bringing (more) market incentives to roads

From Sam Staley and Adrian Moore in Reason...

On “the New New Deal?”, Obama claimed that by repairing bridges, expanding transit, and paving roads, we would create millions of jobs.

There is an important grain of truth in the new president’s rhetoric....Inadequate infrastructure contributes significantly to the burden that traffic congestion imposes on America’s urban economies—about $168 billion each year...Just maintaining our roads, highways, and transit systems in “good repair” would mean increasing current spending by about $36 billion a year...

Obama insists that he “won’t just throw money at the problem”...It’s doubtful that he’ll get very far with his current approach, which takes it for granted that it’s Washington’s responsibility to fund parking policies in Pasadena. But if we can’t avoid national meddling into local problems, the feds should at least consider ways to introduce choice, competition, and sound budgeting into our subsidized and centralized transportation system....

As the stories below indicate, impressive projects are already coming online...

THE NO-RUSH HOUR IN SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA

Afternoon rush hour finds thousands of cars and trucks plodding along at 15 miles per hour on the “free” lanes of Route 91 in Orange County, California. Just a few feet away, on a 10-mile stretch of median road called the 91 Express Lanes, toll-paying motorists fly by at 65 miles per hour. Pricing the roads on an hourly basis allows the 91 Express Lanes to maintain speedy traffic and carry 33 percent more cars per hour than regular lanes....

Every three months, the transportation authority sets new prices for each hour of the day, based on the average hourly traffic volume....During rush hour, lanes can cost as much as $1 per mile. At off-peak times, the price per mile can be as low as 12 cents....

MARKET-RATE PARKING IN ANCHORAGE

Up to 30 percent of congestion in urban central business districts is caused by vehicles cruising around looking for curb parking...Shoup recommended that cities price parking to reflect market demand...only about 85 percent of curbside spaces should be filled at any given time, leaving enough spots empty that drivers can readily find parking rather than circle blocks searching and creating more congestion....

Anchorage, Alaska, and Portland, Oregon have adopted the 85 percent target and are using demand-driven pricing to achieve the goal....

Shoup also advocates cash-out programs for employee parking....rather than pay for employees’ parking spaces as a benefit, employers give workers a cash amount roughly equivalent to the value of the subsidy, to spend however they want....the number driving to work fell by 13 percent on average....

WATCHING OVER YOU IN LONDON

...Traffic light optimization—timing and synchronizing lights to minimize delay at intersections—can improve traffic flow significantly, reducing stops by as much as 40 percent, gas consumption by as much as 10 percent, emissions by as much as 22 percent, and travel times by as much as 25 percent...

As with road pricing, technical control of signals allows real-time changes to the system to help cars and trucks move more smoothly, based on the ebb and flow of traffic....

NIGHT SHIFT IN INDIANA

The average value of time for each person on the road is $14.60 per hour, according to the Texas Transportation Institute. So a repaving project that causes 40,000 people 15 minutes of delay each day for a week can impose $1 million in largely uncounted costs.

There are a number of strategies to avoid or minimize congestion increases from maintenance work. The most effective is to do most of the work during low-traffic times such as nights and weekends. That can cost a bit more on the government balance sheet, since workers may demand higher pay to work night shifts, but the real-world benefits can be much greater.

A good way to encourage off-hour scheduling is making it an important part of maintenance contracts and having companies’ bids include incentives to avoid traffic delays....