02-24-2024, 05:44 AM
(02-24-2024, 04:31 AM)plam Wrote:(02-23-2024, 12:16 PM)ijmorlan Wrote: What we really should be doing is making all superhighways be toll roads, completely funded out of the tolls and with congestion managed by congestion charges. That would take a huge expense off the books and remove a lot of low-value travel from the highways, especially at the busiest times. The only downside is it might become too easy to fund new superhighways, since they would be paid for by their eventual users rather than by increasing the debt.
I think that's Japan. It's actually expensive to get around Japan (both by road and by train, which is also not public, though paid for by e.g. real estate development in addition to fares).
And I don't actually think charging for mobility is a good thing (although funding it through realestate makes some sense). Mobility is a huge public good, it should be subsidized by the gov, but we should also make intentional and good choices about WHAT mobility we fund. (I.e., make highways expensive and regulated, and trains/buses cheap or even free). It is also the case that mobility is a huge factor in social mobility, so failing to subsidize it means we harm social mobility.