According to Katz, payment for driving on the route will be based on a fluctuating fee depending on the levels of traffic – the more traffic, the higher the fee. While ministry officials say that the minimum toll for traveling on the route would be NIS 5, the maximum price is still unclear. In any case, the drivers will only know the price of the toll shortly before deciding to use it. According to the plans, a modifiable electronic sign 1.25 km before the onramp will display the price drivers will be charged depending on the levels of traffic.
Here is more and I thank Adrian Lucardi for the pointer. The road owner is supposed to guarantee an ongoing speed of 70 kph or better.
this is a “theoretical” example i always use when teaching tragedy of the commons and property rights.
its so simple in fact, I’m not sure whether i should be surprised or not that we haven’t tried this on a large scale here in the U.S.
Similar tolling models are in place/development in the US today.
The 91 express lanes in Souther California are an example. Certain lanes are opened to toll payers seeking to avoid the congestion along the freeway. The price of tolling is tied to the level of congestion along the freeway.
Additionally, the I-695 renovations in Dallas will be (in part) financed by a set of “managed lanes” that will be tolled based on a dynamic formula accounting for time savings and rate of flow.
There is also congestion pricing in Minnesota [ http://www.mnpass.org/394/index.html ] and there are plans in the works to implement congestion priced lanes in the Atlanta Metro region in the next year or so. Several other areas around the country are working towards this as well.
The Transportation Research Board (TRB) of the National Academies has info about congestion pricing here http://www.trb-pricing.org/
In future year, congestion pricing will be taught in schools as example of how simple minded people can read coase article and proceed to wet their pants.
Maybe the highway authorities can also grant me an indulgence to speed as well….
The bottom of this page seems to suggest that this toll in Washington State is COSTING the state money. Could that possibly be efficient?
http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/projects/SR167/HOTLanes/
Vacationing in the Baltimore area again, I noted the latest in the ICC – Intercounty Connector – ongoing saga: the proposal to charge variable rate tolls with the peak rate at 35 cents a mile, the highest anywhere. The non-peak rates don’t seem that low: 20-30 cents a mile.
They are promising 10 days notice before rate changes for different travel times.
Those who objected to the construction of the ICC are pointing out that the high tolls and unpredictability will divert traffic back to the roads the ICC was built to bypass. But without the high tolls, the ICC is both overloaded during peak hours and its high cost unpaid for.
the key phrase is “road owner”. private ownership makes the owner want to optimize how many cars use the road. too many and the road plugs up.
public roads, on the other hand, usually let everyone on regardless of the consequences. or they make feeble attempts with metering lights that don’t really work very well, especially when roads have carpool lanes that move slow traffic where fast traffic should be.
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