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Alleviating Urban Traffic Congestion
Argues that urban transport economists should be less preoccupied with congestion pricing as the way of alleviating urban traffic congestion and should devote more of their attention to the study of policies that operate at a more microscopic scale--the scale at which urban transport policy decisions are made.
In 2000, the average driver in US metropolitan areas endured 27 hours of traffic delays, a rise from 7 hours in 1980. In many other countries, traffic delays are considerably worse than in the United States, and in developing countries urban traffic congestion is increasing with alarming rapidity. For fifty years, economists have been advocating congestion pricing as the way to deal with urban traffic congestion; but today, even after some successes, congestion pricing is encountering considerable political resistance. The authors of Alleviating Urban Traffic Congestion advocate active consideration of more microscopic policies that attack the problem at the scale at which actual policy decisions are made. Microscopic models, rather than macroscopic models that are too simplified and too aggregated, they argue, will lead to the analysis of a wider and more creative range of policies, at least some of which should work well and be politically acceptable. After developing the themes of the book, the authors illustrate them by examining some areas of urban transport policy that have been neglected by the macroscopic approach. These include downtown parking policy, the encouragement of bicycling, the staggering of work hours by dominant employers, and the use by medium-sized cities of a multimode ticket that charges cars entering the city center a toll equal to the transit fare. The reorientation of urban transport analysis that they advocate will by no means eliminate traffic delays but should speed up the adoption of a richer, more flexible, and ultimately more effective set of policies to alleviate urban traffic congestion.
In 2000, the average driver in US metropolitan areas endured 27 hours of traffic delays, a rise from 7 hours in 1980. In many other countries, traffic delays are considerably worse than in the United States, and in developing countries urban traffic congestion is increasing with alarming rapidity. For fifty years, economists have been advocating congestion pricing as the way to deal with urban traffic congestion; but today, even after some successes, congestion pricing is encountering considerable political resistance. The authors of Alleviating Urban Traffic Congestion advocate active consideration of more microscopic policies that attack the problem at the scale at which actual policy decisions are made. Microscopic models, rather than macroscopic models that are too simplified and too aggregated, they argue, will lead to the analysis of a wider and more creative range of policies, at least some of which should work well and be politically acceptable. After developing the themes of the book, the authors illustrate them by examining some areas of urban transport policy that have been neglected by the macroscopic approach. These include downtown parking policy, the encouragement of bicycling, the staggering of work hours by dominant employers, and the use by medium-sized cities of a multimode ticket that charges cars entering the city center a toll equal to the transit fare. The reorientation of urban transport analysis that they advocate will by no means eliminate traffic delays but should speed up the adoption of a richer, more flexible, and ultimately more effective set of policies to alleviate urban traffic congestion.
240 pages, Hardcover
First published August 19, 2005
6 people want to read
About the author
Richard Arnott
21 booksDr. Richard James Arnott was an economist who specialized in urban economic theory. He pioneered the analysis of the interaction between public finance and the spatial allocation of households, leading to a theory of optimal city size in a spatial economy. He was Distinguished Professor of Economics at the University of California Riverside. He edited the Journal of Economic Geography from 1999 to 2003 and Regional Science and Urban Economics from 2003 to 2007.
Arnott received his B.S. in Urban Studies from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1969, his M.A. in Economics from the University of Toronto in 1971, another M.A. and an M.Phil. in Economics from Yale University in 1972, and his Ph.D. in Economics from Yale in 1975.
Arnott taught Economics at Queen’s University from 1975 to 1988 and Boston College from 1988 to 2007. He had been a visiting instructor at the École Normale Supérieure, Princeton University, Stanford University, University of Oxford, and other institutions in America, Asia, Europe, and Oceania.
Arnott received his B.S. in Urban Studies from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1969, his M.A. in Economics from the University of Toronto in 1971, another M.A. and an M.Phil. in Economics from Yale University in 1972, and his Ph.D. in Economics from Yale in 1975.
Arnott taught Economics at Queen’s University from 1975 to 1988 and Boston College from 1988 to 2007. He had been a visiting instructor at the École Normale Supérieure, Princeton University, Stanford University, University of Oxford, and other institutions in America, Asia, Europe, and Oceania.
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