Advisers working for American president-elect, Barack Obama, are studying Greater Manchester’s Transport Innovation Fund proposals.
Transport consultant, Jack Opiola, who helped develop the Manchester plans, has held meetings with Obama’s key transport team members working to develop the president-elect’s transportation policy.
Referring to the plans to pay for some of the scheme with takings from congestion charging, Opiola said: ‘Nowhere in my experience has congestion been addressed by improving public transport alone.
‘When something is free and too many people want to use it, queues build up. Pricing is a fair way of allocating scarce road space, as it is in allocating other resources, as long as people have reasonable alternatives.’ To recover from the financial crisis which began in America, Obama needs to supply a long-term stimulus to the economy by boosting spending on roads, public transport, and regeneration, said Opiola.
‘Congestion pricing and creative urban programmes, such as Manchester’s TIF package, is a “Yes we can” change measure of the new US administration, and will be a central part of those appropriation discussions,’ he added. ‘In the US, Greater Manchester is being held up as a shining example of dynamic, new thinking.’
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