Economics of Liberty by Llewellyn H. Rockwell

Author:Llewellyn H. Rockwell [Rockwell, Llewellyn H.]
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
ISBN: 9780945466086
Amazon: 0945466080
Goodreads: 2875191
Publisher: Ludwig Von Mises Inst
Published: 1990-06-01T22:00:00+00:00

What To Do About Traffic Congestion

Walter Block

Traffic congestion has to be one of the most annoying occurrences known to mankind. It limits vehicles capable of 150 miles per hour under specialized conditions, and 65 miles per hour under normal conditions, to crawling along, bumper-to-bumper, at five miles per hour.

Congestion is also a danger. Apart from psychological buffeting, frayed tempers undoubtedly create traffic accidents. The vehicles, too, deteriorate at a faster rate than they otherwise would, and overheated engines, etc., are the cause of even more highway injury.

The economic costs are monumental. Millions of productive workers are forced to sit idle for long periods in the morning, and another long period in the evening, while their vehicles use costly fuel.

In many large cities, almost anything out of the ordinary can trigger congestion, from the end of a ballgame to people returning from the beach. In New York and other major cities, the problem is reaching crisis proportions.

A crisis calls for urgent solutions, but almost no one is addressing the fundamental problem: the fact that the roads are owned and run by the government, therefore prohibiting the price system from solving congestion.

Traffic congestion is not unique. On the free market, people are continually choosing between lower-priced but more crowded conditions, and higher-priced but less congested alternatives. Should they patronize a crowded fast-food chain or a quiet, expensive restaurant? A discount department store or a full-price boutique? But with our roads, there is no market where consumers can make their preferences known; there are no congested but cheaper highways competing with more expensive but emptier ones.

There are plenty of “non-pricing” solutions to this problem. But because none rely on consumers expressing their wishes in a free market, all will fail.

A perennial government favorite is staggered work hours. The government need do nothing: instead the employer, and his recalcitrant employees, can be made scapegoats for congestion.

But restaurants are busiest during breakfast, lunch, and dinner time. Thus they too suffer from congested traffic. But were a restaurant owner to propose that customers stagger their meal times, he would be laughed out of business. Instead, he accommodates himself to the customers.

Many bowling alleys are open 24 hours a day, but “suffer” peak-load congestion in the late afternoon and early evening. They solve this cutting prices during the less busy hours. Customers are satisfied because they can coordinate their plans with the prices they choose to pay. But the exhortation to “stagger” travel times displays a typically callous government disregard for consumers.

Another strategy is the conversion of two-way streets into one-way ones, to align the direction of traffic in accord with the majority of motorists (outbound in the evening, inbound in the morning) and prohibit turns on and off these main thoroughfares, to keep traffic moving as quickly as possible.

This may sound like a panacea. But none of the cities implementing this plan have succeeded in ending rush hour congestion. There is simply too much traffic for the streets to handle. This policy also restricts motorists’ travel.

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