National Academies Press: OpenBook

Curbing Gridlock: Peak-Period Fees to Relieve Traffic Congestion -- Special Report 242 (1994)

Chapter: 1. Curbing Gridlock: Volume 1 - Committee Report and Recommendations

Page 1
Suggested Citation:"1. Curbing Gridlock: Volume 1 - Committee Report and Recommendations." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 1994. Curbing Gridlock: Peak-Period Fees to Relieve Traffic Congestion -- Special Report 242. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9212.
×
Page 1
Page 2
Suggested Citation:"1. Curbing Gridlock: Volume 1 - Committee Report and Recommendations." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 1994. Curbing Gridlock: Peak-Period Fees to Relieve Traffic Congestion -- Special Report 242. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9212.
×
Page 2

Below is the uncorrected machine-read text of this chapter, intended to provide our own search engines and external engines with highly rich, chapter-representative searchable text of each book. Because it is UNCORRECTED material, please consider the following text as a useful but insufficient proxy for the authoritative book pages.

Special Report 242 CURBING GRIDLOCK Peak-Period Fees To Relieve Traffic Congestion VOLUME I Committee Report and Recommendations Committee for Study on Urban Transportation Congestion Pricing Transportation Research Board Commission on Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education NATIONAL RESEARCH COUNCIL National Academy Press Washington, D.C. 1994

Transportation Research Board Special Report 242 Volumes 1 and 2 ISSN 0360-859X ISBN 0-309-05504-0 (Vol. l} ISBN 0-309-05505-9 (Vol. 2} L.C. Catalog Card No . 94-16817 Subscriber Category IA planning and administration Transportation Research Board publications are available by ordering directly from TRB. They may also be obtained on a regular basis through organizational or individual affiliation with TRB ; affiliates or library subscribers are eligible for substantial discounts. For further information, write to the Transportation Research Board, National Research Council, 2101 Constitution Avenue, N.W., Washington, D .C. 20418. Copyright 1994 by the National Academy of Sciences . All rights reserved. Prmted m the umted Mates ot Amem:a. NOTICE: The project that is the subject of this report was approved by the Governing Board of the National Research Council, whose members are drawn from the councils of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, and the Institute of Medicine. The members of the committee responsible for the report were chosen for their special competencies and with regard for appropriate balance. The report has been reviewed by a group other than the authors according to the procedures approved by the Report Review Commiiiee, consisting of the members of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, and the Institute of Medicine. The study was sponsored by the Federal Highway Administration and the Federal Transit Administration of the U.S. Department of Transportation. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data National Research Council (U.S.). Transportation Research Board. Curbing gridlock : peak-period fees to relieve traffic congestion I Transportation Research Board, Commission on Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education, National Research Council. p. cm. - (Special report : 242) Contents: v. 1. Committee report and recommendations - v. 2. Commissioned papers. ISBN 0-309-05504-0 (v. 1) . - ISBN 0-309-05505-9 (v. 2) 1. Congestion pricing-United States. 2. Traffic congestion- United States. 3. Transportation-Government policy-United States. I. National Research Council (U.S.). Transportation Research Board. II. Title. Ill. Series: Special report (National Research Council (U.S .). Transportation Research Board) : 242. HE336.C66N37 1994 388.3'12-dc20 ISSN 0360-859X 94-16817 CIP Cover design: Karen L. White Cover photograph courtesy California Department of Transportation

Next: 2. Committee ior Study on UrbanTransportation Congestion Pricing »
Curbing Gridlock: Peak-Period Fees to Relieve Traffic Congestion -- Special Report 242 Get This Book
×
MyNAP members save 10% online.
Login or Register to save!
Download Free PDF

TRB Special Report 242 - Curbing Gridlock: Peak-Period Fees to Relieve Traffic Congestion examines public perseption of congestion pricing. Although road users pay fuel taxes to support the costs of building and maintaining roads, most people view roads as free.

Traffic congestion frustrates millions of motorists daily and imposes economic costs in the 50 largest urban areas in excess of $70 billion annually; however, adding highway capacity to allow free-flow traffic is problematic for environmental and other reasons. Economists have long argued that some direct pricing mechanism for highway use would help allocate demand on existing facilities more efficiently by shifting some road users to offpeak hours, when plenty of capacity is usually available. As everyone who drives in peak periods knows, too many people are trying to travel within too limited a space at these times.

In the private sector, such peak demand is managed through pricing. At least until recently, however, proposals for peak-period pricing of road use have been dismissed as impractical because of the difficulty of charging users efficiently. Today, electronic toll collection has made it possible to charge users varying prices with considerable efficiency without invading privacy. Now that variable pricing of road use has become technically feasible, the debate has shifted to questions of effectiveness and political acceptability.

Economic theory and analytical modeling predict that variable pricing would reduce congestion. The effect can be illustrated by the example of a freeway on which motorists encounter stop-and-go travel. In such a situation, a reduction of only a few percentage points in the number of motorists in the traffic stream can return traffic to free flow. Of course, most motorists would be reluctant or unable to shift their travel times, but those who would adjust their work schedules or be flexible in other ways could shift to off-peak periods, and the result would be net economic and environmental benefits to society. Those traveling in peak periods would have to pay considerable fees, but these revenues could be used to provide more capacity or to compensate those groups hurt economically by such a policy.

Since passage of the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act of 1991 (ISTEA), federal policy has reflected appropriate caution with regard to advancing alternative pricing concepts by encouraging and funding experimentation at the local level, an approach the committee supported and recommended. Many jurisdictions are considering or engaging in experiments such as pricing underused high-occupancy vehicle lanes, offering discounts on toll facilities for off-peak travel, and increasing parking fees. Preliminary results of these efforts are encouraging and may help gain public acceptance for wider application of such approaches. Although still far from being realized in the mainstream of transportation programs, road pricing may yet become a tool for managing an ever-growing demand with a limited supply.

The report was produced in a two volume set. Download Volume 2: Commissioned Papers.

  1. ×

    Welcome to OpenBook!

    You're looking at OpenBook, NAP.edu's online reading room since 1999. Based on feedback from you, our users, we've made some improvements that make it easier than ever to read thousands of publications on our website.

    Do you want to take a quick tour of the OpenBook's features?

    No Thanks Take a Tour »
  2. ×

    Show this book's table of contents, where you can jump to any chapter by name.

    « Back Next »
  3. ×

    ...or use these buttons to go back to the previous chapter or skip to the next one.

    « Back Next »
  4. ×

    Jump up to the previous page or down to the next one. Also, you can type in a page number and press Enter to go directly to that page in the book.

    « Back Next »
  5. ×

    To search the entire text of this book, type in your search term here and press Enter.

    « Back Next »
  6. ×

    Share a link to this book page on your preferred social network or via email.

    « Back Next »
  7. ×

    View our suggested citation for this chapter.

    « Back Next »
  8. ×

    Ready to take your reading offline? Click here to buy this book in print or download it as a free PDF, if available.

    « Back Next »
Stay Connected!