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Congestion pricing seems like a pretty liberal policy to me. Using supply and demand to set a price.

Sure, you could crank the Friedman dial to 11 by say, privatizing the roads and letting the operators set the price based on competition.

But the policy is liberal at its core. A “lefty, collectively enforced” policy would be something like a quota or permit system.

A key difference being that anyone who wants to drive on the road can do so as long as they pay. It isn’t “everyone with odd license plate numbers can drive today, evens can drive tomorrow” but rather “you can drive today if it’s worth $9 to you”.



It is classist. If it was liberal, then it would be based on % of someone's wealth (and using progressive scale).

These policies are aimed at getting unwashed pleb off the roads so the rich can show off their cars in peace.


I think you and the parent comment are confusing the term "liberal". He refers to "liberal" in the classical sense: free markets, limited government, rule of law, etc. You mean "liberal" in the North American sense: lefty, social justice, etc.


Free markets presume equal opportunity to access infrastructure, not the rich buying exclusive use of public goods.


All the poor people on the buses were never gonna drive and now have faster more reliable service


Additionally all those emergency vehicles are going to have an easier time shuttling patients to hospitals and firefighters to fires. The whole spectrum benefits from that, not just the rich.


Buses should serve both rich and poor. Otherwise this is a very definition of classism. The bus is the "back of the bus" now.


how are they going to have more reliable service?


They mean that buses are now faster/more reliable.


Buses work better when there's less traffic.


Buses spend less time stuck in traffic.


It’s classist to not want pedestrians in cities to die and get asthma from traffic?

Got it.


Amazing how pedestrian safety suddenly matters the moment it becomes a tool to justify purging the poor from city centres.


If you own a car and use it to get around in Manhattan you’re not “poor.” The poor are riding the bus.


Liberal and leftist are two entirely different things.




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