--- Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com> wrote:
>
> On Apr 9, 2008, at 10:03 AM, Wojtek Sokolowski
> wrote:
> > Congestion pricing will likely not work as
> expected,
>
> I has reduced traffic where it's been tried, no?
>
[WS:] I am not saying that they do not. I am just playing a devil's advocate here - trying to identify conditions under which some people may not respond to congestion pricing, even if trasnit alternatives are available.
I know a lot of people who are very uncomfortable taking public transit for a variety of reasons - ranging from having difficultly how to use transit and thus not wanting to look like an idiot, to thinly veiled racial prejudice (the "dark rail" joke that I quoted in my original posting.) These people will pay whatever it takes to avoid public transit. Let's face it - it already costs about $30-$40 to park in Manhattan and yet people do it. Do you think that adding 8 bucks on the top of it will change their behavior?
My point was to bring attention to non-utilitarian - mainly psychological, politicial and racial - factors in the use of automobile-based transportation, not to question the effect of congestion pricing. I suspect that adding user fees in places where there are no such fees may have a much larger impact than in places where such fees are already in place (like NYC). The reason for that is that the already existing fees have most likely already swayed those who could be swayed, leaving only staunch holdouts who for a variety of personal (non-utilitarian) reasons will drive at any price.
Wojtek
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