This article is great to help understand demand, even though we would think Long Island is hopelessly congested with traffic. The amzing thing is- the market works! Although Professor Wheelan was writing about some well known theories amongst economists when he wrote the article in 2005, Sweeden actually put it into practice. Before you post, consider the power of the market to allocate resources, and how quantity demanded is dependent on price. if we get enough posts/questions?comments, maybe I will invite Prof. Wheelan to post as well.
Tuesday, September 19, 2006
The Naked Economist on Demand
This article is great to help understand demand, even though we would think Long Island is hopelessly congested with traffic. The amzing thing is- the market works! Although Professor Wheelan was writing about some well known theories amongst economists when he wrote the article in 2005, Sweeden actually put it into practice. Before you post, consider the power of the market to allocate resources, and how quantity demanded is dependent on price. if we get enough posts/questions?comments, maybe I will invite Prof. Wheelan to post as well.
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7 comments:
Well i completely disagree with Prof. Wheelan, because if we tax people for being on the road in peak hours, it would only be a waste of time. Yes it will help maintain the highway system, but it wont help the traffic. People that are driving during the peak hours, are not driving because they want to, but because they NEED to. So even if we tax people, they would just pay anyways because they NEED to get somewhere, and traffic will be the same way.
While Prof. Wheelan poses a very good solution to traffic, I am skeptical about how effective it would be, even though it was successful in Sweden. The electronic toll-booth would create more traffic, much like the E-Z Pass lanes at normal toll booths; they do move faster than the regular lines, but they still create congestion, which would only add to the problem. Also, if the higher prices did cause more people to travel earlier, there would still be the same amount of people on the road, so wouldn't they just be sitting in traffic earlier in the day?
yea ana, but it might do things like make more people carpool, take the train, or find other transportation options that would get more cars off the road. it was also really weird seeing wheelans face after reading his book not having the faintest idea who he really was.
I believe Wheelans arguement would prove itself sucessful in a higher populated area but on the east end of Long Island the toll booths would commercialize the area even more. Even though the tolls would better the management of the highway system, is the loss of "The Hamptons" charm worth it? With tolls the traffic into Southampton would be even greater. To manage the traffic the Highway Department would have to upgrade the highway system to something resembeling JFK airport. The area is too small and a highway system like that would just too much. Highway systems also entail billboards, signs, fast food and more gas stations, is this good for the economy? Also before one installed the tolls etc. they would have to measure the income of the Highway system compared to the income made through tourism from "The Hamptons" charm. Is the traffic problem really worth the history of eastern Long Island?
While i find Charles Wheelen's solution to traffic jams to be an effective one, i sadly doubt it will ever be implemented any time soon. The task of getting everyone an electronic device for their dashboard could take years and cost millions.
p.s. ana nunez people who "need" to commute may be enfluenced to use public transportation or other various means, as stated in the article. Did you miss that part?
although the idea to use incentives (they don't want to pay as much) to make people travel at different times of the day is good, i don't think it will work that well because most of the people traveling at that time have to be on the road at those hours. it seems like the extra toll will slow down traffic even more and only annoy the travelors.
I believe that the concepts behind Wheelan's solution are good in theory, and would greatly help to solve the traffic problems in the New York City area and with some alterations in the Hamptons as well. By raising the price of driving we would affectively make people rethink the necessity of their driving to where they have to go at that time. By this I mean not only deciding whether or not they should leave at that time, but also if they should use a form of public transportation, and if so which one.
As shown when the system was tested in Sweden this increase in cost would most probably cause an increase in the use of public transportation in the area, which in comparison to other countries is relatively low. In addition this increased use in public transportation would cause incentives to re-work the existing system which are outdated and inadequate for mass use. If the public transportation systems were updated such as those in Japan where there are high-speed maglev-trains in used to quickly and efficiently carry many passengers in a short amount of time.
In addition to these things the revenue generated from such an increased cost could help to finance the setup of such a system. Also once paid off the toll could generate revenue for other public programs, or construction and maintenance of highways.
In conclusion the use of Wheelan’s system would have many benefits to our society and could do a lot to improve the issue of congestion in the streets. Although some argue that it would be too expensive and cumbersome to set such a system up, I believe that it could be accomplished fairly easily and pay for it’s self over time.
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