US. Not car, not truck, overall vehicle. A few dozen people in big trucks will far outweigh the damage of a bus
