Transportation is one of the few contexts where the US has adopted the socialist system of allocation by waiting list, rather than price.

Congestion used to be the one inconvenience rich people couldn't buy themselves out of. I can understand the impulse to keep it that way, though the benefits of congestion pricing probably do outweigh the symbolic problems.

Very true. And the mayor of London, a self-described socialist, introduced congestion charging to that city in 2003.

In those words that idea is simple to explain. The logistics of an actual implementation would not be so easy.