William Vickrey

* Economist William Vickrey [who died suddenly Friday] became a familiar name to millions of Americans last week when he, along with British economist James Mirrlees, was awarded the 1996 Nobel Prize in economics (Oct. 9).

Unbeknownst to most, however, is the daily relief that Vickrey’s work is likely to bring to millions of commuters within the next several years. Vickrey was a lone voice in the 1950s when he pioneered the idea of “congestion pricing” to charge motorists more to use roadways during rush hours and less during other times of the day. The effect is to encourage people to use roadways as efficiently as possible. Of course, we are all familiar with the use of peak pricing with long distance telephone service, movie matinees and early-bird specials. But transportation planners, typically attuned to engineering approaches, have until recently shunned practical economic solutions to traffic problems.

Last December, more than 40 years after Vickrey first proposed the idea, variable road pricing was implemented on a toll road in Orange County. Other places are now drawing up plans to put Vickrey’s ideas into practice.

Congestion pricing promises to bring reliability back to our roads and hours of lost time back into people’s lives.

MICHAEL CAMERON

Senior Economics Analyst

Environmental Defense Fund

Oakland