Must congestion be as common as the common cold?
Photo credit: Adobe stock
With the New Year will come a new idea for New York City -- paying $9 to drive bravely into the maw of Manhattan. While grumbling. As The New York Times notes, two thirds of respondents in a Siena College survey of New York State opposed congestion pricing. US President-elect Donald Trump, in the ignorance to which he has become accustomed, called the congestion price “the most regressive tax known to womankind.” Almaty residents may ask themselves whether they would back congestion pricing themselves. Snow and high winds just two weeks ago snarled streets throughout the city of 3 million.
Most New Yorkers oppose the congestion price because The New York Times has never explained it. The idea is that time is money. When I drive into New York at rush hour, I delay other motorists. I keep them from getting to work or dinner on time. If I would have to pay a toll for delaying them, I will probably go to the Big Apple instead before or after rush hour. Other motorists will thus get to the office or the turkey dinner on time. Congestion will disappear.
I will drive at rush hour only if I would benefit even after paying the toll. Ideally, the toll equals the cost that I impose on other drivers. If I am willing to pay the toll, then my own need must justify the rare congestion that I cause. Perhaps I was driving my pregnant wife to the hospital.
And, of course, the toll revenues pay for improvements that decongest.
In short, the congestion price benefits motorists in the short run and the long run. It's a reviled idea whose time has come.
But what about Trump's charge that the congestion price is a "regressive" tax on women? The President-elect, who managed to major in economics at Penn without learning anything, is fond of technical terms he doesn't understand. A tax is regressive if it claims a larger share of income or wealth of the poor than of the rich. (Income is what you make this year. Wealth is what you're worth.) The opposite is true of the congestion price. On average in the US, women are poorer than men. The median household headed by a woman has 55 cents of wealth for every dollar of wealth in the median household headed by a man. (The median household is the one that separates the richer half from the poorer half.) Women are more likely than men to ride the bus to work than to buy an expensive car and drive. Because they take the bus, they avoid the congestion toll. That tax is progressive: It claims a larger share of income or wealth of the rich than of the poor. Other things being the same as before, if we must have a tax, we'd surely prefer a progressive one.
A better example of a regressive tax on women would be a tariff of at least 20% on cheap Chinese toys that single mothers buy for their kids because they can't afford anything else. A tariff is a tax on foreign goods. The primary advocate of this tariff is the President-Elect. -- Leon Taylor, Seymour, Indiana tayloralmaty@gmail.com
References
Ana Hernandez Kent. Gender Wealth Gaps in the U.S. | St. Louis Fed . September 29, 2021.
Ana Ley. NYC Congestion Pricing Plan Gets Federal Approval With Jan. 5 Start Date - The New York Times . November 22, 2024.
Tengrinews. Snowfall and heavy traffic jams: road situation in Almaty: 08 November 2024, 20:47 - news on Tengrinews.kz
