Engineering a Failure

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports:

So far, rebuilding Highway 40 has involved ripping out roadway and demolishing and rebuilding bridges.
This morning, the paving begins.
[…]
Paving should continue through October. Although reconstruction of the first phase is on target to finish by Dec. 31, a wet spring kept paving from starting sooner.

It’s nice to hear that the reconstruction of highway 40 is on schedule despite early setbacks because of the weather. However, I don’t think that the addition of a new lane in either direction will solve the congestion problem. Policymakers have framed the problem in a fundamentally flawed way: They see the congestion as an engineering problem only requiring a good design with enough money thrown into execution for a solution.

This is all wrong. Congestion is an economic problem at its very core. It surely is possible to completely solve the congestion problem with enough tax dollars and a decent design, but the question that must be asked is, is it worth it? The problem with Missouri’s current system of funding transportation projects — road construction in particular — is that there is no metric to determine whether a new road or an extra lane is actually worth the costs of construction and maintenance. Ideally, consumers would pay a premium for driving on highly congested roads and receive a discount for driving on relatively uncongested roads. This would help determine whether a new road is worthwhile and cut down congestion at the same time.

A very practical method of approaching this ideal is to use tolls as the primary method of financing road construction and maintenance. With a toll road, the metric for determining whether road construction is worthwhile is simple — if the road turns a profit, it is worthwhile. In addition, reducing congestion (or, more accurately, setting the optimal level of congestion) is simply a matter of adjusting tolls to maximize each respective road’s profit. No public sector necessary, here.

Matt Simpson