Stopping obviously does reduce traffic speeds so it's possible that the tolls slow down commute times. But only if the full unobstructed traffic volume coming from the bridge wouldn't meet some other obstacle such as streets with limited capacity on the other side which would otherwise have been mitigated by the lower flow on the bridge itself.
And it also ignores that the cost and inconvenience of a toll is also a disincentive which reduces demand. In that sense it's basically like a mild form of congestion pricing even if it isn't a high enough cost to prevent congestion. That's because any additional cost in time, effort or money has an influence on travel patterns. So reducing a disincentive to driving on a particular route will result in greater demand. And that demand may not result in increased congestion on the bridge itself, but any traffic volume increase makes congestion likelier somewhere.
So we can confidently say that the tolls don't increase overall travel times during peak periods unless there's some pretty compelling evidence to the contrary.
__________________
"The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man." - George Bernard Shaw
Don't ask people not to debate a topic. Just stop making debatable assertions. Problem solved.
|
Threaded Mode