We’ve hit peak car. People are complaining about traffic, and lack of parking in Asbury Park and in cities all over the US. Building wider roads was never a good idea (induced demand), and it isn’t feasible or economically a great idea to build more parking (Cities are eliminating parking.) Maybe car culture in the US is about to change.
The Streets Were Never Free. Congestion Pricing Finally Makes That Plain.
The policy could change not just traffic, but also how we think about the infrastructure cars require.
The idea of the open road evokes these intertwined meanings: The freedom to use it should be free. Residential street parking should be free. Traffic lanes should be free. Stretches of public curb dedicated to private driveways? Those should be free, too.
In other ways, the government has heavily subsidized driving, or hidden the reality of who pays for it in places no one sees. Local laws require off-street parking from businesses and housing developers, who pass on the construction cost of it to tenants and customers who may not drive at all.
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