United States Air and Radiation EPA420-F-97-030
Environmental Protection December 1997
Agency
Office of Mobile Sources
SEPA Consumer
Information
Congestion Pricing
Congestion pricing provides a disincentive to driving by imposing fees in
congested areas which vary depending on location, time or vehicle
occupancy. These fees are intended to reduce congestion and improve
air quality by encouraging people to change their travel patterns:
shifting to off-peak periods, less congested travel routes, higher
occupancy vehicles, or a different mode of transport (e.g., public transit,
walking, bicycling).
What is congestion pricing?
Congestion pricing refers to fees charged for driving on specific road-
ways during times of dense traffic. It serves to encourage drivers to
consider alternatives to driving alone (ride sharing), alternatives to
driving (e.g., public transit, walking, bicycling), different routes, or
different travel times. A congestion fee may be more or less expensive
depending on location, time of day, or the number of passengers in a
vehicle. Congestion pricing strategies fall under the jurisdiction of and
are implemented by municipal, regional or state governments.
Significance
Air pollution remains a problem for many areas across the country, even
though vehicles have become cleaner through technological innovation.
As regional, state, and local officials work to reduce mobile source air
pollution, the federal government, industry, and public interest organiza-
tions continue to identify alternative methods that have the potential to
reduce air pollution from mobile sources. Congestion pricing measures
are some of those options that use the market, rather than regulatory
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directives, to encourage the reduction of polluting activities or the
increase of less-polluting alternatives.
The goal of congestion pricing policies is to mitigate traffic congestion
and improve air quality. Congestion pricing strategies are designed to
shift travel to alternative modes, routes, destinations and/or time of day.
Some of these transportation modes and temporal travel shifts lead to
reduced vehicle trips and miles traveled, as well as improved traffic flow
or speeds.
Theoretically, emissions will be reduced somewhat from congestion
pricing measures because the imposed fees will result in some current
drivers switching from driving alone to car pooling or utilizing mass
transit. Thus, there will be fewer overall miles driven, which directly
eliminates the emission of harmful pollutants. The fewer miles that are
driven during peak hours (rush hour), the more traffic congestion is
reduced, which results in less idling. Idling is known to contribute
significantly to air pollution (e.g., carbon monoxide emissions and
smog).
In addition to goals of alleviating congestion problems and improving air
quality, other factors have led transportation authorities and air quality
regulators to consider congestion pricing measures. These include
continuing trends in metropolitan travel demand growth, the recognition
that construction of new road capacity may not always be feasible or
desirable, the development of new electronic tolling technologies with
potential to greatly reduce implementation costs, and the need for new
infrastructure investment revenue sources.
Additional Benefits
Besides improving air quality and reducing congestion, other environ-
mental and financial benefits may result from congestion pricing poli-
cies. In terms of environmental benefits, both oil and fuel consumption
are reduced. Potentially, drivers have the opportunity to save time and
money. Drivers that choose to pay higher congestion fees in order to
access less congested roadways such as high occupancy vehicle lanes
(HOV) will save time due to more free flowing traffic. People who
decide to forgo driving altogether and opt to use mass transit will save
money due to reduced or eliminated vehicle operation and maintenance
costs. Additionally, as more people switch to mass transit, more revenue
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will be generated that may be used for transportation improvements.
Congestion pricing also has the virtue of charging more of the costs of
building new road capacity to those who create the demand, rather than
charging drivers in general or charging all taxpayers, regardless of
whether they drive at all or use the congested facilities.
Some Concerns
Although congestion pricing has the potential to be a way of apportion-
ing the use of limited metropolitan road space and to be a cost-effective
strategy to reduce mobile source air emissions and energy consumption,
many local and regional government officials have been reluctant to
implement congestion pricing measures because of institutional barriers
and the lack of political acceptance. Critical political and institutional
issues include public opposition to any new taxes or fees, geographic
and economic equity concerns, lack of regional transportation coordina-
tion, and the lack of alternatives to driving alone during peak traffic
periods.
For Further Information
For more information on congestion pricing, please contact Joann
Jackson-Stephens at:
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
2565 Plymouth Road
Ann Arbor, MI 48105
Phone: (734)668-4276
Fax: (734)668-4531
Email: jackson-stephens.joann@epamail.epa.gov
This fact sheet and additional information on transportation and air
quality are available electronically from the EPA Internet World Wide
Web (WWW) site at:
http://www.epa.gov/OMSWWW/transp.htm
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