Comment 103798

By kevlahan (registered) | Posted August 07, 2014 at 17:43:01 in reply to Comment 103780

The simplest short-term way to reduce congestion is to introduce road pricing.

When a resource is free or very cheap ("all you can drive") then it tends to be used inefficiently. We've got an example right here: the 407 is almost never congested because it is tolled. Building more free roads is certainly not going to reduce congestion, except initially.

Even better is to use dynamic pricing (based on actual road conditions or at least time of day) and move other costs of driving (like insurance) to pay as you drive.

Interestingly, the Toronto Board of Trade actually supports road tolls.

And cities like Stockholm and London have shown that road tolls, properly priced, can also work to reduce congestion on city streets, not just freeways.

And besides reducing congestion for drivers who really have to drive (and are willing to pay the price) the revenue from tolls can be used to pay for more of the cost of roads and to subsidize more efficient alternatives (e.g. quality public transit) for those who can't afford or don't want to own a car or pay tolls. Single occupancy vehicles for commuters is an extremely inefficient use of scarce road resources and would be unaffordable in most cases if priced fairly.

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