I saw this on Engaget shortly after posting my tollway story and it immediately appealed San Francisco rolls out new smart parking meters with 'demand-responsive pricing' -- Engadget.
This is exactly what I was talking about, albeit in parking meter form. The main component that I like, the pricing based on demand. This should be introduced on the tollways! Even if it is not automatically calculated like the Parking Meters appear to do, big charges during peak hours but then at other times, greatly reduced charges.
Taking the Cross City Tunnel as my continuing example encouraging people to use it outside of peak should be a priority of the Roads and Traffic Authority. When I lived in Sydney I avoided it as much as possible, only catching it when I was in a hurry and knew that the other routes would be congested and slow. However at night, I would always avoid it, $4.56 to save 5 minutes at 1 AM never really appealed to me.
Obviously, the Tollway owners would only ever be convinced of the benefits in purely economic terms, and to be honest if I was a share holder that is exactly how I would want them to think, what perhaps needs to be done is a subsidy from the RTA or in this particular case the City of Sydney Council, it seems to me that as Clover Moore is hell bent on reducing traffic in the city encouraging use of the CCT would assist with it. Subsidizing cross city traffic on Friday and Saturday nights might even reduce incidences in the city, I have had near misses numerous times where a drunken reveller has stepped out in front of my car, or cars around me. Reducing the cars would cut down on that.
Showing posts with label Tollway. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Tollway. Show all posts
Wednesday, August 11, 2010
Monday, August 9, 2010
I want my toll back! Motorways should be discounted when congested
I was up in Sydney on the weekend for my engagement party, as often happens when I'm up in Sydney there was a run to the airport and as I was running a little late I thought I'd better take the cross city tunnel because its supposed to be quicker.
Boy was that a mistake, no sooner had I entered the tunnel (after driving past no less than 5 electronic traffic advisory signs that said nothing) and past the point of no return than there was a message saying that there was congestion ahead. So, for the next 35 minutes (of a trip that should take less than ten) I crawled along in the tunnel. It was just after the beep of my eTag that the queue of cars required me to stop completely. If I hadn't managed to convince the firetruck to go ahead of me I think I could still be sitting in the tunnel!
Firstly, I was annoyed that none of the earlier signs had warned me (the cynic in me is convinced that they make it so the RTA doesn't change these signs so that people still head into the tunnel and pay the toll) and secondly I was annoyed because I just paid $4.56, or whatever the toll is now up to, to sit in an exhaust filled tunnel breathing stagnant air for half an hour.
So, obviously it would cost them some cash, but how about discounting the toll when things go pear shaped and screw you over in the tunnel. Would it be so hard to halve the toll or discount it even more when such an incident happens, just for the cars that got stuck? While, they are at it sorting that out they should introduce discounted tolls late at night. I once again won't be taking the Cross City Tunnel until I absolutely need to, mainly because I'm annoyed at paying to sit still. If I'd been comped or something then I wouldn't hesitate to use it again.
For Toll ways, such as the Cross City Tunnel that has notoriously low adoption rates, they should be looking at ways to encourage people to use it. Making it half price in the middle of the night would encourage people to use it, and if any of my friends are a good indication, more than twice the people would use it if it was half the price.
Anyway, surely the lost revenue of a couple of thousand cars would be more than offset by the positive publicity and the customers that return later, if they where to let people stuck after an accident travel for free. It's possible that they would be able to find an insurer to underwrite the loss of revenue as well.
Boy was that a mistake, no sooner had I entered the tunnel (after driving past no less than 5 electronic traffic advisory signs that said nothing) and past the point of no return than there was a message saying that there was congestion ahead. So, for the next 35 minutes (of a trip that should take less than ten) I crawled along in the tunnel. It was just after the beep of my eTag that the queue of cars required me to stop completely. If I hadn't managed to convince the firetruck to go ahead of me I think I could still be sitting in the tunnel!
Firstly, I was annoyed that none of the earlier signs had warned me (the cynic in me is convinced that they make it so the RTA doesn't change these signs so that people still head into the tunnel and pay the toll) and secondly I was annoyed because I just paid $4.56, or whatever the toll is now up to, to sit in an exhaust filled tunnel breathing stagnant air for half an hour.
So, obviously it would cost them some cash, but how about discounting the toll when things go pear shaped and screw you over in the tunnel. Would it be so hard to halve the toll or discount it even more when such an incident happens, just for the cars that got stuck? While, they are at it sorting that out they should introduce discounted tolls late at night. I once again won't be taking the Cross City Tunnel until I absolutely need to, mainly because I'm annoyed at paying to sit still. If I'd been comped or something then I wouldn't hesitate to use it again.
For Toll ways, such as the Cross City Tunnel that has notoriously low adoption rates, they should be looking at ways to encourage people to use it. Making it half price in the middle of the night would encourage people to use it, and if any of my friends are a good indication, more than twice the people would use it if it was half the price.
Anyway, surely the lost revenue of a couple of thousand cars would be more than offset by the positive publicity and the customers that return later, if they where to let people stuck after an accident travel for free. It's possible that they would be able to find an insurer to underwrite the loss of revenue as well.
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