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To fix L.A.'s traffic, we need tolls
21–30 of 689 posts
Re: To fix L.A.'s traffic, we need tolls
#22The problem as I see it is that we force everyone onto the freeway. Need to get somewhere a few miles from here? They make it very difficult to get there without getting onto the freeway.
There was some point in the last 30 years where city designers decided the best way to handle local traffic was just to force everyone onto the freeway. It's horrible.
There should instead be a reasonable main grid of smaller (2 lane max) low stop count streets such that I can get across town without getting on the freeway.
A large number of small roads can handle a lot more traffic than a small number of large roads.
Re: To fix L.A.'s traffic, we need tolls
#23Imagine how much more expensive living in LA will be. Instead of fixing their god awful public transit (like NYC) they want to punish people for using the only reliable mode of transportation?
By far the most efficient mechanism humanity has ever come up with for distributing scarce resources (such as room on freeways) are free markets. The article is 100% correct that pervasive tolls are the only effective and fair way to reduce what has become monumentally oppressive traffic congestion in LA.
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Re: To fix L.A.'s traffic, we need tolls
#24Imagine how much more expensive living in LA will be. Instead of fixing their god awful public transit (like NYC) they want to punish people for using the only reliable mode of transportation?
The metro isn't that bad. I commuted from Hollywood to Torrance by metro/bus daily for a few years. The metro fare cost me more than gas actually but staying off the 110 was golden.
Hollywood to Torrance on the metro?! Gosh, how long did that take?
Re: To fix L.A.'s traffic, we need tolls
#25Aren't tolls like this an incredibly regressive tax that further hurts the poor?
The other way we pay for roads is through sales taxes (aka the most regressive tax). At least tolls are use-based, rather than on the general population.
Re: To fix L.A.'s traffic, we need tolls
#26This is an excellent idea which is unfortunately too simple, fair, and straightforward to have a chance in California.
Re: To fix L.A.'s traffic, we need tolls
#27Imagine how much more expensive living in LA will be. Instead of fixing their god awful public transit (like NYC) they want to punish people for using the only reliable mode of transportation?
They're already paying for it. The injustice is that even people too poor to drive pay an undue amount. Sit on the packed 720 crawling down Wilshire blvd at rush hour and realize those people have just as much right to get around. I need to find the source but a few years ago, more people got down Wilshire in buses during rush hour than in cars, yet the condo canyon folks screamed and wailed about the prospect of a bus lane.
Re: To fix L.A.'s traffic, we need tolls
#28Tolls or Holes?
Link to Elon Musk's tunnel plan: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2017-02-16/elon-musk...
Re: To fix L.A.'s traffic, we need tolls
#29Earlier quoted context omitted.
LA is 35 miles long. What would the walking commute of 10 million people look like? So you're suggesting that instead of fixing the problem (public transit) they should start whipping people so that the rich can drive on their traffic-free roads?
The point of tolls is not to make roads exclusive for the wealthy. A sensible toll would be something anyone who can afford to own a car can be expected pay.
The point of tolls is not to make roads exclusive for the wealthy
Re: To fix L.A.'s traffic, we need tolls
#30Aren't tolls like this an incredibly regressive tax that further hurts the poor?
It's mentioned in the article.
> This objection also ignores just how inequitable and dysfunctional our current system is. Tolls may disproportionately burden the poor, but so do sales taxes, gas taxes and every other way we pay for roads.
Is this false equivalence?