More quotes from my InRoads article:
The politician is in a difficult place. Constituents expect problems of congestion to be solved, but not at their individual expense. People want carrots, not sticks – but don’t want to pay for expensive carrots and don’t want the sticks to hurt.
Politicians appreciate that individuals can hold completely contradictory views about the automobile, depending on whether the point of view is personal or collective. As individuals, people may view attempts to reduce car use as misguided. They cannot imagine their lives without unlimited access to the car.
However, these same people can be heartily in favour of drastic actions to reduce car use and, at least in principle, favour alternatives like cycling. But once actual tradeoffs have to be made, particularly if they involve reallocation of street space, inconvenience for the car or the introduction of tolling on existing infrastructure, the backlash can be severe if not career-threatening for any local politician in the car owners’ headlights.
… pricing the road is a touchy political proposal. The road is our commons. No matter who you are, you want the same right to the road. Rich or poor, powerful or weak, you are equal, even if you’re equally caught in congestion.
To maintain the automobile as a low-cost form of transportation means the poor meet the rich on common ground, even if the implicit subsidy for the road means more to the rich than the poor. The Left defends the free road so the poor can drive farther for cheaper housing and needed work. The Right opposes the tax grab that road pricing would entail. The politician has little middle ground on which to stand.
I guess it is the retired politician speaking here.
* yes it has been lot of drama when ken Livingstone has introduced the congestion charge in London, and pundit was predicting/hoping his Armageddon. he has been reelected and has extended the area…The next mayor Boris has not dismantled the congestion charge.
No political backslash here
*Stockolm has introduced a cordon toll circa 2007, an election has pass by since (2010)- same party is in control of the city, and the toll is here to stay
No political backslash here too. but in both case some politicians (left for London, right for Stokholm) not following the cattle, but leading it…and when the measure is good people recognize it (what is confirmed by ref [4] of http://voony.wordpress.com/2011/03/22/some-toll-economics/ )…
Sure, populists of the left or right are against road pricing -the economically most efficient measure to control congestion-.should we be surprised?
By the way, at the candidate meeting on transportation, I have understood that George Affleck and Geof Megg, was quite open to the road pricing idea…For this and other position he has hold in this transportation meeting, I was happy enough to see Affleck make it to the council…Can’t say the same from the inarticulate views expressed by populist Adriane Carr (is she the spokesperson for NSV?).
First I want to point out that some solutions are better than others in general, irrespectively to the decision of governments.
Cars are bad for the cities and we all know that. They produce pollution, you can easily get into traffic jam and people get fat and lazy by driving them. On the other hand, they make them independent and mobile, which is the main advantage.
The best way how to evade people from using cars for all travelling is to to give them good alternative. If they have fast, cheap and efficient way how to get to their work, they will probably use it.
People obviously disagree all the time about the proposed solutions. In my case I would say that the best way for me is the Torontian GO transit with their PRESTO Card. It is the fastest and cheapest way (except for cycling) how I can get from Oakville to York University every day.