01122635

Component

Traffic congestion is an increasing burden on American cities. Congested highways delay truck transport and commuters, causing economic and social losses.These increasing concerns about congestion and lack of infrastructure maintenance and construction have led to greater consideration of congestion pricing than in the past. Congestion pricing refers to the act of making one or more lanes on a given stretch of public road a tolled facility. It is now possible to vary the toll and increase or reduce demand so that speed in the toll lane can remain at a constant speed relative to the flow of traffic. Congestion pricing involves electronically collected toll system charges to drivers that choose to travel along congested roads at the most congested times. Prices are generally higher during peak periods and reduced during nonpeak periods. Drivers suffer increased stress and the resulting negative health effects. Long delays in car travel leads to greater amounts of pollutants being emitted into the atmosphere. Other (Weisbrod and Fitzroy, 2008) suggest congestion is slowly strangling the economy of the United States and undermining our ability to maintain our standard of living. As a result, one of the foremost challenges confronting towns, cities, regions and transportation providers is the reduction of congestion. Many suggest we are underestimating the true costs of congestion that wastes time and undermines productivity (Peterson, 2008). Perhaps more importantly, the increasing cost of oil and our current dependence on it make even clearer the need for the introduction of greater efficiency, better management, more sustainable practice and differential pricing in transportation system planning as congestion mitigation strategies. Additionally, there is an expectation that congestion pricing will be a new source of funds to maintain existing and construct new infrastructure thereby reducing the need for larger expenditures on transportation infrastructure. While congestion pricing is another financial resource it will not replace a larger sustained allocation of monies to fund transportation planning. As congestion problems have worsened over time and as managed-lane projects in the United States have gained publicity, public officials’ attitudes towards congestion pricing have become more positive (Benjamin, et al., 2007). Yet American attitudes towards congestion pricing have been characterized and remain lukewarm at best (Swisher and Ungemah, 2006), and previous polls have found little support for time-of-day variable pricing (Weinstein and Dill, 2007). Research on attitudes towards congestion pricing programs around the country indicates the public holds many misperceptions about managed lane programs. We present results from sixteen focus groups (segmented by income, travel --corridor, and commute type) in the Atlanta area with perceptions of other managed lane projects from around the country. We identify similarities and variations and also examine the influence of technology in these broadly held perceptions congestion pricing and conducted a review of five programs that have been implemented in other metropolitan areas. The results of the study contributes to the evidence base of the public’s changing perception of pricing programs and provides guidance to agencies interested in the implementation of these and similar programs.

The title on the paper is "Perceptions of Congestion Pricing in the Metropolitan Atlanta Region".

01120148

09-3780

English

21p

2009

Transportation Research Board 88th Annual Meeting

DVD

Figures (2) ; References; Tables (3)

Congestion pricing; Environmental impacts; Off peak periods; Peak fares; Peak hour traffic; Pollutants; Tolls; Traffic congestion; Transportation planning; User charges

Congestion mitigation

Atlanta (Georgia)

Finance; Highways; I10: Economics and Administration

Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting 2009 Paper #09-3780

TRIS, TRB

Jan 30 2009 8:12PM