Equity, Pricing, and Surface Transportation Politics

In this paper, the author focuses on just four of the operational definitions of equity, chosen for their salience in surface transportation (highway and mass transit) policy deliberations. He groups these four into two sets. Set 1, Redistributive Equity (includes fiscal redistribution and Do No Harm), involves variants on the theme that government action should seek to offset private sector inequalities. Set 2, Return-to-Source Equity (includes Fee-for-Service and Geographic), involves variants on the theme that benefits should flow to those who have paid for them. Few public initiatives in surface transportation are crafted and promoted mainly to further equity objectives. Once they are in the political arena, however, equity claims are generally prominent in debates about them. The most successful equity claims, historically, have been principally those in the second set (benefits should be proportional to payments) rather than the first (government should tilt in favor of the poor and weak). There are two caveats, however. Redistribution is significant if a secondary theme of urban mass transit policy, and the defensive redistributive concept of Do No Harm serves as an important constraint on initiatives in the overall surface transportation arena, ranging from construction proposals entailing displacement of residents to fiscal proposals that would accentuate current disparities between advantaged and disadvantaged groups. These patterns are apparent not just in the historic record, but also in today’s leading proposals for reform. The next four sections of this paper elaborate on these assertions. Those that follow ask how they have played out to date in relation to the variants of congestion pricing that have so far found some traction—central area charge schemes and high occupancy toll (HOT) lanes.

• Record URL:
  http://onlinepubs.trb.org/onlinepubs/sr/sr303Altshuler.pdf
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• Supplemental Notes:
  • Distribution, posting, or copying of this PDF is strictly prohibited without written permission of the Transportation Research Board of the National Academy of Sciences. Unless otherwise indicated, all materials in this PDF are copyrighted by the National Academy of Sciences. Copyright © National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved
• Authors:
  • Altshuler, Alan
• Publication Date: 2011

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Web
• Features: References; Tables;
• Pagination: 27p
• Monograph Title: Equity of Evolving Transportation Finance Mechanisms
• Serial:
  • Transportation Research Board Special Report
  • Issue Number: 303
  • Publisher: Transportation Research Board
  • ISSN: 0360-859X

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Congestion pricing; Equity; Financing; High occupancy toll lanes; Highways; Public transit; Road pricing; Transportation policy; User charges
• Subject Areas: Economics; Finance; Highways; Policy; Public Transportation; Society; I10: Economics and Administration;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01351434
• Record Type: Publication
• ISBN: 9780309167604
• Files: TRIS, TRB
• Created Date: Sep 9 2011 3:09PM