Cars II - From auto-free to auto-fee
Since 2007, Komanoff's work has focused on developing, analyzing and advocating for equitable and effective traffic-pricing plans for New York City. This work has been shaped and supported by the Nurture Nature Foundation, a philanthropy established and guided by the late Theodore W. Kheel.
The analytical heart of this work is Komanoff's "Balanced Transportation Analyzer" spreadsheet. The "BTA" spreadsheet may be downloaded by clicking here. The most scintillating and accessible account of the BTA remains the 2010 Wired magazine portrait of Komanoff by Reuters finance blogger Felix Salmon. Another superb (and more recent) look at the BTA is taken by British journalist Max Glaskin, in the Jan. 2013 issue of Traffic Technology International. Click here and enjoy the ride.
Komanoff is currently (2012) assisting noted traffic engineer Sam Schwartz in modeling and publicizing Schwartz's "Fair Plan" for NYC traffic pricing. Komanoff explains the appeal of Schwartz's plan in this May 2012 Streetsblog post and makes an appeal for the plan in this March 2012 Streetsblog post.
A pdf of Komanoff's March 7, 2012 presentation at New York University Law School's Milbank Tweed Forum, "How NYC Is Breaking The Gridlock On Transportation Policy," is available here.
A tabular summary (in Excel) of the 2011-2012 congestion pricing plan Komanoff has developed with the Move NY Campaign is available here.
A graphic (pdf) showing Komanoff's estimates of the benefits of the Schwartz plan is available here.
A graphic (pdf) showing the benefits of the congestion pricing plan developed by Komanoff in 2011 with the Move NY Campaign is available here.
Komanoff's 16-page report from early 2012 arguing that the planned 15-lane replacement Tappan Zee Bridge will cost too much to be financed through tolls on bridge users.
A 10-page report supporting Komanoff's Jan. 2012 Reuters op-ed on the traffic impacts of adding 2,000 medallion taxicabs to NYC's yellow-cab fleet.
Is congestion pricing economically (and politically) regressive or progressive? Komanoff argues the latter in this spirited Nov. 2011 letter to a leading socialist author-activist.
Komanoff has written numerous articles on his traffic-pricing modeling for the NYC livable-streets blog Streetsblog. Here are links to some :
♦ December 12, 2011: Cuomo's $320 Million Transit Cut Could Cost NYC Dearly
♦ August 1, 2011: Guess Who Has a Lot to Lose from an MTA Meltdown: Drivers
♦ March 18, 2010: In Any Language, the Cost of Congestion Comes Through Loud and Clear
♦ January 6, 2010: With Congestion Pricing, Saving Time Trumps Reducing Pollution
♦ October 16, 2009: Wanted: Crowd-Sourced Transportation Analysis
♦ October 13, 2009: Paradox, Schmaradox. Congestion Pricing Works.
Komanoff also published these pieces in Grist in 2007-08, on larger meanings in the political battle over congestion pricing:
♦ April 8, 2008: Machiavelli Meets The Big Apple: Ten Reasons NYC's Congestion Pricing Plan Went Belly Up
♦ March 31, 2008: High Noon for Congestion Pricing: What We Lose if Bloomberg's Plan Goes Down
♦ July 16, 2007: Valuing The Commons: Congestion Pricing's Hidden Payoff
The following articles trace the lineage of Komanoff's traffic-pricing work to Theodore (Ted) Kheel:
♦ Feb. 11, 2008: A Climate for Old Men: Spearheading Transit for Livable Cities at 93 (by Komanoff in Grist)
♦ Nov. 15, 2010: In Memoriam: Ted Kheel, Transit Advocate and Visionary (by Komanoff in Streetsblog)
♦ Nov. 19, 2010: Requiem for Man Whose Ideas on Transit Aren't Past (by Clyde Haberman, in The New York Times)
Other articles and papers on traffic pricing
Komanoff August 2006 op-ed in Seattle Post-Intelligencer, "Forward-Thinking Idea for a Trendsetter," posing "parking cash-out" incentives as an alternative to a Microsoft mega-parking lot.
Komanoff March 2003 op-ed in Daily News arguing the fairness of East River bridge tolls
Komanoff 2003 report, "A Value-Pricing Plan for the MTA" (PDF)
Komanoff report for Energy Foundation, "Environmental Consequences of Road Pricing"
Komanoff Oct 2001 op-ed in Newsday, "Giuliani puts brakes on car culture"
Two for Vickrey -- Komanoff portraits of road-pricing pioneer (and Nobel laureate) Bill Vickrey in the NY Daily News, "The Man Who Had A Cure for Gridlock" (Nov 1996), and New York magazine, "Traffic: Demand and Supply" (Dec 1996)
Komanoff 1995 Newsday op-ed, "Should the L.I.E Become a Toll Road?" (with June 2006 intro)
Article reporting on 1995 KEA report on NJ taxpayer subsidies to drivers
Pollution Taxes for Roadway Transportation: Komanoff's extensive (40-page) article in the Pace Environmental Law Review (Vol. 12, Issue 1, Fall 1994) outlining a mix of fees, charges and taxes that would internalize most of the unpriced costs of driving.
Article
summarizing "Pollution Taxes" law review article.
Subsidies for Traffic: How Taxpayer Dollars Underwrite Driving in New
York State, 1994 report for the Tri-State Transportation Campaign by Cora Roelofs & Charles Komanoff.
