[louisphilippe]

There is a catch-22 with buses.

Buses would be a lot better if cities had congestion pricing that could greatly reduce traffic delays. Buses would also be a lot better if there were more routes and better frequency.

But people oppose congestion pricing because it would make commutes much more expensive for the poor. But if you actually had it, then the bus would be a much more feasible form of transportation, because it would be quicker. And as it became quicker, more people would take it, and the frequency would increase. And that would altogether be much cheaper for the poor than commuting by car.

So we cannot have good bus transportation until we have congestion pricing. But we cannot have congestion pricing until busses are a much better way to get to work.

[jballanc]

There's a radical, yet likely very workable solution to this catch-22... A couple of years back when there was talk of introducing congestion pricing in Manhattan, there was a bridge toll increase around the same time. Someone figured out that if, instead of the usual $0.50 or $1 increase, the bridge tolls in NYC were increased to $20-25, then you could make all of the MTA lines (subway, LIRR, metro north) free of charge.

Of course, as you might expect, it never got anywhere...

[prawn]

There is a bridge over to Staten Island (from the South, I think?) that costs $14. It's free in the reverse direction, AFAIK. Drove it the other day as a tourist in the area and thought "This would suck if I had to commute this every day!"

Presumably the cost is there to encourage everyone to take public transport instead.

[mistermann]

> congestion pricing

Is that a surcharge for being on certain roads at certain times of the day? It's a good idea if it could be undertaken in a somewhat fair way, are there any well thought out theories that you know of?

[kahirsch]

London has been doing it since 2003.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_congestion_charge

[louisphilippe]

I don't have any particular recommended reading, but you can google the term and read articles about it.

[cglace]

Atlanta has "hot lanes" where the prices increase and decrease with the flow of traffic.