Pump Pain: Stung by Gas Prices, Even Dallas Asks People to Walk

This made me chuckle. Charging to use a public street to ease congestion. I lived in Dallas and they do get some interesting ideas down there.

Want a sure-fire sign that high gas prices are changing behavior? They’re walking in Dallas.

clipped from blogs.wsj.com Or at least, they’re talking about it. A city commission is meeting today to discuss new zoning rules that would encourage pedestrian-friendly neighborhoods. there’s another plan on the table that would cause a stir just about anywhere: congestion pricing. Highland Park, a ritzy neighborhood north of downtown Dallas, is considering a plan to charge drivers who use a major local road as a cut-through. (Locals wouldn’t generally be charged.) The Dallas Morning News says the idea, if adopted, would create the nation’s first tolled surface street. That may not be as ambitious as New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s much-discussed plan to charge drivers entering downtown Manhattan—but then, that plan was killed in April. (The Highland Park plan may suffer the same fate—no one seems certain the plan is even legal.)