How and why road-pricing will happen

[kalvado]

I find the idea of "pricing traffic off" to be abhorrent, if only because you might as well say, "Only the rich can drive."

Studies show that isn't true at all.

I'm a big fan of express lanes with congestion based pricing. If it can fund maintenance of the free lanes on top of itself

You've missed the point: "road-pricing" would be for ALL lanes. You pay or you don't drive.

Looks like we are trying to compare apples and oranges. I think we have several different ideas about road pricing here
1. motorist paying for road use and - in ideal world - development of road system in some way. Gas tax and "regular" tolls.
2. Pricing as a way of traffic control. NYC $15 bridges, London inner city access etc - something paper is talking about.
3. Pricing as a way to raise money for unrelated projects. Penn turnpike payment to transit authorities, Thruway and Canal
4. road cross-subsidation - urban and rural roads.

On top of that, there are political ideas about personal transportation being bad thing, lack of money for the infrastructure support and - god forbids - development, and attempts to reduce overall car usage via pricing...