I was out for dinner this evening and the topic of road tolls (road pricing) came up. All of us at the table agreed that this was a missed opportunity for Toronto. Yes we proposed it, but then we got cold feet and backed away.
Why might this be a good idea?
City Observatory did a good job explaining this with their post about free ice cream day at Ben & Jerry’s. They argued that this sort of promotion actually provides a great crash course in transportation economics. Nobody is paying, but the lines are real long.
Here’s an excerpt:
Substitute “freeway” for “free cone” and you’ve got a pretty good description of how transportation economics works. When it comes to our road system, every rush hour is like free cone day at Ben and Jerry’s. The customers (drivers) are paying zero for their use of the limited capacity of the road system, and we’re rationing this valuable product based on people’s willingness to tolerate delays (with the result that lot’s of people who don’t attach a particularly high value to their time are slowing down things for everyone).
What we are talking about is simple, but apparently it’s not easy to execute on.
Gangi, Palermo - Sicily by Claudio Siragusa on 500px
Buy real estate. It always goes up. That’s the mantra, right?
Few things in life are that black and white.
A small town in Sicily called Gangi is in the midst of a novel urban renewal experiment. They are giving away houses for free to people who will agree to renovate them within a 4 year time period.
Here’s the “free houses” notice from the Comune Di Gangi explaining how it works and who to contact. You have to be an Italian or EU citizen to participate.
Free can be a powerful business model, as we see all the time with tech companies. And sometimes cities and towns aren’t all that different.
So if you’re looking for a vacation home or want to move to Sicily, now might be a great time.