MASS. APPEALS | ADVICE FOR THE NEW GOVERNOR | EDWARD L. GLAESER
Free roads are anything but free
By Edward L. Glaeser | December 11, 2006
THE DEBATE over removing tolls on the Western Turnpike shows this state at its worst. Before the election, Governor Mitt Romney's administration engineered a proposal to eliminate tolls west of Route 128. The proposal's fans sell it as a tiny windfall for western Massachusetts. But if western Massachusetts deserves a windfall, doing it through the toll system is just silly.
Meanwhile, the proposal's union opponents are fighting to keep their members sitting in toll booths. Artificially boosting the number of people collecting tolls cannot be good social policy.
Tolls are neither a sensible make-work project nor a good tool for righting regional inequities. As Governor-elect Deval Patrick prepares to take office, he and his nascent administration should understand the best function of tolls: to charge for the use of scarce road space.
Historically, we've spent billions on roads and provided them for free. This approach has given us endless traffic jams, because as any former Soviet commissar can tell you, if prices are too low, endless queues follow. Our free roads end up being anything but free, as massive congestion causes us to pay with time instead of cash.
Tolls should be used to charge people for the congestion they create. If I drive during peak hours, I slow everyone else down. Congestion-based tolls help us make the right decision about when and how often to drive. Granted, if we just raise tolls on major highways like the turnpike, then we push people onto the already crowded side streets. Knowing that, London Mayor Ken Livingstone in 2003 introduced a congestion charge throughout much of his city. That led to an 18 percent reduction in traffic and a 30 percent drop in congestion. The change made the city more livable, especially for lower- and middle-income residents who rode buses.
Whatever the benefits, implementing a London-system in the Bay State would be daunting; adding tollbooths would be expensive and unpopular. But we can make two simple improvements to toll policy, which make a lot more sense than ending tolls on the Western Turnpike.
First, we should acknowledge that, because congestion changes from hour to hour, the social cost of driving varies over the day. Time-sensitive tolls can help move drivers from commuting during peak hours to less congested periods. We could double tolls during peak hours and cut them to zero during off-peak hours. Alternatively, the toll could rise slowly from 6 a.m. to 8 a.m. and then decline as traffic eases off. Since trucks use up the most space, tolls should rise particularly steeply for trucks driving during rush hour.
Second, we should recognize that the administrative costs for cash payments are about three times higher than the same costs for payments made with fast lane devices. Since people who use fast lanes save the system money, their tolls should be reduced. Tolls on those who pay cash should be substantially increased, perhaps even doubled. Already, some tolls are lower for fast lane users, but this effort needs to be expanded. Alternatively, higher tolls on cash-paying drivers can be used to make transponders free.
These two simple proposals require no new infrastructure and would cut commute times and administrative costs. Douglas MacDonald, the former head of the Water Resources Authority, is putting these ideas in place as transportation czar in Washington state. In Massachusetts, these improvements can be revenue neutral; any increases in tolls could be offset by an equal amount of toll decreases, so turnpike users on the whole won't pay any more. The change should be progressive. People who really care about saving money will switch their behavior and pay less, while people who don't care about saving money will end up paying more.
The state can't go on providing free roads forever. Cutting tolls in the western part of the state is rank populism, and Governor-elect Patrick should resist that temptation. At some point, we will have to charge drivers for their effect upon the transportation system. Using tolls to spread traffic more evenly over the day -- and pushing people into the fast lane -- is policy.
Edward L. Glaeser is an economics professor at Harvard and director of the Rappaport Institute for Greater Boston.