My wife and
I have an on-going joke about the noticeable thunk and hum we always experience
when we drive across the border from Maryland into Pennsylvania. The difference in quality of road maintenance
is just that noticeable and much more unpleasant north of the Mason-Dixon line.
We had a similar experience last month on a working holiday when we drove from her home town in Belgium to a business meeting in France. While I could barely tell the difference from the road signs (we were in French speaking Belgium), I felt my whole body relax after maneuvering through the now-unmanned border control. The road was better, less congested and the rest stops nicer. It wasn’t a total surprise--we’d made this trip about a decade ago--but there was a more marked change since then. And I noticed one thing over and over throughout the trip: the logo for Sanef, the private company that maintained the highway and it facilities.
So this was still on my mind yesterday when I
saw that HOT (high occupancy toll) lanes are already in the news about the
upcoming Virginia gubernatorial race (HOT Lanes: Will people be
willing to pay for them?). But it was even MORE in my mind when I
read yesterday’s post in the New York Times Freakanomics blog: Why
You’ll Love Paying for Roads That Used to Be Free. Guest blogger Eric A. Morris,
a researcher at U.C.L.A.’s Institute of Transportation Studies, summed up the
rationale for tolling--particularly variable tolling, as proposed for HOT lanes--pretty
well with this:
The basic economic theory is that when you give out something valuable — in this case, road space — for less than its true value, shortages result. Ultimately, there’s no free lunch; instead of paying with money, you pay with the effort and time needed to acquire the good.
What I had stumbled upon in northern France…well,
drove headlong into at 130kph… was indeed a privately maintained toll road. The
initial pleasantness I’d experienced was quickly replaced by a frantic search
for the €15 that I needed to pay. THIS was not at all expected since
it had been a freeway only a decade ago. And yet, even though
weren’t able to go through the télépéage
(French for EZ-Pass) lane, we were again surprised to be able to use our Carte
Bancaire (credit card), effecting the most painless toll I’ve ever paid. No lines, no congestion. We were through and
on our way in just a few seconds.
I sure wish
I’d known that we’d be hitting a toll and I’m never happy to be surprised with
another bill, but I somehow felt like I got my money’s worth. I get the
impression that the French do too, because I got ABSOLUTELY no sympathy from my
wife’s uncle, who waved off the fee as not very much at all. In any event, they’re
not uncommon, since Sanef has the concession not only for this one particular
highway but most of the highways in northern France.
Was it worth
it? Would it fly here? I have no idea. But it certainly was an idea worth thinking about as traffic is a tough
nut to crack. As Eric Morris said in the
Times:
To end the scourge of traffic congestion, Julius Caesar banned most carts from the streets of Rome during daylight hours. It didn’t work — traffic jams just shifted to dusk. Two thousand years later, we have put a man on the moon and developed garments infinitely more practical than the toga, but we seem little nearer to solving the congestion problem.
And, you know what? Traffic in Paris -- where there were no tolls -- totally, totally sucked …like having the Superbowl at rush hour on a Friday in summer during a presidential visit.
If that’s where we’re headed…yikes.
UPDATE:
In today's Times was a follow-up (Why You’ll Love Paying for Roads That Used to Be Free, Part Two) that echoes my sentiments exactly:
Granted, it is annoying to be the one doing the paying, but at least the money goes to a (presumably) good cause, such as an improved transportation system.
Well, there's more to it than that...check it out.
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Kevin
Beekman lives in Alexandria, VA
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