As Road Pricing Gains, Environment and Mobility Benefit By Thomas J. Graff, an attorney in EDF's California office who works for reforms on transportation and water issues. The answer to both questions is that the primary cause of congestion is the huge numbers of single-occupant vehicles using limited highway capacity during commuting hours. And the best, indeed probably the only, practical way to tackle the single-occupant vehicle problem is through pricing. Recognizing the relationship between capacity and time of use, telephone companies, many electric utilities, restaurants, hotels, airlines, and trains charge more for their services during periods of peak use. The demands for public transportation infrastructure expenditures are enormous, exacerbated in California by the nasty habit of its bridges and elevated roadways to collapse when the ground shakes, as it does every so often in the Golden State.
Road maintenance comes first.
But with the state economy picking up, demands are also great for new road construction. Suburbs are sprouting up all over the state, in the unlikeliest places, far from the major job centers. People need to commute to their jobs. Moreover, the most ambitious rail construction program in the country is underway in the greater Los Angeles region, replete with 60 Minutes exposes of shoddy construction, massive cost overruns, and allegations of mismanagement and corruption. User fees, that's what.