We don’t have to reinvent the wheel…
By DCH | May 10, 2008
Filed Under Economics, General Assembly, Governor, Transportation |
On Wednesday, I was down in Richmond at the meeting of what Delegate Oder hopefully called the “new urban majority.” Legislators from NoVA & Hampton Roads (HR) got together to talk about transportation.
Let’s just say that thinking out of the box wasn’t happening.
It seems that only one solution could be conceived of by most of the electeds: RAISE TAXES.
The Governor is apparently planning a special session for June 23rd. Although it hasn’t been officially verified, that little factoid leaked out on Wednesday. The Governor has, however, already announced his expected outcome: more money coming out of the pockets of every working man and woman in this Commonwealth.
Yet, when it comes to addressing traffic congestion in Virginia’s new urban centers, it isn’t that we need to do something brand new. Nor are we quite so short of money as we are being told. Rather, we just need to be willing to consider that the way we’ve done things around here for the last 30 or so years isn’t the only way they can be done.
In fact, when it comes to envisioning sensible solutions to our congestion woes this Melbourne economist has already done some of the hard work for us:
The difficulty here is not private vehicle travel but underpriced travel. Indeed congestion per se is not the problem. We all voluntarily accept congestion as an acceptable cost of modern living that is counterbalanced by improved urban lifestyles and agglomeration economies. The problem is specifically inefficient congestion – congestion that we must put up with even though a change in policy could make us all better off. Inefficient congestion arises because congestion is underpriced.
Over the next few weeks, I’d like to invite you to help me look at our transportation problems and solutions. Is the problem simply that we need more money to build a bridge here or widen an interstate there? Is the solution simply raising gas taxes (or income taxes on the “rich” or sales taxes generally)? What do you think?
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I’ve got no problem with congestion pricing as long as there’s quality mass transit for those who don’t want to pay the premium to drive.
The flaw in congestion pricing is that it assumes you can simply put off a trip that would fall during rush hour. Often that’s not the case, thus my first paragraph.
Let’s be serious for a moment. There is only one major congestion problem in Hampton Roads: bottlenecks.
4-lane highways into 2 lane tunnels or bridges. Tunnels with three entrances merging.
Throw in one disabled vehicle, which seems to happen every day lately, and add a nice hour to your 15 minute commute.
Northern Virginia is its own mess, but folks in the rest of Virginia who don’t have the economic fortune to be next-door neighbors to the federal government aren’t exactly opening our empty wallets in sympathy.