Do You Know How Much Stoplights Cost?

3.7% of the budget, it seems. But are they really necessary? Transportation costs account for nearly 10% of the budget of the city of Los Angeles. But is it a wise investment?

First, let's talk about any investments in freeways. All of the roads are at capacity in Los Angeles, it seems, so if anything we're not making enough of an investment in the roads. But is this really a problem? Maybe an alternative solution is needed. Congestion pricing is that solution. In its typical form, congestion pricing increases the cost of driving on a freeway as demand rises. So the highest prices would be during rush hour and the lowest prices sometime in the middle of the night. What this would do, in essence, is to encourage driving during off-peak hours and it would decrease rush hour traffic. Is this just a benefit to the rich? Two arguments: first, more foods and luxury items and household goods are available to the rich because they have more money, but does this mean that we should all have equal access to those goods? Of course not. What would be the incentive to achieve? Secondly, the funds gained from such a pricing scheme would mean more money to build new roads and increase capacity. Since Los Angeles ranks 8th among US metropolitan areas in lane miles per capita, maybe more roads would be a good thing. After all, we have a unique landscape in this city which means we drive more per capita as well. Bring on the new roads! They're long overdue.

The other issue is stoplights. Now these are simply unnecessary. As evidenced elsewhere (and a link will be provided at the end of this post), streelights do nothing to aid the flow of traffic. They simply impose top-heavy controls that are inefficient and cause accidents. A roadway without stoplights works much better and has less accidents. Why? Well for one, you would not go through an uncontrolled intersection unless you were completely sure that no one was coming at you from the other direction. Also, stoplights tend to get in the way of full use of the intersection. Huge swaths of the intersection are available when people are making left turns, but they go unused. Uncontrolled intersections use this capacity and traffic moves faster.

So Los Angeles is in a good position to save money by congestion pricing roads and getting rid of some stoplights. Traffic will improve and the city will have more money.

I know you're still suspicious about the stoplights thing: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MTI_NthVShc