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.
I'm going to move to Mexico, renounce my citizenship, and come back. Illegal (oops, undocument) immigrants seem to have more rights when it comes to unquestioned travel these days.
You may still be expected to show ID but it doesn't even have to be genuine.
P.S. Since Indiana has leased the toll road, it has earned $112 million in interest--about $7 a second.
Thanks a million, Mitch--or should I say, thanks a $4 billion.
If you'd like to see the to-the-second interest earned on the lease of the toll road, you can go here:
http://www.in.gov/tos/MajorMoves.htm
And you'll never catch me on one unless I'm fleeing a hurricane.
Ouch!
How did the knee replacement work out? Were there any complications? What about pain and movement? The doctor told me ankle replacements are where hip replacements were 25 years ago.
One of the Pastors at my Church had both knees replaced and he said they work great.
That's not the principle in play, where Rick Perry is doing tolling in Texas. From a TexDoT slide used in their own presentations concerning the NAFTA Highway (NASCO Corridor, Trans-Texas Corridor), one of the ruling concepts of tolling is that for the tolled asset to work, viable non-tolled alternatives -- competition -- has to be eliminated, in order to protect the revenue stream of the toll road operator.
And as a further matter of public record, the head squeeze at Texas DoT has been quoted on the subject of tolling as saying, and I quote, the future of Texas is "Toll roads, or slow roads, or no roads!!"
Nice, catchy, medieval-sounding little slogan, don't you think? You could almost do one of those "Dark Ages" Capital One commercials with that, couldn't you?
There is nothing more "Marxist" than the notion that a government should provide "free" access to infrastructure regardless of a citizen's ability to pay for it.
Here it's $1.25 one zone, $2.50 2 zones. Latest figures say that the farebox recovers around 25% of the cost of service.
In the case of Houston, the area around the old baseball park has fallen into economic disaster while rent around the new ballpark downtown is booming.
I have to chuckle when I consider that intially Houston's plains for modern rail "had" to go to the old train station. When that fell through, the basball park "had" to be placed there.
Sounds like the first priority was to reuse this decades old property (and the rail excuse has not been cited since).
I believe the original plan was for I35 to be the only non-tolled road in or out of Austin. I live outside of Austin. (FYI)
So, how come I can no longer drive on Mo-Pac north of Scofield Ridge without paying the piper? I had to invent a new route to my doctor's office because the direct route I've taken for 10 years now wants my money.
And up north the sidewalks ice over.
A personal commuter device (like a car) means climate control and keeps you from having to associate with x number of strangers with communicable diseases.
Every solution comes with its own set of problems.
"...The people have made their choice - they overwhelmingly prefer cars."
In most American cities they don't HAVE a choice.
Look, no one is trying to take anyone's car away from them, like some have implied. What some of us are saying is most of us would not need them to commute to work, if we had a viable alternative. Our big cities are rapidly becoming unlivable because of automobile induced sprawl, and spending hours every day sitting in a metal box sure isn't good for anyone's physical or mental health either.
It's also worth noting that tolling a highway on a major trade corridor makes a lot of sense for simple economic/operational reasons -- because it forces users who have both a start and end point outside the region to pay for their use of the system.
Yes, thank you! This is a point that is, for some reason, lost on most people. The Indiana Toll Road, for instance, essentially serves to move truck traffic from New York to Chicago, and despite that these people don't pay Indiana taxes, the road exists almost exclusively for their use. Toll away.
Thank you for the information. I'll remember to never travel to Houston.
Either learn to live with it or move out of the huge population centers (i.e. big city). It's the tendenacy to swarm to the cities that's the problem.
Work 10 hour days, four days a week, have 3 day weekends or a break during the week
This would not work for all jobs, but for many it would be fine.
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.