And, time is money, especially for small business owners, who will find that it takes less time to get goods and services (perhaps delivered by the small businesswomen herself) downtown.
But, the congestion relief is minimized if there isn’t a benefit to traveling off-peak for those who can. If it’s going to cost me the same at 7:00 AM as at 10:00, I’ve lost my incentive to travel off-peak.
There have to be some more well-to-do suburbanite commuters who are salivating at the chance to speed their commute for a few thousand a year. The less well-to-do might not be so unhappy at the prospect of premium-priced, exclusionary commuting, if the premium the fat cats pay subsidizes their off-peak commute.
Matt Yglesias makes a similar point regarding congestion pricing in general. Matt’s commenters have a ball debating queue v. price rationing, regressivity, and redistribution.
