The House of Delegates has unveiled a dramatic package of land use reforms, and I’ve been so busy publishing the Bacon’s Rebellion e-zine this morning that I haven’t had time to get to it. I will endeavor to do so this afternoon. In the meantime, I would plug a worthy legislative package submitted by Del. Chris Saxman, R-Staunton.
Saxman’s bills would encourage the U.S. Department of Transportation to establish a congestion-pricing demonstration project in Virginia. He would offset the congestion tolls by eliminating the gasoline tax in the transportation corridor covered by the tolls for the length of the project, and he would require a referendum within 12 to 18 months to allow citizens to scrap the tolls or make them permanent.
Unlike other tolls, and I cannot emphasize this enough, the primary purpose of congestion pricing is not to raise more money, although it would do that. The purpose is (a) to encourage motorists to use other transportation modes, shift their travel times or telecommute, thus reducing demand, and (b) to allow freeways to operate at optimal traffic levels thus increasing rush-hour capacity.
Embracing congestion-pricing tolls for all congested thoroughfares is the quickest, most cost-efficient thing that Virginia can do to ameliorate traffic congestion. The impact would be felt within a matter of months after implementation, as compared to the years or decades it would take for new road construction to take effect — assuming that new road construction is really the answer at all.
Indeed, I would argue that congestion tolls are the holy grail of the Axis of Taxes: a reliable and sustainable transportation funding source. The beauty of congestion pricing tolls is that they automatically adjust in response to market demand: If congestion gets worse, the tolls go up, and so do revenues for new transportation improvements. If congestion diminishes, the tolls go down. Of course, you can’t say that about new taxes passed by the General Assembly. Taxes only go up.
Finally, I would suggest that congestion pricing is an indispensable complement to land use reform. By increasing the cost of driving long distances on gridlocked arteries, congestion tolls would encourage people to move to well-integrated communities where they can live, work, shop, play and worship without hitting the highways. Shifting market demand would encourage developers to build those kind of communities, and developers would pressure local governments to approve them. Virginia doesn’t need to resort to social engineering to achieve more efficient settlement patterns.
I explore those issues in “The Swedish Solution.” For you policy wonks who want to deep-dive into the details, read “A Congestion Pricing Primer.” The Department of Transportation provides cogent answers to my questions about the economics of congestion pricing and the availability of federal funds for a demonstration project in Virginia.
