Due to the
deterioration of McCormick Bridge’s deck, the Virginia Department of
Transportation has reduced the weight limit for vehicles allowed to cross the
bridge. This decision has had
effects on people throughout Charlottesville due to its many uses.
“The bridge
carries as many of 2,000 pedestrians per hour, as well as transit vehicles,
U.Va. service vehicles, bicycles and emergency equipment, according to a 2010
report prepared for the University by Carol R. Johnson Associates, Inc.,
landscape architects from Boston.”
In class we
discussed negative and positive externalities and the resources we have to
combat these market failures: internalizing the externality or using government
regulation. The deterioration causing the new weight limit on McCormick Bridge
has had the effect of not allowing UTS buses, commercial trucks, and emergency
vehicles to pass. This imposes a negative externality on students because UTS
buses cannot pass through central grounds. It also poses a negative externality
on the businesses that used to drive their vehicles through grounds, and on
patients of the Uva hospital (as well as Uva hospital drivers). A positive
externality, however, has been imposed on Professor Coppock, who can now enjoy
his office without hearing noisy buses outside. The externality has been
dealt with institutional regulation to protect the users of the bridge.
