The Tragedy of Urban Roads: Saving Cities from Choking, Calling on Citizens to Combat Climate Change
2010; Fordham University School of Law; Volume: 37; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês
ISSN
0199-4646
Autores Tópico(s)Legal and Constitutional Studies
ResumoI. Roads as Common Goods: The Tragedy of Urban Roads II. A Tragic and Costly Ride III. The Underlying Causes of Road Congestion A. Americans Drive Too Much Because They Do Not Pay Enough! B. I Love My Backyard. Let's Sprawl C. The Financing Structure of U.S. Transportation Policies and Funding: A Public Choice Tale IV. The Regulatory Toolbox A. Price Versus Quantities as Applied to Road Congestion 1. Efficiency 2. Equity and Political Economy B. A Case-Study Analysis 1. Price Instruments: Congestion Pricing Schemes a. London b. Singapore c. New York d. Milan 2. Quantity Instruments a. Tradable Permits i. Singapore Vehicle Ownership Quota Scheme ii. Rome Driving Permits Scheme b. Tradable Mobility Credits i. Car Cash-Out Programs in the United States ii. Genoa V. Law, Economics and the Policy of Urban Congestion A. Land Use Tools B. Public Transportation Policies C. The E.U. Integrated Approach Conclusion I. ROADS AS COMMON GOODS: THE TRAGEDY OF URBAN ROADS Streets and plazas are, by definition, public space. Public space is a locus of meeting, both physical and virtual, of individual interests that were formed within private spaces. Streets and plazas therefore represent a exposed like any other common good to the Tragedy of the Commons. (1) In 1968, Garrett Hardin contended that if everybody deems unlimited her or his right to use a common good, its unrestricted demand will ultimately exhaust the finite resource through over-exploitation. Indeed, in tragedies of the commons, users over-exploit a resource and impose mutual externalities upon each other. Tragedies of the commons therefore fall within the broader class of large-group externality problems. The characteristic that differentiates tragedies of the commons from the rest of the class is that self-destructiveness is absent in other large-group externality problems. Pareto superior (2) policy moves have to be different for tragedies of the commons from those undertaken in other large-group externality problems. Governmental intervention or regulation is always needed in tragedies of the commons to save the resource users from themselves and their mutually-imposed harms. Many citizens in western countries believe that they hold an unlimited right to invade streets with their automobiles. Automobiles have taken over public spaces. In turn, these spaces are not only deteriorating from an environmental point of view, but are losing their original function of loci of life and meeting of humans (which is problematic from a social point of view). The vanishing of public spaces is leading to the vanishing of many aspects of urban life: cohabitation, encounters, and the unplanned and uninstitutionalized confrontation of diverse lifestyles, habits, cultures, and stories. These aspects of urban life have historically made cities the preferred place for cultural development and innovation. (3) Alternatively, the automobile projects the characteristics of private life by closing people in steel bodies. (4) Traffic congestion represents the perfect showcase for the tragedy of the commons, a collective action problem in which a resource held in common-urban streets and roads--is subject to overuse and degradation. (5) All users undertake and benefit from driving their own vehicles, congesting urban streets and releasing greenhouse gases (GHGs), but bear little of the congestion-related and climate-related costs of their own driving. They have little or no incentive to take into account these externalities in making the decision to drive. (6) Traffic congestion illustrates why mutuality entails the persistence of an externality. All drivers face the same decision environment. …
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