Five points against the Peak & License Plate Scheme

Authors:
José Alberto López Rafaschieri and Luis Alberto López Rafaschieri
www.morochos.net

The “peak and a license plate” is a plan designed to reduce traffic in large cities, that consists fundamentally in limiting the number of vehicles in use during the peak hours according to the vehicle registration plate. This traffic program has been tested in cities such as Bogota, Sao Paolo, Mexico City, Santiago, Manila and Athens. But according to our view, the peak and license plate plan have five controversial points:

First, the peak and license plate plan is a complicated policy that causes unease in the population and consumes a lot of resources to achieve little results. It is inefficient to dispose a governmental team to supervise vehicles during the peak hours to reach negligible reductions in traffic volume.

Secondly, it is a discriminatory policy that, in practice, imposes sacrifices on the middle class only. The peak and license plate plan does not affect the rich or senior bureaucrats, since wealthy people can buy other cars with different registration plates to avoid the measure, and high government representatives can obtain special licenses to circulate without restrictions.

Thirdly, the peak and license plate plan is a short-term solution that contradicts the expansionary trend of big cities. The results of the peak and license plate plan are doomed to fade in the long run, unless more restrictions are imposed, but this would provoke more discomfort.

Fourthly, the peak and license plate pretend full crowd management, and assumes that people can easily dispose of other transportation options. Two unrealistic ideas.

And fifth, although the peak and license plate plan has been tested in the cities mentioned above, it has not aroused the interest, nor has been implemented in the metropolises of the world's most developed countries, which is suspect.

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