If you have ever spent time in New York City trying to
drive across Midtown, you know it can sometimes take an hour just to travel a
distance the GPS said should take five minutes.
Welcome to traffic hell.
And it's not just New York City. It's every major city and its
tourist attractions, including Los Angeles and Miami. And it's not just the big
cities, either. It once took me more than an hour to go from Surfside Beach,
South Carolina, to Myrtle Beach. You're talking nine miles.
Now, some areas are trying to address the problems by
flirting with congestion pricing.
Congestion pricing is a surcharge for consumers who use
certain items, such as roads. Athletic teams are notorious for using the
measure, such as football teams raising their prices for specific opponents.
For instance, it's much more expensive to watch
Michigan play Ohio State than to play Northwestern. But in the sports world,
they use the fancy term of dynamic pricing.
The shock is that congestion pricing is for roadways
that we are conditioned to be free and available, but the logic is there.
Congestion pricing is forcing people to pay, and that
lessens the load on the road and traffic. In that alone, there are its merits.
The concept asks people to pay a usually modest fee or
find a circuitous and probably longer route. To me, it's worth sparing the
singles or pocket change if it lessens the traffic.
And it might add some life to roads badly in need of
repair. You can pay now or pay later; pick your poison.
This is all about change. You probably never thought of
carrying your favorite music around in your pocket, and now it's commonplace.
Congestion pricing is here. Get used to it.
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