There’s a progressive aspect to drivers (higher income on average) subsidizing transit, but I worry that framing leads to drivers feeling they are paying for something that other people use.
I prefer the framing that drivers should fund transit because drivers do use transit: NYC would be complete gridlock if transit went into a death spiral and straphangers switched to cars. Even if they never set foot on the MTA, drivers see a lot of the benefit of it existing.
The drivers are paying for something they use: less-congested roads. In theory, if this is priced correctly, everyone is getting what they want: the drivers pay to not have to sit in traffic, everyone else benefits from that revenue to have better mass transit.
I prefer the framing that drivers should fund transit because drivers do use transit: NYC would be complete gridlock if transit went into a death spiral and straphangers switched to cars. Even if they never set foot on the MTA, drivers see a lot of the benefit of it existing.