Equilibria
Senior Member
- Joined
- May 6, 2007
- Messages
- 6,933
- Reaction score
- 7,951
The lesson I take from it is that congestion is fundamental and can only be controlled through demand-pricing. Like in the buffet example above, you cannot fix that mess by making your buffet bigger. More people will show up and pack more in their bucket. The only way to fix this is to charge by weight. People will either pay by how much they use, or they will pay by waiting on line for scraps.
You mention the conflict between transportation as a business and transportation as a social service with the implicit assumption that things would be better if focus was placed on the former. I have to disagree.
The fundamental flaw with the concept of large-scale congestion pricing is that societal expectations are the primary reason why large cities have peaks in the first place. Sure, if this were Hyannis and the roads clogged up on nice beach days in the summer, people are moving according to their own desires, but it isn't. Commute peaks at 6-9am and 4-7pm aren't done by choice - they're demanded by employers.
The people you say would be "waiting on line for scraps" wouldn't be economically-minded consumers with a low value of time, they would be people with low wages who would be priced out of a $10 toll each way on the Turnpike just because their shift goes from 9-5.
This is why the Interstate system banned tolls for a long time. The system isn't designed as a business. It's designed as a critical piece of infrastructure for defense and commerce. It has to be accessible to all Americans at all times.