Traffic Congestion: Who Deserves to Get $50K?

I don’t get this:

The Intelligence Transportation Society of America (ITSA) kicked off a $50,000 “Congestion Challenge” today that seeks to pair social networking with innovative transportation policy-making.

Co-sponsored by Spencer Trask, a private equity firm specializing in high-tech investments, the contest asks transportation professionals and everyday citizens to submit their proposals for clearing the nation’s jam-packed roads, bridges and transitways. Each submission will be judged based on its ability to address five issues: sustainability, safety, behavioral impact, economic competitiveness, and speed & efficiency.

We don’t need innovative ideas to reduce or eliminate congestion. Here’s what you do. Toll highways and institute a cordon congestion charge for crowded roads. Set peak and off-peak tolls and ratchet each one upward until there’s no more congestion. If the transit lines are also full, ratchet transit fares upward until the system is covering most of its operating costs (we’ll say 60%). And then, if the system is still crowded, start building new capacity (hint: the places where the tolls are highest are the ones most in need of new transportation capacity).

I presume that this idea won’t win the $50 grand because of the “economic competitiveness” requirement. It’s not “economically competitive” to make folks pay large tolls and fares, even if there’s a net societal benefit from the reduction in congestion, and even if the other innovative solutions will involve costs as well, just better disguised.

Anyway, if I were going to design a contest for a sticky problem, I’d ask people to submit their proposals for getting politically unpopular but sound policy ideas like congestion pricing passed. Give $50k to the person who can figure out how to get cap-and-trade with a 100% auction through the legislature. Hell, give them $50 million. Congestion and climate change are easy to fix. It’s getting legislators to do the obviously right thing that’s hard.

Comments

[PastTense:]

If you put tolls on major highways then people switch to local streets. It is not feasible to put tolls on these. I'm not sure that switching from a congested highway network to a congested street network is all that beneficial. (and if this diverted traffic goes through YOUR neighborhood I doubt if you will think it is either).

Jun 02 03:06 PM

[happycajun:]

and who decides these weighty issues? government bureaucrats? Read some of Ron Coase's works, this sort of thing should be self regulating. The congestion of which you speak introduces its own "cost" as it is, and less traveled paths that are more efficient attract traffic. State and federal politicians are already rather proficient at funding bridges and highways to nowhere - a commission that "taxes" use of publicly funded infrastructure, especially one that uses "data" to make such decisions has much room to become very corrupt. Lets not advocate more bureaucratic control komrad.

Jun 02 08:55 PM

[Valley Boy:]

No more toll roads, please, and no congestion pricing, either.
Highway budgets should not be expected to subsidize mass transit.
Monorails connecting the existing transit transfer stations and
important civic buildings could be built above the crowded downtown streets of some large cities. The construction of these could be worked in with increased transit fares.
Commuters are not unduly concerned with climate change; we just want to get from Point A to Point B without too much fuss.

Jun 02 08:55 PM

[Mr. Ed, Jr.:]

There already is a "tax" on peak hour use-- it is called congestion. It is not working very well.

A money tax seems very harsh on working people who may be struggling as it is. It is not their fault they have to work at certain times.

Based on what I see every day, the biggest issue is that drivers have no driving skills to speak of. They do not know how to merge, they do not use turn signals, tailgaters cause brake lights to go on for miles, and on and on. Freeways could accommodate even more drivers if the dolts were actually required to show some skills before getting a license.

But there is no political will to require drivers to have actual driving skills.

I think the issue can only be resolved by providing incentives to businesses to adjust work hours to off-peak.

Jun 03 02:13 AM

[john s. gordon:]

it's difficult to merge safely when you're using your cellphone all the time.
also there is no political will to require drivers to pass a depth perception test. acuity is all that;s tested.
> jack

Jun 03 09:07 AM

[Pstoneki:]

My experience, based on living in Chicago, would indicate that people will not use city streets unless they are taking a very short trip. It would literally take you hours to get to work through all the stop lights, train crossings, school buses, etc.

Bring on the tolls. Crank up the gas tax. Install light rail. Install a congestion / CO2 tax (love what they've done in London). Maybe we'll get this fuel consumption, CO2 producing, congestion causing problem under control.


On Jun 02 03:06 PM PastTense wrote:

> If you put tolls on major highways then people switch to local streets.
> It is not feasible to put tolls on these. I'm not sure that switching
> from a congested highway network to a congested street network is
> all that beneficial. (and if this diverted traffic goes through YOUR
> neighborhood I doubt if you will think it is either).

Jun 03 12:57 PM

[Pstoneki:]

Having spent lots of time in Europe, where I guarantee people know how to drive (and pay a lot for the training that allows them to do so) I can tell you that driver skill has little to do with congestion. It's the number of cars. Try driving any of the major highways around London, Paris, Berlin, or Amsterdam at rush hour and you have the exact same congestion issues. In Moscow or Mumbai, where it seems very few drivers took any form of drivers training, the situation is exactly the same (minus the spectacular Moscow traffic accidents: Really? 120mph on a city street driving the wrong way into oncoming traffic? You thought this would work?)

Bottom line is we need to find a way to incentivize commuters to use alternative forms of transportation. Light Rail / Trams / Subways work. Buses work. Commuter trains work. We just need a lot more of them, with much better facilities. We also need to end the stupidity. Why is it that Metra in Chicago has all of these great suburban stations but too little parking? If you can get to the train station by 6 :30 am or walk to the train you can take it. Otherwise you are out of luck because the powers in charge cannot be convinced to build parking structures rather than just surface lots. They then complain about the low number of riders. How are you supposed to ride a train when you can't phycially get to the station?

On Jun 03 02:13 AM Mr. Ed, Jr. wrote:

> There already is a "tax" on peak hour use-- it is called congestion.
> It is not working very well.
>
> A money tax seems very harsh on working people who may be struggling
> as it is. It is not their fault they have to work at certain times.
>
>
> Based on what I see every day, the biggest issue is that drivers
> have no driving skills to speak of. They do not know how to merge,
> they do not use turn signals, tailgaters cause brake lights to go
> on for miles, and on and on. Freeways could accommodate even more
> drivers if the dolts were actually required to show some skills before
> getting a license.
>
> But there is no political will to require drivers to have actual
> driving skills.
>
> I think the issue can only be resolved by providing incentives to
> businesses to adjust work hours to off-peak.

Jun 03 03:48 PM

[zagman:]

Is this guy for real?

After he taxes everyone off the roads where no one can produce, create or service our economy until it collapses, what do you do then?

More stupid ideals from radical idiots!

Jun 03 09:28 PM

[Valley Boy:]

If you click on his list of articles and find out what he stands for, it would be enough to scare you off the road.


On Jun 03 09:28 PM zagman wrote:

> Is this guy for real?
>
> After he taxes everyone off the roads where no one can produce, create
> or service our economy until it collapses, what do you do then?
>
>
> More stupid ideals from radical idiots!

Jun 04 12:36 AM

[Pstoneki:]

I don't know if this guy is for real or not. Who cares about congestion - no body ever died from congestion (although, if they died in an LA traffic jam they would have rotted to dust before anyone noticed their car wasn't moving). However, if oil / gas goes to levels that many analysts are thinking, this toll issue will seem a mild inconvenience. How are you going to do business when gas is $9 / gallon? When your oil-based raw materials make your product so expensive it is unsaleable? When oil is expensive enough that fertilizers and other normal fossil-fuel intensive agriculture results in food you can't afford? Will you even have customers?


On Jun 03 09:28 PM zagman wrote:

> Is this guy for real?
>
> After he taxes everyone off the roads where no one can produce, create
> or service our economy until it collapses, what do you do then?
>
>
> More stupid ideals from radical idiots!

Jun 08 03:19 PM