Governments also install special carpool lanes, but that makes the congestion in the other lanes that much worse. The quantity of road and street space demanded far exceeds the quantity supplied, resulting in a severe shortage of vehicle transit space. If this was a private market, the owners of the thoroughfares would put in tolls just high enough to remove the congestion. The market, and the roads, would clear the shortage. The use of a freeway is free of user charge, but the usage is not free.
Users pay for it in time, gasoline, and wear on the cars.
The millions of person-hours lost to traffic congestion represents lost productivity and loss of quality leisure time, a burden to the economy, plus the psychological damage of road rage. There are two policy decongestants that would clear the traffic, one short term and the other longer term. The short-term solution is to install tolls so the cars would have to pay for each mile or kilometer used. The tolls would vary during the day, being just high enough to clear away the congestion. Today, the tolls can be measured and collected electronically.