Congestion Pricing and a Utah Highway Corporation

Re: congestion pricing

Charging for what used to be free, and charging for something that is as basic an input to the daily life of many people as the food they eat, is a political non-starter. The experience of Manhattan, a literal island, with excellent transit access, suggests how very very difficult this is politically. Don't know if you are following the efforts to impose it there or not--but every special interest group is gunning like mad for a carve-out. (London saw plenty of them). 

Every limited access highway should have congestion pricing imposed ASAP. Using roadway capacity (and producing pollution) is a cost to the public, and the public should be paid for suffering it. (And to recoup the public investment).  Maybe we should be operating our limited access facilities at arms length--a regulated utility like Questar or Utah Power, where similar network phenomena are in effect.  But that's not possible, because freeway lane miles are (nominally) part of the national network. Still, there ought to be a 'Utah Highway Corporation', the only agency permitted to add capacity on limited access facilities, and charged with adding it only when financially feasible.  

In Defense of Land Use Regulation

Arguably, any public regulation of land, by limiting the either the use or potential use a land-owner can make of the land. Yet a total lack of regulation of land is neither fair nor reasonable, as things which happen on your neighbors property directly affect yours. The oldest case would likely be mandatory building set-backs so as to provide fire-breaks. More recent cases would be 'public nuisances'; if your neighbor begins to use their garage as a concert space, the whole neighborhood suffers from the sound, while receiving none of the benefit. *

*I joined the 'Market Urbanism' group on Facebook, because I'm interested in congestion pricing and dynamic pricing for parking. Instead, I find myself engaged in debates about the virtues/values of land-use regulation. (As an urban planner, I'm generally for it). But it is forcing me to sharpen my rhetorical skills, so I suppose that's a plus.