Re:Let's build houses for people, not cars
by dragonwriter on Tuesday August 27, 2019 @04:13PM
(#20813975)
> And the government fixes the price of using a road at $0,
That's arguably true of electric vehicles, but ICE engines pay road user fees by way of gas taxes, which are nonzero and related (imperfectly, sure) to road impact.
> causing the induced demand issue.
I think induced demand is not really a road price issue: more road access -> more desirability to attractive businesses -> more demand (at the same price) for road use.
Now, if you charged higher road prices instead of building more roads, to reduce traffic, you'd avoid induced demand by avoiding attracting business and raise revenue, it's true, but the induced demand isn't a product of $0 road cost (which isn't a thing, mostly) but of increased ease of access from the short-term effect of more roads.
Re:Let's build houses for people, not cars
by triceratops on Tuesday August 27, 2019 @06:18PM
(#20815002)
I wasn't arguing that induced demand is a product of $0 road cost. It's a product of lower time cost - new roads decrease congestion (temporarily) and induce the higher demand. Eventually the new roads are as congested as the old ones.
The cost of constructing roads is handled by other taxes, but that doesn't change that the roads themselves need to be priced higher to not have shortages.