Hacker News Reader

Comment by decafninja | Hacker News Reader

Driving into Manhattan every day? Yes.

Occasionally? Tons of middle class people do it.

The majority of my social circle consists of middle and upper middle class Newjerseyans. Many commute daily into Manhattan via public transit. But if they’re going in for anything other than work, it’s always the car.

Which congestion price is perfectly fine for if you’re only going in occasionally.

View on HN

> Occasionally? Tons of middle class people do it.

I would not be surprised if occasionally driving into Manhattan is cheaper now. Surely the excessive prices on parking should be going down.

It should be cheaper already if you place a non-zero value on your time.

Do people put a value on time when not doing value added stuff? When they go for a walk, do they instead run? Do they try to only meet up with friends who can return an investment on their time? Do these people not shoot the shit? Are they busy beavers at all times maximizing wealth?

These are all things that people find value in. Most people don't assign any value to sitting in traffic.

Shooting the shit could be precisely what they do instead of idling in traffic. Most people would prefer it.

I dunno, man, It's rumored they have this thing called cellular telephony technology allowing just such a thing while in traffic --I could be wrong though, thems being wealthy and shit.

The rumors are true, but you seem to have missed my point. Some people might prefer to communicate in person. You might not be one of them.

Most normal people put a very low value on their time, because they don't have any practical way to monitize an extra hour. It's just "free" time.

The supply demand curve might mean prices temporarily drop with demand, but that might put pressure on some parking to convert to other uses, which will then lower supply.

I agree. Also, the money from the fee is supposed to improve transit (we will see how long that lasts…), and IMO a share should go to NJ transit into manhattan.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com