The Streets Were Never Free. Congestion Pricing Finally Makes That Plain

Re:The Streets Were Never Free. Congestion Pricing Finally M... by entropicdrifter on Thursday April 04, 2019 @01:40PM (#19575025)

All motor vehicles are already registered with the state. The dimensions of unmodified vehicles are already a matter of public record, easily looked up based on make and model. Seems to me that all you'd have to do is a simple cross-check of the person's vehicle size before charging them. Bikes and motorcycles would only need a separate fixed cost for each.

Honestly, it seems like a pretty simple matter to look up a car's make and model from its license plate/EZ-Pass registration. You could do it on the spot before charging the toll.

You could even just base it on the class of license you need to operate the vehicle, if you wanted to keep it very efficient.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:The Streets Were Never Free. Congestion Pricing Finally M... by carapace on Thursday April 04, 2019 @04:36PM (#19576838)

All I'm saying is that it's not so easy to figure out how much value a person gets from the road system based on what vehicle they drive.

For example, I ride a bike and don't own a car. Should I pay taxes to maintain a freeway I never use? What about the day that I get hit by a car and the ambulance takes that freeway to and from the hospital?

Traffic is a problem, I agree. But to me congestion pricing seems like economic segregation.

(In the example, should I be able to, say, pay an extra $100 and get priority lane scheduling?)

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Re:The Streets Were Never Free. Congestion Pricing Finally M... by robocat on Thursday April 04, 2019 @05:38PM (#19577370)

And that creates the social incentive to have a very large vehicle, because it indicates social status, because it costs more!

[ Parent | on HN ]