One of the sickest paradoxes in American law has got to be the arduous environmental review that's applied to transit and dense building projects, but I didn't think it was this bad. From an article about San Mateo County residents bitching about being asked to pitch in for the roads they use: The … [Read more...]
Making-driving-more-expensive link minilist
These seemed not quite fleshed-out enough for their own post, but too important to be buried along with other links.1. San Francisco is considering a congestion charge plan that would either cover the whole city during rush hour, or just the northeastern quadrant (or possibly a mix of the two), … [Read more...]
Weekend links
Links, links, links!1. The Washington City Paper has a great expose on street food in DC called "Inside D.C.'s Food-Truck Wars" with the subtitle "How some of Washington's most powerful interests are trying to curb the city's most popular new cuisine."2. Mary Newsom at the Charlotte Observer … [Read more...]
How Pricing Tolls Right Eliminates Congestion
Chris Bradford over at Austin Contrarian has been making some solid points in favor of congestion pricing. (here, here, here and here) Chris’s core argument in favor of congestion tolling is that: congestion pricing does more than relieve congestion. Congestion pricing tells us when a road needs … [Read more...]
20/20 Segment on Private Roads (& Some things to ponder while in traffic)
Some other things to ponder for the next time you are sitting on a congested highway… When I talk to people about tolling roads, most people immediately reject the idea entirely. I like to ask them to think about it next time they are in a traffic jam. Hey, if you sit in traffic, you … [Read more...]
IBM Congestion Pricing Commercial
Apparently, IBM helped implement a congestion pricing solution in Stockholm, Sweden. Could commercials like this help break down aversion to market-based solutions?[hat tip: The Overhead Wire] … [Read more...]
Tolling NY’s East River Bridges Back on The Table?
[flickr: darren bryden]Congestion pricing schemes, touted as environmentally-responsible at the time of $4 gas, were defeated in New York City last Spring. However, as the market turmoil threatens to wreak havoc on tax revenues, fiscal necessity has lured New York State and New York City … [Read more...]
Should the Government Build the Cars or the Roads?
I tend to agree that there is some hypocrisy in the conservative/libertarian world when it comes to transportation, which is part of the reason I started this blog. A more free-market transporation system would certainly lead to a more urban land use pattern; something between pre-auto, … [Read more...]