January 10, 2008

LA to try congestion-based tolls

It sounds as if LA County is finally ready to try congestion-based tolls on its freeways. People using what are now car-pool lanes will pay tolls that are higher during rush hour and lower at other times. That's smart. They need to find a way to shift traffic from the peak hours to times of the day when the roads are relatively clear. It's crazy to try to keep building more and more capacity so that everyone can travel at top speeds between 6 am and 9 am and 4 pm and 7 pm, which means there is a lot of wasted capacity the rest of the day when fewer people are using the roads. It's the same with our electricity consumption. Incentives do work. Price signals help people make rational decisions about consuming scarce resources.

Posted by dweintraub on January 10, 2008 6:12 AM