Comment by trollbridge

The roads where I live are paid for with a plate fee of $10 a year for cars and a higher one for trucks.

The state also sends a certain amount of fuel taxes to local governments in accordance with how many miles are travelled in an area.

New construction must privately pay to build the roads and then transfer ownership to the government. So the cost really is private. By far the most expensive part of maintaining roads is replacing bridges. Hence why so many bridges have rules about weight limits for trucks.

I suppose if you really wanted a user fee on roads you could have a system of tolls on bridges, intersections and interchanges, but that would be really unpopular.