Motorists will have to pay for the Cost of Congestion

Thomas Power, Dublin Institute of Technology

Irish Times, March 26th 2008

Abstract

The available road space (the scarce resource) is currently allocated by one’s willingness to sit in traffic jams. The costs incurred in sitting in traffic jams benefits no one – it is pure deadweight loss. The solution is to get the motorist to pay the social cost (marginal congestion cost). By pricing the cost of this traffic congestion in euro, this money could be collected and put to good use, perhaps on improving public transport.