Better Transportation Requires More Than Congestion Pricing

"Smart signs are one thing. Smart roads are something else entirely. That's where the bumper-to-bumper future lies."

"'We are at a point in transportation right now where the whole world is going to change,' Sam Staley was saying yesterday. 'We are at a point most people couldn't even envision 15 years ago. We have the technology - we have it now - to have roads that are free-flowing 24 hours a day congestion-free. We just have to decide we want to use it.'"

"Staley, an economist and urban anthropologist by training, is one of the real visionaries of America's transportation future. He is director of urban and land-use policy at the Reason Foundation in Los Angeles. He made a big splash last year as co-author of a provocative broadside against traffic jams: 'The Road More Traveled: Why the Congestion Crisis Matters More Than You Think and What We Can Do About It.'"

"Since it's nearly impossible to construct large new roads in places as crowded as Long Island, Staley and other transportation thinkers are far more focused on how to better use the highways we have already."

"Among the techno-solutions that appear most promising: GPS route maps that know where the jams are and get you around them. Traffic lights timed to speed the flow. Tolls that go up during rush hour and down at the lighter times."

"No, it doesn't end with Mike Bloomberg's congestion pricing tolls for Manhattan."