Recent Blog Posts
-
The Year in Research
Dec 31 20089:13 am EDT -
Mind Your Value Judgements
Dec 19 20087:52 pm EDT -
S.E.C. Short-Sale Ban: Pretty Much Useless
Dec 19 20083:45 pm EDT -
Advice from Japan: Don't Forget TARP 1
Dec 19 20082:31 pm EDT -
Chart of the Day: Money Market Stress Easing
Dec 18 20088:57 pm EDT -
House Price Bubble Deflated?
Dec 18 20085:57 pm EDT -
Where Were the Whistleblowers?
Dec 16 200811:03 pm EDT -
It's Just a Recession
Dec 13 200810:20 pm EDT -
Comparing American and European Unemployment Insurance
Dec 12 20087:46 pm EDT -
Back to Normal?
Dec 11 20084:33 pm EDT
Links
- Junk Charts
- Economic Principals
- New York Federal Reserve Research
- Sabernomics
- Statistical Modeling, Causal Inference, and Social Science
- Sabermetric Research
- St. Louis Fed Research
- Bluematter
- NBER Working Papers
- TierneyLab
- Numbers Guy
- Social Science Statistics Blog
- DataPoints: The Dismal Scientist Blog
- Institute for the Study of Labor
- Predictably/Irrational
- Decision Science News
- Research Recap
- Econbrowser
- Center for Economic Policy Research
- Economist's View
- B.I.S. Working Papers
- Geary Behaviour Centre
- Real Time Economics
- Federal Reserve Working Papers
- C.B.O. Director's Blog
- Curious Capitalist
- VoxEU
- Freakonomics
- Philadelphia Fed Research
- O.E.C.D. Factblog
- MoneyScience
- Journal of Interest
- STATS Blog
- Email me
- EconTalk
- EconPapers
- Marginal Revolution
- Tim Harford
- Jeff Frankel
- Institute for the Study of Labor
- Social Science Research Network
Why Congestion Pricing Died
Tom Weber at Buzzwatch thinks it might have something to do with the very unPR-friendly name:
Neither word is too upbeat by itself. Strung together, the combination evokes thoughts of opening one's wallet while suffering a sinus headache.
Weber offers some alternatives courtesy of marketing pros and commenters:
- StreetSmart - Burt Alper, Catchword Branding
- FreeFlow and ClearPass - George Frazier, Idiom Brand Identity
- TrafficEase - Allen Adamson, Landor Associates
- GreenWay and ClearWay - James Bell, Lippincott
- EZ-Zone - Upstate NY Dem, commenter
But if a more digestible name really could've helped congestion pricing's cause in New York, then it would've been another instance of American exceptionalism. Most other traffic authorities around the world that have adopted a congestion pricing scheme don't seem to have consulted any marketers. Here are names used by other locales:
- Congestion Charge - London, U.K.
- Toll Collect - Germany
- Electronic Road Pricing - Singapore
- Valletta Congestion Charge - Valletta, Malta
- Congestion Tax - Stockholm, Sweden
But the latest city to join the congestion-pricing club has opted for a driver-friendly approach.
The EcoPass system was introduced in Milan at the start of this year and after one month:
- Traffic was down 22.7%
- Average speed of vehicles was up 11.3%
- Subway use was up 9.1%
- Pm10 (particulates under 10 micrograms) levels were down 26%
- NOx levels were down 21%
- Ammonia levels were down by 40%
Comments
If you are commenting using a Facebook account, your profile information may be displayed with your comment depending on your privacy settings. By leaving the 'Post to Facebook' box selected, your comment will be published to your Facebook profile in addition to the space below.
