congestion pricing: the view from canada

Canada's Frontier Centre for Public Policy has just published a paper by my colleague Stuart Donovan on the case for road pricing.  The gist:

Accurate transport pricing not only reduces congestion, it also generates additional revenue to fund investment in additional capacity when and where it is justified by demand. Most importantly, accurate transport pricing is mode-neutral in that it neither discriminates against nor favours any transport mode, although it does favour high-value vehicles, such as buses and emergency vehicles. Accurate transport pricing also allows people the freedom to manage their travel needs in the way that best suits them. Some workplaces, for example, may allow their employees to work flexible hours in order to reduce their transport costs.

PDF here.

Comments

[Peter S.]

We had a great visit from your colleague Stuart here, Jarrett. I was glad he could grace our shores so soon after your talk here in Seattle. We made sure he talked to some of the same folks you met here.

[Daniel Sparing]

I really do not understand this quote on at least two levels.

1. "accurate transport pricing is mode-neutral in that it neither discriminates against nor favours any transport mode, although it does favour high-value vehicles, such as buses and emergency vehicles"
- are externalities included in the model?
if yes, no need to (further) favor buses as the externality calculation already does, while
if no, then we really have to prioritize everything which is not a car.

2. "Some workplaces, for example, may allow their employees to work flexible hours in order to reduce their transport costs."
- what does this have to do with accurate pricing? even in a city with catastrophic transport policies (and hence congestion in rush hour), it would help a lot if one could commute in flexible hours.