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Author uses a really backwards definition of equitable. Equability is not about making every price defined as percentage of income. Equability is about making t

Author uses a really backwards definition of equitable. Equability is not about making every price defined as percentage of income. Equability is about making things so cheap that everyone can easily afford them, regardless of income. In perfect equitably, everything would be free. Public Schools are equitable, because every child can attend public school, there are no barriers to attendance. Public Water utility systems are equitable, because every resident gets an identical cheapest possible rate for drinking water, so that the barrier to access to water is as low as possible. Public Libraries are equitable, because every resident gets identical access to the contents of the library, as cheap (or usually free) a price as possible. --- Urbanists attack the roads from the opposite angle. They are trying to invent as many barriers as possible to their use. (i.e., additional taxes, additional congestion charges, etc). Congestion prices can never be equitable, because the idea itself is intentionally inequal -- it's an attempt to punish people for using a public good (and more accurately, an attempt to maximally-punish each person as equally as possible). This is the exact opposite of true equability, which is all about delivering as much public good as possible, as cheaply as possible.

paganel 8y ago
I think one of the main sub-texts of this type of articles is that roads are not “public goods”, or at least that they shouldn’t be reguarded as “public goods” anymore, but that instead road-users should be made aware that using those roads is a “privilege” (for lack of a better word) which they should pay dearly for.
sokoloff 8y ago
> Public Schools are equitable, because every child can attend public school, there are no barriers to attendance. My experience of seeing/evaluating/considering public schools in rich neighborhoods and poor neighborhoods suggests that public schooling in the US is far from equitable.

paganel 8y ago

I think one of the main sub-texts of this type of articles is that roads are not “public goods”, or at least that they shouldn’t be reguarded as “public goods” anymore, but that instead road-users should be made aware that using those roads is a “privilege” (for lack of a better word) which they should pay dearly for.

sokoloff 8y ago

> Public Schools are equitable, because every child can attend public school, there are no barriers to attendance. My experience of seeing/evaluating/considering public schools in rich neighborhoods and poor neighborhoods suggests that public schooling in the US is far from equitable.