Thread by @twjpdx23

“We run a giant rent control program for cars.” -Michael Manville

TIL Sacramento didn’t have water meters until 2003 and, not surprisingly, people in Sacramento used more than 50% more water than in surrounding communities.

Installing the meters & pricing brought usage into line with regional norms.

Congestion is non-linear. Your toll only needs to be high enough to discourage just about 5% of people from using the road to get a 15% increase in throughput speeds.

We pay to build the roads, but not to use them. Adjacent taxes (like gas tax and property tax) aren’t based on how much impact a user has on the system.

Congestion fees are regressive, but that does not necessarily mean they are inequitable. (And there are ways to mitigate the regressive nature)

Manville says that “free roads are like a matching grant” you have to have a car, insurance, gas, etc to use them. Matching grants are a type of subsidy that benefit the affluent more.

Wow, premature birth rates near highway toll plazas went way down when EZ-Pass tolling reduced idling at said plazas.

Congestion has real world impacts and those impacts are primarily borne by people in poverty.

People who live near freeways are, in many cities, 2-3X less likely to own cars than people who don’t.

Affluent drivers get to offload the impact of their convenience on others.

Congestion pricing is unfair to low income drivers with few alternatives to using busy roads at busy times.

Giving money to transit doesn’t solve the problem, it’s good and progressive, but it doesn’t help f.e. a landscaper who has to drive for work.

There are ways to mitigate this unfairness: exemptions, gradual fees, and redistribution.

Gradual fees and redistribution are better than exemption. Exemption is too susceptible to exploiting loopholes & cheating.

I jumped the gun, it’s not really even gradual fees, but “gradualism.” Phase in charging, by only charging a few lanes, leave a free option available for people who don’t see value of the system or can’t pay in directly.

Redistribution is Manville’s favorite (and mine too).

Ideally we lump-sum rebate cash to all low income people.

Most likely this would take the form of pre-loaded toll transponders for low income drivers.

Don’t just take my word for all this, @TRECpdx puts these lectures online, so you can hear it from Professor Manville yourself when they post it. trec.pdx.edu/events/profess…

Good question about difference between downtown (cordon) type tolls and freeway tolls.

One difference is goal, freeway toll has one goal, increase throughput & speed. Downtown would not be desirable for that.

But decongested downtowns can support things like bus-only lanes.