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From: walton@ametek.UUCP
Newsgroups: mod.politics
Subject: What does driving cost?
Message-ID: <12253968123.33.MCGREW@RED.RUTGERS.EDU>
Date: Mon, 10-Nov-86 23:17:19 EST
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Posted: Mon Nov 10 23:17:19 1986
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To: cit-vax!sirius.Berkeley.Edu!mcgeer

It is not at all clear that the roads would exist in the absence of
government action, or that they represent a "neighborhood effect."
If, for example, trucks were charged the full amount for their use of
the roads, it might turn out that railroads were more economical.  As
it stands now, truck transport receives an indirect government subsidy
of uncertain size.
    The price of a product at the market should include the entire
cost of its production, including raw materials and transportation.
Otherwise, the price does not accurately reflect various products'
costs.  This distorts the market, since in an ideal market prices are
a primary source of information about competing product.  Use by
emergency vehicles (which is a very small fraction of total use) could
be included in the cost of police, ambulance, and fire fighting
services.

   The marginal cost per automobile [for roads] is pretty small.

No, it isn't, at least not anymore.  The Auto Club of Southern
California just called for the construction of 400 miles of new
freeway here by 2000, at a cost of some $20 billion.  This is over
$1000 per automobile.  Do you think this would happen if the city
announced its intention to bill each car owner $100 per car per year
for the next 15 years to finance these roads' construction?  I don't.
In contrast, a study done by another private group and reported in the
LA Times Op-Ed page a few months ago found that a commuter rail system
of similar length could be build for $350 million.  I firmly believe
that such a rail system should be privately owned and operated, by the
way.  The RTD, which operates the buses here, does not seem to know
about modern management techniques such as firing people who don't do
their job.

   In sum, the roads
   perform a variety of useful services besides getting people from A
   to B.  All mass transit does is get people from A to B slowly, and
   in discomfort.  The only beneficiaries are the small minority of
   individuals for whom the mass transit system's service nearly
   approximates an automobiles.
   
In LA, at least, every person who rides a bus (or rides a bike as I
do) is about one fewer car contributing to the noise, congestion, and
pollution in the area.  Surely those who drive benefit from this.
Granted that it is difficult to quantify their benefit, but it is
real.  Before I started riding my bike to work, I took the bus.  It
was not terrible; in fact, it was rather nice to have an hour or so
each day to read in peace and quiet.  I mean, I love my two-year-old
son dearly, but he can interfere with my love of books.  I'm really
only bicycling now in order to force myself to exercise.
   A large part of the mass-transit-vs.-automobile problem is that
most people do not accurately calculate the cost of driving.  If you
include gasoline, insurance, maintenance, depreciation, and a moderate
interest rate on the purchase price, even a modern subcompact costs 30
to 40 cents per mile to drive, assuming 10,000 miles per year.  I can
do the ten miles to work on the bus for 95 cents--a bargain at twice
the price, as they say.

On another subject, I was intrigued by your comment about the
"neighborhood effect," which is what I believe economists typically
call "public goods."  Keith Lynch and others, including me, had a bit
of an argument over whether public goods exist, whether national
defense is a public good, and whether public goods should be funded by
mandatory contributions to the government (read taxes).  Where do you
stand on this?
                                                Steve
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