11. 09 .2024
The impending tragedy of public spaces
Is the Use of Public Space, Roads, and Parks Free of Charge, or Can the Tragedy of the Commons Be Avoided in Their Case?
https://hu.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_közlegelők_tragédiája
My sensitivity to maintenance and operational costs stems from my long-term, multi-generational perspective. As I emphasized in my previous opinion piece, the professional maintenance and upkeep of public spaces increases property values in a district or city, while the lack of it devalues them. This is why we tolerate the traffic diversions caused by renovations and repairs. Maintenance, repairs, and cleaning sometimes necessitate work in public areas. The renewal of public spaces, road resurfacing, and the maintenance or repair of underground utility networks inevitably involve occupying public space with construction activities.
This work is necessary, but why does it take so long? I often ponder this while stuck in traffic caused by a diversion. It is clear that public roads and spaces are taken out of use for much longer than what the technological sequence and the actual time required for each technical step would necessitate. Technologies are already available that can drastically reduce the time public spaces are out of use. With the contractor’s commitment, a road surface could be renovated within 24-48 hours.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o7anWfPnMlg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fnXNefDarjM
Yet, why is it that after public spaces are closed off, work proceeds with visibly minimal activity, while the diversions and the traffic jams they cause impose significant time and financial costs on the population that funds public works through their taxes? The core of the problem is that public spaces are perceived as free commons in the public mind, treated as a “commons” with all the associated economic consequences. However, public space is not a free commons, and the exclusion from its use comes with significant societal costs.
These costs can be clearly illustrated in the case of the Chain Bridge. Diverting 27,000 vehicles daily to an alternative route 5 km longer (27,000 cars x 2 for round trips x 5 km alternative route x 10 liters per 100 km consumption at 700 HUF/liter x 300 working days) results in an additional daily cost of approximately 18.9 million HUF, or 5.67 billion HUF annually for the affected population of Budapest. If we also calculate 30+30 minutes of time costs, that amounts to 27,000 hours daily, or 8 million hours annually. Adding in 3,000 HUF/hour for lost wages, the total cost increases by 24 billion HUF. The combined cost of driving and lost working hours is estimated at 29.67 billion HUF per year, while the total renovation cost of the Chain Bridge was 26 billion HUF. Taking the Chain Bridge out of service for an unnecessary extra year cost the people of Budapest not just 26 billion HUF in investment and renovation expenses but also an additional 30 billion HUF in operational costs.
These figures highlight why Japanese or German contractors rebuild critical junctions or road sections within 24-48 hours. The additional cost of executing renovations with high levels of mechanization and perfect preparation is far outweighed by the total societal (monetized and non-monetized) additional costs of the prolonged disruption.
Had the Chain Bridge’s daily public space use cost been set at the total societal cost estimated above, the work would likely have been completed in 1-2 months (the 30-60 days being the estimated technically necessary minimum, assuming the contractor deploys adequate capacity). In that case, the project price would have increased by 4-8 billion HUF in public space usage fees, and construction costs would have risen by an additional 25-30% due to 24-hour work shifts. Yet, the 15 billion HUF additional cost would still have been only half of the actual societal cost, and the municipality, as the owner, would have received 3-6 billion HUF back as withdrawal fees. Thus, a total societal cost saving of 21 billion HUF could have been realized.
The other side of the problem is that after a single renovation, reconstruction, or even new construction, our roads and public spaces deteriorate very quickly. Construction costs are international, but the durability of the completed road surfaces is not. Hungarian engineers and builders are capable of excellent performance, so why do we see such a significant shortfall in the durability of road surfaces?
The answer lies in the incentives of construction and maintenance companies, who have influenced the drafting of the DIN/MSZ technical standards with legislators in such a way that compliance with building standards does not reduce the long-term, predictable revenue from maintenance. What can be done to extend the lifespan of roads from the current 5-7 years (which is followed by either a full or partial renovation) to a period of 10-15 years, or perhaps 20 years, or even 25 years as in Roman times?
The answer lies in changing the logic of public procurement. Instead of seeking the lowest bidder who can deliver to MSZ standards (with a 5-7-year lifespan followed immediately by a renovation), we should be looking for contractors who can guarantee 20 years of usability with minimal maintenance and renovation needs, at the lowest cost, while ensuring availability over 99% of the time (similar to telecommunications networks). In other words, the mandatory 5-7 year warranty and usability requirement should be changed to a 20-25 year usability requirement with 99.99% availability, meaning minimal withdrawal from use due to maintenance. The necessary technical specifications and procurement practices must also change. This would significantly contribute to GDP growth by reducing the time wasted in traffic jams caused by slowdowns in transportation. I will briefly address the societal cost of traffic jams in my next article.
All of this is money wasted unnecessarily due to the overly frequent renovation and maintenance of public roads and spaces. The renewal of the infrastructure beneath public spaces can also be synchronized. Utility maps are now available that allow scheduled maintenance for all affected infrastructure to be synchronized. This prevents public spaces from being taken out of service for months just because water pipes, sewers, or gas lines cannot be coordinated between service companies and handled with a single road surface cut and a single withdrawal from availability.
In summary: if we measure public space by its availability, the necessary withdrawal time during renovation also has a price. The penalty for failing to ensure availability should factor into the cost of tearing up a public space or road. If the level of availability is high (99.99%, as with IT and optical networks), and the penalty for failure is also high, then both the road-building and maintenance contractors, as well as the service providers for the underground infrastructure, will be incentivized to ensure that any repairs are completed as quickly as possible. At the same time, they will also be incentivized to ensure that the work covered up is of first-class quality, so they don’t have to come back to fix it, as this would involve reopening the road and incurring penalties.
http://publikaciok.lib.uni-corvinus.hu/publikus/tdk/balazs_a_2020a.pdf
The above has been translated from Hungarian to English with the use of AI.