Posted on 02/12/2007 1:03:09 PM PST by presidio9
Carpooling won't do much to reduce U.S. highway congestion in urban areas, and a better solution would be to build new highways and charge drivers fees to use them, the White House said on Monday.
ADVERTISEMENT
"It is increasingly appropriate to charge drivers for some roadway use in the same way the private market charges for other goods and services," the White House said in its annual report on the U.S. economy.
While some urban areas have designated roads for vehicles with two or more passengers, those high-occupancy vehicle (HOV) lanes are often underused because carpooling is becoming less popular, the administration said.
Based on the latest data supplied by the White House, only about 13 percent of motorists carpooled to work in 2000. That compared with 20 percent of daily American commuters in 1980.
"This trend makes it unlikely that initiatives focused on carpooling will make large strides in reducing vehicle use," the White House said.
Building more highways won't reduce congestion either, unless drivers are charged a fee, according to the administration.
"If a roadway is priced -- that is, if drivers have to pay a fee to access a particular road -- then congestion can be avoided by adjusting the price up or down at different times of day to reflect changes in demand for its use," the White House said. "Road space is allocated to drivers who most highly value a reliable and unimpaired commute."
Critics of such fees argue that road tolls would make new highways reserved mostly for wealthy drivers, who are more likely to travel in expensive, gas-guzzling vehicles.
But the White House said urban road expansions should be focused on highways where drivers demonstrate a willingness to pay a fee that is higher than the actual cost of construction, allowing communities to avoid raising taxes on everyone to build the roads.
The administration argued that congestion pricing is already used by many providers of goods and services: movie theaters charge more for tickets in the evening than they do at midday, just as ski resorts raise lift prices on weekends. Similarly, airlines boost prices on tickets during peak travel seasons and taxi cabs raise fares during the rush hour.
Hybrid, vegetable oil, and electric cars pay lesser or no road taxes. The future will have to find new revenue streams to pay for new road construction.
No, it doesnt. It uses Empirical (Statistical) Modeling to estimate the population over the 10-year period.
I'd like to see those working for public transportation using more public transportation.
I see them getting around in cars like everybody else. If it works so well, they should be using it.
Complete and total bullshit pulled from your paranoid ass, but that seems to be all that is posted around here these days. Who needs facts and truth when we can all just rant about conspiracy dreams and plug-n-play boogieman. Yeah, its all a communist plot by that evil George W. Bush, the Buildaburgers, Masons, and Mexicans. Yep, every politician is corrupt and wants to record your every thought and keystroke. And of course the tollways are being built so that the Chinese Mexicans can round up your guns and then drive all conservatives to the concentration camps Rudy Giuliani is going to set up at the behest of his secret boss Hillary.
This place has been overrun by the kooks. Congrats, you won.
Hahahahahahahaha. That's rich. Have you found many people who buy your wordsmithing?
1. The system is pretty much built to completion, and won't be expanded very much over the next 50 years.
2. Every segment of the IHS will be reaching the end of its useful life over the next 50 years (if it hasn't done so already), and the cost of rehabilitating/upgrading it -- while at the same time doing normal, routine maintenance, year after year -- will be enormous.
Here in NYC, litterally hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of women do just that every day.
That makes two of us!
Love my F-150 Lightning and my old Bronco SUV!!
Ya can't beat a vehicle with big booming V8 engine!!
What the heck has happened to the President? You and he are both goofy. Refresh your memory, all the Federal and state tax paid on fuel is our "fee" for driving upon the public way. The fee is simmply being misspent.
Uhg. More "all taxes is stupit" bullcrap.
Republicans need to take some time thinking about what makes a tax fair and what makes a tax unfair instead of just assuming all taxes are bad.
Well, that would be correct if the taxes weren't schlepped into the general fund and used for everything else. The states do the same thing. IF they actually used that tremendous source of taxes for roads, etc. our highways would be in great shape.
NO MORE FEES OR TAXES!
What do you do when they jack up the HOV requirement to 4+, then 6+, then 21+ (buses only!)? You're screwed. You've let your public servants take away
Your right to travel
Your right to go out of your house (since they "own" all the streets)
Your right to get a living
Your right to go shopping, or anywhere else.
A man's home is his castle (for now). The rest of the world is hostile to that notion.
You can now work and shop from home. But the downtown boys still want their money from the property taxes on your castle to pay for their billion dollars in sports stadiums.
Like I said above -- it isn't about "taxes". It's about "income" for private interests who are going through the Lobby and the RNC to get their hands on public assets and charge rent for their use.
Google on "NASCO", "Indiana Turnpike", "Austin +toll roads +Rick Perry +Zachry". You will receive an education, after you've read what's out there for a couple of hours.
The German gas tax is more like 4 times ours, and most of it goes toward the subsidization of the rail system, keeping the cost of tickets rather low, thereby encouraging use.
SEPTIC is the worst, and I swear, they strike at the drop of a hat. Plus, the fare increases and cuts in schedule are making it harder to stick with public transport.
And the taxes you pay when you renew your license tags.
You don't like SEPTA?
One upside to such an approach is that the federal government would be halted from forcing through legislation by holding highway funds hostage.
Matters that are supposed to go to the state (including BA 0.08, drinking age at 21, but not limited to alcohol) would return to the state legislatures.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.