Congestion Pricing
Streetsblog LA
Gordon “Blowsback” and Times Blowsout Rutten’s Pricing Misinformation Piece
Poor Tim Rutten. Last week the Times' columnist wrote an "opinion piece" that attacked congestion pricing and now everyone is attacking him. Some hack blogger pointed out that congestion pricing actually would make life easier for the fictitious poor people he used to argue his point. Now, a USC professor has pointed out that he didn't really do any research on congestion pricing and his own newspaper has printed an editorial that basically talks the opposite viewpoint that he expressed last week. Heck, even Metro itself took the time to take apart Rutten's argument piece by piece.
June 15, 2009
Times Brings Back Pricing Misinformation Campaign
As Metro's "Express Lanes" project starts to make headlines, you can expect to see more and more of these types of articles; misinformation dressed up as altruistic concern for others, appearing in local papers everywhere. For those of us who love the idea of congestion pricing on highways we're left with an unsavory choice: defend Metro's week anti-congestion pricing program or let non-believers slam congestion pricing altogether.
June 10, 2009
Metro Moves Forward with Confused “Congestion Pricing”
Yesterday, the Metro, aka LACMTA, announced the details of it's HOT Lanes FAST Lanes Express Lanes proposal to take existing carpool lanes on the I-10 and I-110 freeways into and out of Downtown Los Angeles. While the new plan has been tweaked from the one outlined last August in one aspect, it is still missing one of the basic precepts of congestion pricing: congestion pricing should reduce the demand for car travel.
June 9, 2009
City Considering Congestion Parking for the Downtown
A lot has been said over some of the items on today's City Council Transportation Committee hearing, most of it bad, but there is one agenda item we haven't yet touched on that could have a huge impact on traffic and congestion in Los Angeles.
April 8, 2009
L.A.’s “Congestion Pricing” Gaining National Attention
Two of the nation's more prominent political bloggers have recently weighed in on what congestion pricing would mean to Los Angeles. Atrios, a writer for Media Matters for America, responds to criticism of congestion pricing at his personal blog by explaining that congestion pricing is more about "congestion" and less about "pricing."
March 17, 2009
IBM: Let’s Build a Smarter Planet With Congestion Pricing!
IBM launched its “Build a Smarter Planet” campaign to highlight its role in using technology to solve many of the world’s problems. One of their most recent ads highlights and brags about the computer giant’s role in bringing congestion pricing, or as it terms it “smart tolling,” to European cities. After spending a year watching … Continued
March 2, 2009
San Francisco Moves Forward With Congestion-Busting Parking Reform
San
Francisco's Municipal Transportation Agency gave the go-ahead Tuesday
to curbside parking reform that will encompass a quarter of the metered
spaces in the city -- about 6,000 spots. Under the 18-month pilot,
called SFpark, the agency will vary prices for on-street parking and
city-owned lots based on demand, intending to reduce unnecessary car
trips and cut down on cruising for spaces.
November 20, 2008
Ridley-Thomas Introduces Congestion Pricing Legislation
Locked in a tight battle for the Board of Supervisors seat held by Yvonne Burke with City Councilman Bernard Parks, State Senator Mark Ridley Thomas may have taken a risk by introducing S. 1422, the enabling legislation that will allow Metro to move forward with it's plan to bring congestion pricing to Los Angeles.
October 2, 2008
Metro Reveals Their Priorities for HOT Lanes Funding
As has been widely reported, Metro will receive over $210 million dollars from the federal government to experiment with a road pricing plan on the I-10 and I-110. The federal dollars must be spent on projects to increase alternative transportation along the corridors effected by what is still being referred to as "congestion pricing" even though Metro's plan doesn't change much on the highways during the most congested hours.
September 18, 2008