Rich people will be able to drive anyways under “more equitable” systems like plate lottery. A family I know of in Beijing has 3 Mercedes with different number plates to be able to drive every day, for example.
Drivers already pay for their externalities via vehicle registration fees and gas taxes. And buses that aren't zero-emission should all be banned then, since their pollution enters my property otherwise.
- roads definitely count. > 90% of traffic on roads are private cars. Without that roads would be a lot smaller, require less maintenance, et cetera. They might not cost 90% less, but would cost a substantial fraction of that 90% less.
- parking is a massive subsidy. 30% of a typical American city is parking. This is a multi thousand dollar per year subsidy for car owners.
- gasoline infrastructure is subsidized, mostly indirectly.
The true cost of parking is about $300-$500/month across the ~5 parking spots per car that cities have. If you're not paying that, you're being subsidised. It wouldn't be so bad if each car only had 1 spot, but you need parking at home, at work, and at all of the businesses and entertainment venues cars frequent.
Crude oil contains more kerosene and diesel than gasoline, but we use more gasoline so refineries crack the kerosene to get more gasoline out of a barrel. With less gasoline demand, diesel would be cheaper.
It's rare to find city parking that's less than $3/hour. At $3/hour, if you work full-time in the office, you'll pay $500/month just for your office parking spot. So even if the rest of the ~5 parking spots you mentioned were all free, parking still isn't subsidized.
