Thursday, June 5, 2008
Highland Park considering charging drivers on Mockingbird
It'd be the first tolled surface street in America. Let freedom ching.
If you weren't aware, there is traffic in Dallas, lots of it sometimes, and lots of it on Mockingbird Lane between Hillcrest and the Dallas North Tollway.
Google maps
The solution, according to town engineer Meran Dadgostar, is to charge the drivers via toll. Toll, toll, toll. Though the DMN says the average 18,000 local drivers would not be charged, someone's gonna be, in a historic first, as the stretch would be the first tolled surface street in America.
The concept is known as "congestion pricing," because people love pleasant wording. The tolling Mockingbird idea came during a meeting last year where Dallas Area Rapid Transit met with North Texas officials about trying to snag a piece of a $1 billion federal grant program and were trying to find innovative solutions for downtown traffic.
Here's an innovative solution: ride the DART.
Posted by Chad
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Scott Doyle, says:
Wow.
My question is...have the supporters of 'congestion pricing' (aka gouging) addressed corresponding congestion on nearby alternate routes?
Not to mention, what do businesses along that stretch have to say about this? Specifically, <a href="http://www.hpvillage.com/">Highland Park Village</a> at Preston & Mockingbird (I'll accept cash, check, or bartering).
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1 year, 6 months agoLink to this comment | Suggest removal
Matt Anderson, says:
That's awesome. Dallas drivers use HP streets, so should pay for the privilege.
And when they put up the toll readers at either end to catch non-HP drivers, Dallas can make a deal to use the same license-plate data to charge HP drivers for the privilege of leaving their city and driving on our roads -- like HP, we won't charge the Dallas drivers to leave HP, just charge the parkies for leaving their bubble onto the roads we pay for.
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Pavel Lishin, says:
I like the way you think, Matt.
We're on our way to having full-blown <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snow_Crash">Burbclaves</a>. I guess I better start learning how to deliver pizza. Also, sword-fighting.
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Chris Kidd, says:
Im a huge fan of congestion charges, especially downtown. Its worked in other countries and brought up the quality of life dramatically. I say we give it a go here, besides people here need to get their lazy backends out of their cars and clean up the air in one fail swoop.
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Scott Doyle, says:
Innovation solution for downtown = Highland Park congestion pricing?
Does not compute.
chrisdanger, needs citation of where it worked and how. I'm extremely skeptical that it would have similar effect here.
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xdavidwattsx, says:
He's right to a degree. London imposes tolls in the city center to discourage driving and generally speaking, it works. SF and Montreal are also considering it.
Anonymous
1 year, 6 months agoLink to this comment | Suggest removal
Scott Doyle, says:
So why aren't they actually proposing this for downtown? Mockingbird in HP is far from it.
Our downtown isn't exactly as bustling as those cities - we just fail at infrastructure.
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Pavel Lishin, says:
chrisdanger, david - I'm sure that sort of thing works in places where public transportation doesn't raise an involuntary chuckle when brought up in conversation.
Also, our downtown is as bustling as SF, London and Montreal? News to me.
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xdavidwattsx, says:
I'm not necessarily saying I endorse it, just saying it has been implemented and effective.
I agree, HP or Dallas is hardly London.
Anonymous
1 year, 6 months agoLink to this comment | Suggest removal
eastside, says:
Why doesn't HP just raise their taxes? If there is a toll wouldn't that push traffic into the residential streets?
I wonder how much of that traffic is heading and out of Love field?
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1 year, 6 months agoLink to this comment | Suggest removal
Scott Doyle, says:
eastside, I rock Northwest Highway over to either Inwood or Midway when going to Love Field...but I'm coming from the north.
Surely peeps coming from the south could take Lemmon Ave or Lovers Lane. Regardless, waste of the everything involved.
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Clay213, says:
You can't have congestion charges downtown, because there is no congestion down here.
Highland Park can charge 100 bucks to drive down that street for all I care. But yeah-- law of reciprocity.. charge HP residents double to get on the toll way.. and check them to get on 75.
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1 year, 6 months agoLink to this comment | Suggest removal
Gary Garcia, says:
Didn't the county or Dallas Water Utilities help pay to rebuild Mockingbird too?
Now they want to charge the same citizens that helped put up some of the money.
Doesn't compute.
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