The Streets Were Never Free. Congestion Pricing Finally Makes That Plain
I post something like this every time the congestion pricing subject comes up. We have congestion pricing in Minneapolis &#x2F; St Paul and it just works. If I&#x27;m in a hurry, I have the option to choose to use the priced lane. We&#x27;re rolling it out to all of the major highways (it&#x27;s on 3 of them so far). I wish we had it on more lanes on all highways already, because what is the point of having a 60mph road if most of the time you are barely going 20mph, or trip lengths are otherwise completely unpredictable? It&#x27;s also particularly important to people who might have to travel to multiple jobs, or people with children in school&#x2F;day care, when consistency in travel time is extremely valuable to them.<p>There is a concept in economics called spontaneous order. Once the cost of congestion becomes apparent through the price mechanism, then society can reconfigure itself to adapt to it. You just have to have the price mechanism in place to signal it. People will figure it out and adapt once you have implemented congestion pricing. Practically every medium size or larger city in America has terrible traffic congestion problems.<p>Importantly, you have to resist the temptation to set a price ceiling (like Houston did at $8), as it will not work effectively because it will not allow the price mechanism to work and will cause a shortage of road capacity and you end up with no material change and basically a bad tax. (E.g., the true cost of congestion spurs demand for apartments and transit options near the city center, which in turn reduces traffic congestion.) Also important that it is purely congestion pricing and not resulting in crony government. Changes in laws and zoning and public transit will occur subsequently.<p>I am excited for NYC to pilot this and hope it becomes a success for that city.