Thursday, April 3, 2008

Congestion Better than Price at Curtailing Driving?

My headline reads as if the village idiot just found a keyboard.
The Bellows makes the point with a less ambiguous phrasing:
...This is spot on. It also has important policy implications. Gasoline prices, and by extension gasoline taxes, function very weakly as a means to price driving marginally. That’s one reason why I think that congestion is primarily responsible for urban revitalization and increased mass transit ridership (as opposed to higher pump prices)....

HT: Market Movers

From the New York Times:

Mayor Presses for $8 Fee for Drivers to Enter Parts of Manhattan
ALBANY — The plan to charge drivers $8 to enter Manhattan below 60th Street met with stiff resistance from Democrats in the State Assembly on Wednesday night, suggesting that Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg has a difficult path ahead of him to persuade lawmakers to pass the initiative....