Sean Kershaw's Weblog
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February 5, 2007
Innovations in Transportation: Congestion Pricing
Kudos to Bob DeBoer, John Doan and Lee Munnich (and many others) for a fantastic conference on road pricing last week. The day really struck me for a number of reasons:
- That congestion pricing is relatively easy to implement, and that it's actually reducing congestion (not just slowing growth) where it's been implemented.
- That we are a national leader in terms of what we've done so far.
- That these changes don't require significant new investments.
- That there are a number of unexplored fronts for innovations in transportation funding, like public-private partnerships in road construction and maintenance.
- These types of innovations will free up time (and maybe money) to talk about other issues like road safety in greater MN.
- How on-point our report Driving Blind was two years ago!
As Bob and our study committee were working on this issue over two years ago - Bob quickly started talking about how the next break-through won't be from large capital investments, but from innovations in transportation. I think what I witnessed last week was a perfect example.
I'll bug Bob to post real links that connect you to better information on this event, and on congestion pricing. Look for it in the Policy Blog.
Posted by Sean Kershaw at February 5, 2007 5:37 AM