Rationing mobility is irrational
Yeah, I know, it’s a semantic stretch but it’s a story that is a huge stretch of common sense yet a wonderful example of why government should not take on tasks that it is not designed to take on. It is also a warning to heed.
Imagine that you are a business owner, say for example of a bus company. Freeway congestion and rising gasoline prices have you flooded with business; the customers are beating down your doors. What do you do? Why of course you take advantage of the demand and raise your price, perhaps you add little touches and charge for them the same way the airlines are doing now. You would also examine the market conditions driving your sudden prosperity. If you concluded that those conditions were likely to prevail over the long term you would likely invest in new equipment, not enough to drive down your raised price but enough to take advantage of the additional demand, and have the added benefit of building customer good will thus expanding and creating a base for future profits.
If on the other hand you were Placer County Transit, you would do something entirely different. You would cap the number of customers by rationing tickets and creating a waiting list. It shouldn’t take too long before savvy commuters from Placer County realize the potential profit involved here (the potential that somehow escapes transit officials) and I would expect a black market in Placer County bus tickets to spring up fairly quickly. In fact, if you hold one of these valuable items feel free to contact me through the Sacramento Union. I will happily make it worth your while. Then all I need to do is match that ticket up with a name on the waiting list and viola! (Do not try this at home children, ticket scalping is illegal in California, but accepting a finder’s fee from a grateful patron is not.)
This situation exists because at nearly four-bucks a gallon sitting in stop and go traffic on Interstate 80 is now expensive in addition to not being fun. Add to that the taunting glee with which the radio traffic reporters cheerfully and happily deliver the news to you every few minutes and it can be quite maddening. (I especially enjoy the “No problems to report!” portion of their report as I pound the dashboard while mired at the infamous “Douglas Blvd” squeeze.)
Ironically, one of the major reasons why you are sitting in that traffic, burning dead dinosaurs to do nothing but build up a global warming carbon footprint like from a susquatch is that CalTrans irrationally reduces Interstate 80’s traffic capacity at just the exact times when it should be increased.
Yes, they ration access to Interstate 80. This is done via the High Occupancy Vehicle Lane (HOV), you and I know it as “the can I make it into town again today without the CHP catching me lane.” Each morning and afternoon drive time one lane in each direction is closed to all but a handful of vehicles, those few who car pool and others who drive those ridiculous little eco-friendly hybrid things. These lane closures have the net result of reducing the vehicular capacity of the freeway by some 25 percent. Again, at the exact times when we need additional pavement upon which to drive, those are the times selected by the geniuses in Sacramento to remove pavement and crunch nearly 100 percent of the traffic into 75 percent of the road it had a few minutes earlier.
Of course, you could take the bus, but the folks in charge of Placer Transit aren’t any brighter than the pencil pushers at CalTrans.
Personally, I would be more than happy to take the train or light rail. I grew up with trains, light rail, and subways, and I loathe driving. Unfortunately, we have a Sacramento regional light rail and train transportation infrastructure (and I use that word very loosely) that provides rail transportation in the same sense that the Disneyland Monorail provides mass transit. Except in the case of Disneyland, at least the monorail takes me to and through some places I want to be.
Here comes the warning… all the presidential candidates agree that the same irrationality should prevail in such issues as health care and the economy. Imagine an America where prosperity and life itself become commodities to be rationed out by the same mentality that cannot run a bus.