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If you make more space for cars, and thus reduce congestion, the improved traffic conditions will attract more drivers until the congestion reaches some boundar
by yason 10y ago
If you make more space for cars, and thus reduce congestion, the improved traffic conditions will attract more drivers until the congestion reaches some boundary threshold again where the majority of the remaining drivers are no longer willing to spend their time on the route.
The problem is that the demand is virtually indefinite for a nominally free supply.
The only cost involved is time―time that is wasted in congestion―which limits the amount of drivers willing to use the route during congested times.
Dynamic tolls would make the cost explicit.
If the cost of using the road at any given time would be high enough that there's barely no congestion on the road, i.e. practically everyone can cruise at the limit, then people could choose to pay for the privilege, postpone their trip to a later/earlier time slot when there's less congestion and the toll would be lower or zero, or omit the trip all together. Obviously, people wouldn't like this because they've used to getting free access, or "free" if you don't count the billions of tax dollars that go into widening and extending this utopia of endless freeway capacity.
- snrplfth 10y agoYep. People frequently have a strong aversion to paying directly for things, unfortunately. It's the same way with parking - people feel like they're getting all these huge quantities of available parking for free, but they're still paying for it, just hidden in the prices of goods, the increased distances between places, higher rents, and so on. But it's just so easy to make laws saying "thou shalt provide enough parking for everybody", so that's what you get.
- anatari 10y agoIt's more than people being used to free access. Tolls on a major highway like the 405 would effectively be a regressive tax - people need to get to work and in L.A. there often is no alternative. And people seem to generally agree regressive taxation is not a good idea.
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- petercooper 10y agoor omit the trip all together. There's another "or" .. or take the regular streets instead and cause even more local congestion. That's a real issue in LA where on some routes freeways can be only marginally faster than taking cut-throughs during rush hour.