Earth Equity News

With Congestion Pricing, Saving Time Trumps Reducing Pollution. By Charles Komanoff, StreetsBlog.org, January 6, 2010. "A prime target of the early environmental movement was car tailpipes. And for good reason... But as the saying goes, that was then, this is now. Cars now on the road are 30 to 50 times less polluting than in 1970. True, there are more cars being driven more miles, but even with a tripling of VMT (vehicle miles traveled), U.S. passenger vehicles today are probably putting out only a tenth as much air pollution as they did on the first Earth Day. Even trucks and buses are getting cleaned up... To see why, please pay a visit to the Balanced Transportation Analyzer. I've set the BTA with 'Kheel-Komanoff' inputs: a variable $3-$6-$9 toll to drive into the Manhattan Central Business District (less on weekends and holidays), a 33% taxi fare surcharge, and revenues dedicated to make subways and buses cheaper and free, respectively. But my point holds with almost any cordon-based congestion pricing plan: Direct environmental benefits from congestion pricing -- fewer crashes, less traffic noise, reduced carbon emissions, and cleaner air -- are worth only one-tenth as much, combined, as the time that users of autos, trucks and buses will save getting around. From a cost-benefit standpoint, the overwhelming reason to adopt congestion pricing in New York City -- in addition to providing a vital new revenue stream for public transit, of course -- is to enable people stuck in traffic to save time. Curing aggravation, not asthma, should be motivation enough for congestion pricing... My climate-damage factor is $50 per metric ton of CO2, which I wish was low but is evidently far higher than what Congress is willing to assign."