How to pay for the Vikings stadium is the topic of the hour here in GreaterMSP. I have another solution that has not been broached to recover part of the $77 per ticket subsidy.
Let us establish a Congestion Zone around the proposed Minnesota Sports Complex, which is in effect on game days only (and could be extended for other special events). Drive into this zone on game days and pay $100 $150 (assuming an auto occupancy of about 2, and most fans drive) as a congestion charge. As with the London Congestion Zone, on which it is loosely modeled, residents would get a discount. This would ensure people driving to the game, regardless of where they park, would have to pay.
The funds earned would pay for administering the zone and the new stadium. Wilf would have no say in the matter. I have put a first draft of the zone boundaries on the Google map below, but obviously this could be discussed (should it extend to Cedar-Riverside or to St. Anthony Main? I am counting on the inherent laziness of Vikings fans being unwilling to walk to counter-act their inherent frugality. Every entrance to the zone would be cordoned, starting say 10 am on game days, and running until say the end of the first quarter, and people would have to pay to enter the area or produce evidence of residence.
Fans coming by transit, foot, or bicycle would be exempted.
Obviously there would need to be some new legal framework established for this.
Day: 2012-04-30
Linklist: April 30, 2012
New Scientist: One Per Cent: Expressive car sends its ’emotions’ ahead
Tyler Cowan notes: Amy Finkelstein wins the John Bates Clark award. Transportationistas may remember her mention here for her work on E-Z Tax
Wikipedia: Rocket mail
Arnold Kling: My Thoughts on Technology and :
“I think that urbanization increases the demand for government. When people are crowded together, many more externalities are created. Water and sewage management become a huge deal. So does planning a road and transportation system.
Technology for long-distance trade also increases the demand for standardization and enforcement of standards. That is likely to raise the demand for government.”
Jason Scheppers writes in at Kids Prefer Cheese: We Get Letters: Polls on I-95. The general point is that if a road is uncongested, and tolls are imposed which reduce use, this is a welfare loss. This is why we should continue to use average rather than marginal cost payment systems for uncongested roads (which is most of them), like the flat mileage-based user fee (in the future), gas tax or worse, property taxes. We still need to pay for the road if it is a worthwhile part of the network, but differential tolls or tolls on some uncongested roads but not others are not terribly efficient (though it may be profitable for the toll collector). The beauty of the gas tax (over the property tax) is that it better gets at road users in proportion to use.
Measuring the transportation needs of seniors
Recently published:
- Wasfi, R., Levinson, D. and El-Geneidy, A. (2012) Measuring the transportation needs of seniors (Mensuração das necessidades de transporte de idosos). Journal of Transport Literature, vol. 6, n. 2, pp. 8-32.
Transportation systems are built with the intention to serve communities by providing accessibility and mobility. Yet seniors residing in these communities face different challenges compared to regular commuters. Seniors have special needs in terms of desired destinations and challenges faced due to limitations in mobility and decline of accessibility levels where they reside. In this research paper we discuss major findings from a mail-out mail-in survey conducted in Hennepin County, Minnesota to measuring met and unmet urban transportation needs of seniors. Compared to previous research this study uses primary collected data rather than relying on travel surveys, which does not measure the unmet urban transportation needs of seniors. The findings from this survey is consistent in term of measuring the existing travel behavior of seniors, which raises our confidence in the information being collected related to the unmet transportation needs of seniors. Seniors are found to be generally independent and rely mainly on auto usage to reach desired destinations at higher rates compared to the rest of the population. The majority of seniors reported although they are currently independent they do know that such independency is not permanent and they have to learn more about alternatives available to them. This study helps transportation engineers and planners in better understanding the current and future challenges that they will face with an aging population.
David Levinson, Transportist 