The front page today has another piece about decongestion pricing for park and wilderness. There is now, it seems, a steady drip-drip of stories about permits for these areas where there are too many people trying to use an outdoor resource that had previously been "free."
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| Front page today |
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| Front page last month |
The stories get framed up, especially at the headline, summary level, as a loss, as an unfair cost imposed on the citizenry. A revenue grab by greedy government. Punishment.
But what is really being harmed by the crowds is the outdoors itself and our enjoyment of it.
As these permit programs are being implemented, suffer criticism and pushback, are adjusted, and finally settle into effectiveness, there might be resources for talking about road pricing and parking.
One interesting element that is highlighted is different pricing according to different goals. The lava caves permit is only $2.
“We’re not doing this to make money,” Nelson-Dean said.
That’s in contrast to some of the latest permits, including the proposed permit to climb above 9,000 feet on Mount Hood, which could cost $20 per person or $100 for the season and is designed to bring in funds to hire additional climbing rangers that make the area safer.
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| Back in 2018 |
Decongestion pricing on a highway or bridge is not so different from decongestion pricing in a wilderness area or priced auto parking in a high-demand area.
Hopefully as that debate and discourse matures there will be a pool of concepts, rhetoric, and popular acceptance that is transferable to thinking more critically about parking and road access.
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