The Antiplanner will be in Washington, DC this week to release American Nightmare and a new paper on transportation finance. On Tuesday noon, May 14, the Antiplanner will be one of three speakers at a hill briefing sponsored by the Competitive Enterprise Institute on transportation.
At the briefing, the Antiplanner will present a new paper on highway finance arguing that the states should move rapidly to replace gas taxes with vehicle-mile fees. Not only are vehicle-mile fees a more equitable way of paying for roads, they will also do far more than any other policy, including HOT lanes, to relieve traffic congestion.
The paper points out the little-understood fact that congestion has two causes: first when traffic flows exceed maximum roadway capacities and second when those capacities are reduced to well below their maximum levels. As a result, congestion can continue for hours after the moment–which may only be for a few minutes a day–when flows exceed maximum capacities.
