Parking Reform Alone Won’t Solve Congestion

Proponents of congestion pricing, who would probably otherwise supportmany the alternative’s ideas, immediately blasted it for being what itprobably is –- a red herring designed to ensure that nothing happens,existing privileges are maintained, and problems are not solved, butthe public is confused about who is to blame and thus just shrugs itsshoulders. The typical Albany win over the public, in other words.Still, there is enough of interest in the proposal that it deserves athoughtful review, and such a review finds that it is essentially anextension of current policies, and has the same hole as those policies. 

Since most of these are sensible measures they shouldn’t be rejectedout of hand. But they don’t do anything to discourage through traffic,an issue the opponents acknowledge. Even so, the congestion pricing opponents, in recommending variabletolls for peak and non-peak hours and higher costs for parking haveaccepted the concept of using pricing to limit the over-use of a scarceresource, a large leap for them to make if they have in fact made it.Perhaps they should be given a little credit rather than just ignored.