At 09:03 PM 6/22/99 -0700, Gene Coyle wrote: > There are two groups in the Bay Area pushing congestion pricing. I don't >think it is that clever. the groups are the Environmental Defense Fund and >the Union of Concerned Scientists -- Berkeley office. If we rely on >congestion pricing, who is it that is going to drive? And what do the rest >do, without transit? No doubt that congestion pricing alone will not do the trick, people will just end paying more in tolls. But neither will the development of public transit alone. You need both - the push factor (higher cost) that will wean people from their addiction to cars, and the pull factor (efficient public transit) that will attract them to a more rational way of moving around. That nothwithstanding, I think that the idea od using market ideology to combat big business (like big auto industry or big utilities) is a clever strategy of fighting the enemy with his own weapon. Besides that, methinks that this whole market-schmarket schmoozing is a religious mantra not science - a bunch of crap that only panglossian sycophants and ex-post-facto rationalizers in econ departments can find appealing. wojtek Economist is a person providing the needed conclusions to those in the position to pay for them. - John Kenneth Galbraith
