Congested skies
The front page of my Times this morning has a particularly striking picture of an aircraft seemingly about to land on the roof of some unsuspecting person’s three-bedroom semi detached. And contained with the article is a classic example of externalities and costs and benefits. The story is about a proposed reorganisation of holding stacks for aircraft using many of Britain’s busiest airports.
read more...»Driving without insurance - market failure?
In Britain, every three minutes, the police find an uninsured car. Is the market for motor vehicle insurance failing? I am putting an article together for the next edition of EconoMax and I want to test the water by asking blog readers why they think the scale of uninsured driving in the UK is so high - one of the worst in the European Union.
read more...»Money Programme on Airline Price Wars
The Money Programme on the BBC next week starts a two programme special on the liberalisation of the transatlantic airline market. In ‘Plane Crazy: The Transatlantic Price War’ Max Flint looks at the likely effects on airlines and consumers of the deregulation of the market. Might be worth recording for use with your student?
Here are the details
Friday 22nd February
BBC 2
7:00 pm - 7:30 pm
All aboard - can Grand Central stay on the rails?
Getting a new rail service off the ground is never easy. New rolling stock has to be commissioned and older carriages renovated; drivers have to be trained and other essential staff recruited. Marketing fresh timetables to customers takes time and travellers have to be reassured that the services will run to time and safely. Grand Central has battled industry indifferences and some outright hostility (from GNER the former holder of the East coast franchise) to launch a service providing a direct route from Sunderland along the Durham coast to London King’s Cross is a great example of a business that has struggled to get over the start line. The first trains pulled out of Sunderland station in December 2007 more than twelve months behind schedule mainly because of long delays in new rolling stock being delivered and then tested. Even now only a partial service is available. The company’s marketing slogan is “the train you have been waiting for” - somewhat ironic given the difficulties the business has faced.
read more...»The London Pollution Charge
The London Congestion Charge is to tax more highly polluting vehicles more in a bid to reduce pollution. From October 2008, drivers of many sports cars, MPVs and 4x4s will pay £25 per day rather than the current level of £8. In addition, the charge will be abolished for the lowest polluting vehicles.
The Congestion Charge is generally regarded as a success, and environmental groups are applauding the new structured charge as an effective way of shifting drivers of ‘gas guzzlers’ into cleaner cars or onto public transport. The CC is a hypothecated tax in that the revenue it raises is, in theory, used to fund improvements to public transport.
What, exactly, does the CC aim to achieve? It is called a congestion charge, but the new structured tax appears to be more focused on reducing CO2 emissions. So should it really be called the Pollution Charge?
read more...»Lights out for the Road?
Today’s AS microeconomic teaching topic was the externalities of traffic congestion and a discussion of the policy options available to reduce the problems created by congested road and rail networks. This BBC West Midlands news-video clip from Jan 2008 was useful in introducing some of the options. Here are some other BBC news clips on the topic which might be helpful in generating discussion.
read more...»London’s Low Emissions Zone
Every day, over 50,000 trucks enter the centre of London. From Monday 4th February 2008, London will lay claim to having the largest low-emission traffic zone in the whole of Europe. It is all part of Transport for London’s sustainable development strategy.
read more...»
