GAO REPORT :Curmudgeons Club

Anne Canby sec DelDOT said the lack of pricing mechanisms in roads and transit made them “somewhat unreal” and then proceeded to say that “tolls are an anathema.” Well of course they are – if politicians tell people there’s plenty of tax money to pay for roads. So Canby said: “So you cobble together ways to avoid reality because people don’t like to raise taxes. Our future revenue sources are going to be severely threatened if current automobile research is successful at getting 60 miles to the gallon – and there is no reason to think that the research won’t be successful.” Sounds a good argument for more pricing/tolls but Canby doesn’t draw that conclusion... or any conclusion really.

Then we got an especially depressing man Bradley Mallory, PA sec transp: “What things can you talk about on the elevator? The weather and traffic congestion. They are the only two safe subjects. Why? Because no one is responsible for them. You stand little chance of offending anyone. People widely perceive traffic congestion essentially to be an act of God and somewhat inevitable. I think that Mr. Downs’ comments were right on the money. It is essentially the price of not walking. It is largely inevitable, and I know of no one who has proposed anything remotely approaching much of a solution to it.

“I think we all accept the notion that we cannot build ourselves out of traffic congestion... not due to money. It’s due to the social and environmental constraints. There is no place to put those roads, for the most part. People would not put up with what we would have to do if we tried to build those roads. We would not build the Interstate system today. I think we all know that. We will not build our way out of congestion.”

This in a state which is actually building quite an impressive new urban motorway system in and around its second city, Pittsburgh – the Mon-Fayette and Southern Beltway. Maybe the idea is that if he doesn’t talk about roadbuilding the environmentalists will leave them alone? Then there some rambling pychobabble about “improving relationships” between agencies. If only they’d all love one another, guys, she’d be hunkey-dory...

Defeatist Downs

Anthony Downs however came across as the most curmdugeonly of this bunch of GAO handwringers: “The most important thing to understand about traffic congestion is that it is a problem that cannot be solved.... there is no such thing as a solution to the traffic congestion problem. Traffic congestion is not a disease that can be cured.... congestion is here to stay. So you’d better learn to like it. Get yourself an air-conditioned car with a stereo radio, a tape deck, a portable computer, a television set, a microwave and commute with somebody you’re really attracted to. Regard commuting as part of your leisure time. You might as well learn to enjoy it.”

I called Downs and asked him why he apparently had no interest in variable road pricing as a way of combating congestion. After all price is used to balance supply and demand in many activities and seems to work pretty well. Downs doesn’t think it is feasible.

“You’d have to price thousands of roads,” he said. “If you just price the major highways you’ll divert the traffic onto the lesser roads. “

He thought people would prefer congestion to congestion-pricing. Hard to argue with him on the politics of that at this point, at least in terms of a full blown, area-wide road pricing system. But no one is really suggesting that. The question is whether there’s some potential in an incremental approach of offering choices and demonstrating the benefits of pricing and working to spread the idea into an area system – as is planned in Dallas TX. We asked Downs about doing priced lanes, while leaving the existing lanes alone and offering motorists choices.

“Yes I think that’s a much more viable idea (than areawide pricing). With proper leadership and management I think that can work. That can make a difference on one corridor here and there, and offer a few people relief from congestion.”

Downs thinks that congestion is inevitable because of employers requirements that people work about the same set of hours as everyone else. There I cited some remarks that Gloria Jeff of the FHWA office of policy had put rather well in a recent USDOT report on the personal transp survey, where she focused on evidence of a changing mix of reasons for tripmaking and the growth of non-work related trips in rush hours.

If a lot of trips in rush hours are not even work related then surely price will move enough of them to help the traffic flow better. Downs seemed to concede a little. He supports the toll express/HOT lanes projects. He just has very modest expectations of them. (GAO/RCED-99-176)