September 13, 2010 

Advancing Congestion Pricing in the Metropolitan 

Transportation Planning Process: Four Case 

Studies 

WO #CA04-055 

prepared for 

Federal Highway Administration 

final

report 

final report 

Advancing Congestion Pricing in the 

Metropolitan Transportation 

Planning Process: Four Case Studies

WO #CA04-055 

prepared for 

Federal Highway Administration 

date 

September 13, 2010 
Technical Report Documentation Page 

1. Report No. 

FHWA-HOP-11-002 

2. Government Accession No. 

 

3. Recipient’s Catalog No. 

 

4. Title and Subtitle 

Integrating Pricing into the Metropolitan Transportation 

Planning Process: Four Case Studies 

5. Report Date 

September 13, 2010 

6. Performing Organization Code 

 

7. Author(s) 

Jeffrey N. Buxbaum, Matthew Click, Thomas Higgins, Kiran 

Bhatt 

8. Performing Organization Report No. 

9. Performing Organization Name and Address 

Cambridge Systematics, Inc 

100 CambridgePark Drive, Suite 400 

Cambridge, MA 02140 

KT Analytics 

6304 Haviland Dr., 

Bethesda, MD 20817 

10. Work Unit No. 

 

11. Contract or Grant No. 

DTFH61-06-D-004 

12. Sponsoring Agency Name and Address 

Department of Transportation 

Federal Highway Administration 

13. Type of Report and Period Covered 

Final Report 

September 2009 – September 2010 

14. Sponsoring Agency Code 

HOTM 

15. Supplementary Notes 

16. Abstract 

Road pricing often has come about separate from the traditional metropolitan planning process through 

pilot projects and demonstrations. As pricing demonstration projects have shown road pricing to be an 

effective tool, there is a growing need to incorporate road pricing into long-range plans. This study 

examined how road pricing was incorporated into long-range planning at four metropolitan planning 

organizations (MPOs) to provide examples that could support other regions seeking to do the same. The 

study summarized the experience in the Dallas/Fort Worth region, the Puget Sound region, the 

Minneapolis/St. Paul region, and the San Francisco Bay area, and identified common themes and 

differences amongst the approaches used and the outcomes. 

17. Key Words 

Metropolitan transportation plan; road pricing; 

congestion pricing; 

18. Distribution Statement 

No restrictions. This document is available to the 

public through the National Technical Information 

Service, Springfield, VA 22161. 

19. Security Classif. (of this report) 

Unclassified 

20. Security Classif. (of this page) 

Unclassified 

21. No of Pages 

60 

22. Price 

N/A 

Form DOT F 1700.7 (8-72) Reproduction of completed pages authorized 

Foreword 

Notice 

This document is disseminated under the sponsorship of the U.S. Department of Transportation 

in the interest of information exchange. The U.S. Government assumes no liability for the use of 

the information contained in this document. This report does not constitute a standard, 

specification, or regulation. 

The U.S. Government does not endorse products or manufacturers. Trademarks or 

manufacturers’ names may appear in this report only because they are considered essential to the 

objective of the document. 

Quality Assurance Statement 

The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) provides high-quality information to serve 

Government, industry, and the public in a manner that promotes public understanding. 

Standards and policies are used to ensure and maximize the quality, objectivity, utility, and 

integrity of its information. FHWA periodically reviews quality issues and adjusts its programs 

and processes to ensure continuous quality improvement. 


Advancing Congestion Pricing in the Metropolitan Transportation Planning Process: Four Case Studies 

i 

Table of Contents 

1.0 Summary and Findings ........................................................................................ 1

1.1 Background and Purpose ............................................................................. 1

1.2 The Case Study Regions ............................................................................... 2

1.3 Lessons Learned ............................................................................................. 4

2.0 Case Studies ............................................................................................................ 1

2.1 Dallas/Fort Worth Case Study .................................................................... 1

2.2 Puget Sound Region Case Study ................................................................. 6

2.3 Minneapolis/St. Paul Region Case Study ................................................ 13

2.4 San Francisco Bay Area Case Study .......................................................... 18

A. Acronyms Used in This Report ........................................................................... 1

B. References ............................................................................................................... 1

B.1 Dallas/Fort Worth Region Case Study ....................................................... 1

B.2 Puget Sound Region Case Study ................................................................. 1

B.3 Minneapolis/St. Paul Region Case Study .................................................. 2

B.4 San Francisco Bay Area Case Study ............................................................ 3

C. Literature Review ................................................................................................... 1

D. Interview Guide ..................................................................................................... 1

Advancing Congestion Pricing in the Metropolitan Transportation Planning Process: Four Case Studies 

iii 

List of Tables 

Table 2.1 Road Pricing Projects in the Dallas/Fort Worth Region ....................... 2

List of Figures 

Figure 1.1 Types of Road Pricing ................................................................................ 1

Advancing Congestion Pricing in the Metropolitan Transportation Planning Process: Four Case Studies 

1-1

1.0 Summary and Findings 

1.1 BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE

Road pricing is being considered by more and more regions as a reaction to the 

dual challenges of declining revenues and increasing congestion. Road pricing is 

more than simply tolling a new highway with flat tolls, it involves charging a fee 

to use a lane, road, area, or regional network for purposes of generating revenue, 

managing traffic congestion, or both (see Figure 1.1). 

Figure 1.1 Types of Road Pricing 

Road Pricing

Whole Facility Pricing Lane Pricing Zone Pricing Distance Pricing

New Toll 

Roads, 

Bridges, 

Tunnels

Toll 

Existing 

Roads, 

Bridges, 

Tunnels

HOT Lanes, 

(managed 

by HOV 

lanes)

Express 

Toll 

Lanes

Cordon 

Pricing

Area 

Pricing VMT Fees

Note: Any of these can use “congestion pricing” or “variable pricing” to achieve policy objectives. 

Road pricing is called “congestion pricing” when prices are tailored to manage 

congestion by using a fixed time-of-day schedule or a dynamic algorithm based 

on congestion levels. In any case, some forms of road pricing can generate 

revenues in support of roads and/or auto alternatives, and can help achieve 

environmental objectives, such as reducing air pollution or greenhouse gas 

emissions. 

Road pricing in the United States is new and not well understood by the general 

public and elected officials. The most common form of road pricing in the 

United States has been high-occupancy toll (HOT) lanes, where high-occupancy 

vehicle (HOV) lanes are opened to use by vehicles with lower occupancy for a 

fee, or express toll lanes where new lanes are built adjacent to existing freeways 

and use of these new lanes is subject to a toll. 

Road pricing experiments in Europe and Asia have involved zone pricing, where 

drivers are charged a fee to enter into and/or drive within a specified highcongestion location. Zone pricing may or may not have a time-of-day 

component. 

As states and regions consider ways to address declining revenues from the 

motor fuel tax, the concept of distance pricing – charging drivers for each mile 

they drive on the highway system – is being discussed more and more. This is 
Advancing Congestion Pricing in the Metropolitan Transportation Planning Process: Four Case Studies 

1-2 

often referred to as vehicle miles traveled (VMT) fees, or mileage-based user fees. 

These are typically seen as a revenue mechanism, but could also incorporate a 

congestion-pricing component. 

Road pricing often has come about separate from the traditional metropolitan planning process through pilot projects and demonstrations. As pricing demonstration 

projects have shown road pricing to be an effective tool, there is a growing need to 

incorporate road pricing into long-range plans. This study examined how road 

pricing was incorporated into long-range planning at four metropolitan planning 

organizations (MPOs) to provide examples that could support other regions seeking 

to do the same. 

1.2 THE CASE STUDY REGIONS

The four case study regions were selected by the Federal Highway Administration 

(FHWA) based on a previous study, A Domestic Scan of Congestion Pricing and 

Managed Lanes.1 The case studies represent places where road pricing was successfully included in long-range plans – examples from places where road 

pricing has not been included in long-range plans are not covered. The key 

themes used to guide the case studies were based upon findings from the initial 

literature review provided in Appendix B. The team reviewed the relevant 

studies and planning documents from each region, and then conducted 

 

1 A Domestic Scan of Congestion Pricing and Managed Lanes, prepared for the Federal 

Highway Administration, U.S. Department of Transportation by DKS Associates, with 

PBSJ and Jack Faucett Associates, February 2009.

What Is Congestion Pricing? 

Congestion pricing – sometimes called value pricing – is a way of harnessing 

the power of the market to reduce the waste associated with traffic 

congestion. Congestion pricing works by shifting purely discretionary rush 

hour highway travel to other transportation modes or to off-peak periods, 

taking advantage of the fact that the majority of rush hour drivers on a 

typical urban highway are not commuters. By removing a fraction (even as 

small as five percent) of the vehicles from a congested roadway, pricing 

enables the system to flow much more efficiently, allowing more cars to 

move through the same physical space. Similar variable charges have been 

successfully utilized in other industries – for example, airline tickets, cell 

phone rates, and electricity rates. There is a consensus among economists 

that congestion pricing represents the single most viable and sustainable 

approach to reducing traffic congestion. 

Source: Congestion Pricing, A Primer, FHWA, 2006.
Advancing Congestion Pricing in the Metropolitan Transportation Planning Process: Four Case Studies 

1-3

interviews with staff from the responsible regional planning organizations. The 

Interview Guide is in Appendix C. 

Dallas/Fort Worth Region, Texas 

The Dallas/Fort Worth region has had road pricing in the form of toll roads for 

decades. The region has aggressively pursued innovative partnerships, both 

public and private, to advance roadway projects through pricing. Examples 

include recent public-private partnerships to build the North Tarrant Express 

(IH 35W/IH 820/SH 183) and LBJ Freeway (IH 635) managed lanes. A highgrowth area, the region is still planning to build new lane-miles of highway, and 

has a policy to consider any new capacity as tolled capacity. The result was a 

long-range plan that includes numerous new toll roads and new tolled managed 

lanes (where HOV and transit are free), and new priced express lanes (where all 

vehicles pay). Beyond the project lists, there are explicit policies that govern 

issues such as rate setting and use of revenues. 

Puget Sound Region, Washington 

The last tolls came off a bridge in the Puget Sound region of Washington State in 

1979, but when a new bridge was needed across the Tacoma Narrows, it was 

built as a toll bridge. Though it is a high-growth area, there are few new highways planned in the region. Realizing that traffic demand will far outstrip the 

capacity of available and planned facilities, the region has been serious about 

how road pricing could be used to manage transportation demand while at the 

same time providing a revenue source for high-priority improvements. The 

SR 167 HOV lane was converted to a HOT lane several years ago and several 

other HOT lane projects are under consideration. With the SR 520 bridge across 

Lake Washington in need of replacement due to seismic concerns, a consortium 

of agencies is advancing a project to toll the existing crossing using congestionpricing techniques and using the revenue to partially pay for the construction 

costs of a new bridge. As the region started to update its long-range plan, some 

level of road pricing was included in every plan alternative, and pricing became 

a key component of the plan. 

Minneapolis/St. Paul Region, Minnesota 

The Twin Cities built two HOT lane projects over the last few years: I-394 and 

I-35W. These projects were the result of more than a decade of proposals to 

address congestion in these corridors. On I-394, an underutilized HOV lane was 

converted to a HOT lane. On I-35W, existing shoulders that already had allowed 

bus use were converted to travel lanes, and the existing inside lane was converted to a HOT lane. Looking beyond these individual projects, the region has 

been trying to address how to consider new opportunities for HOT lanes when it 

plans new expansion projects. Like Seattle, new highways are not being planned, 

but expansions of existing highways might be accommodated as HOT lanes. 
Advancing Congestion Pricing in the Metropolitan Transportation Planning Process: Four Case Studies 

1-4 

San Francisco Bay Area, California 

Several counties and congestion management agencies have been studying new 

HOT lanes as a way to improve the efficiency of existing highways. The 

Alameda County Congestion Management Agency is moving forward with HOT 

lanes on I-680 and I-580, and has studied HOT lanes in other corridors. Santa 

Clara County did a countywide assessment of HOT lanes and is moving forward 

with projects on the SR 237/I-880 Connector, and Route 85 and U.S. 101. Marin 

and Solano counties also have explored HOT lanes. Concerned about a variety 

of projects following a variety of standards, the Metropolitan Transportation 

Commission carried out several studies aimed to bring consistency to the development of these lanes. An extensive network of priced lanes became a centerpiece of the region’s transportation plan update, including design standards and 

rules for use of revenue. In addition, congestion pricing of the Bay Bridge was 

recently implemented, and the City and County of San Francisco has been 

studying cordon/area pricing. 

1.3 LESSONS LEARNED

Our scan of these four regions where road pricing was successfully incorporated 

into long-range transportation plans revealed that every region is unique. Each 

region brings a history of attitudes, jurisdictional negotiations, and politics that 

influences how pricing is perceived. 

Regional Road Pricing Policy Grew from Individual Projects 

None of the regions began with a broad concept of road pricing as an integral 

part of their long-range transportation vision. Rather, in all regions, individual 

project proposals introduced the metropolitan area to pricing. 

In the Puget Sound region, tolling the Tacoma Narrows Bridge helped bring 

attention and support to tolling for financial support. Later, the Route 167 HOT 

lane project in another part of the region introduced the idea of congestion 

pricing. 

The Dallas/Fort Worth region had a long history of toll roads. The region’s 

expected high-growth rate was expected to create intense traffic demands. With 

extensive highway needs and limited revenues, Texas had a policy to consider 

pricing for all new highway projects around the State. 

In the San Francisco Bay Area, early proposals to congestion-price the Bay Bridge 

were defeated, but after the success of HOT lanes around the United States and 

with the encouragement of the FHWA’s Value Pricing Pilot Program (VPPP), the 

counties in the Bay Area started planning HOT lanes. Variable pricing of the Bay 

Bridge was recently implemented, aided by the need to raise tolls to pay for a 

vital seismic retrofit. 
Advancing Congestion Pricing in the Metropolitan Transportation Planning Process: Four Case Studies 

1-5

Soon after the success of the SR 91 and I-15 managed lanes projects in southern 

California, the Minnesota Department of Transportation (Mn/DOT) tried to convert an underutilized HOV lane on I-394 to a HOT lane. Early efforts to introduce pricing in Minnesota were unsuccessful, but persistence paid off as the 

I-394 HOT lane came to fruition almost 10 years later and a second HOT lane has 

recently opened on I-35W, enabled by the success and acceptance of I-394. 

Once individual projects were committed or underway and gaining favorable 

response, regional and state governments adopted them into long-range plans 

and developed supportive policies. The push to include policies on pricing in 

long-range plans grew out of a need for consistency in the application of pricing 

around a region and ways to allocate revenues. As regions looked beyond their 

initial pricing projects, consistency of development and revenue allocation policy 

became important. Also of concern were consistent design and technology 

policies. 

The Dallas/Fort Worth region developed policies that defined toll rates and how 

revenues would be used, among others. The Puget Sound region went through 

years of study both at the state level and in the region to define how or whether 

road pricing would form an important part of the transportation landscape. In 

the end, the Puget Sound Regional Council (PSRC) came up with a 30-year vision 

to allow pricing to evolve as technology allowed, with pricing integral to support 

broad goals for the region both for revenue and as a way to manage demand. 

In the San Francisco Bay Area, individual counties and congestion management 

agencies were proceeding with development of HOT lane projects. In response, 

the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) took on a study of a HOT 

lane network and a long-term vision for pricing that defined how road pricing 

revenues would be spent. The Twin Cities experience was more understated. 

Though Mn/DOT and the Metropolitan Council studied systems of HOT lanes, 

these agencies were not in a position to move forward boldly. The Metropolitan 

Council’s long-range plan reflects an understanding that there is more pricing in 

the future in conjunction with transit expansion, but is not specific about how such 

pricing would be accomplished. 

Developing the Right Tools for the Job 

All regions struggle with developing the right tools to provide the analysis to 

support difficult public policy decisions surrounding pricing. Basic four-step 

travel demand models are not well suited to the complex societal changes that 

extensive road pricing can bring about. The different visions of road pricing in 

each region has shaped how the emphasis on the tools that were developed. 

In the Twin Cities, the main emphasis was on HOT lanes, which give travelers a 

choice of one lane or another in one corridor. The questions revolved around 

whether these lanes would improve speeds and throughput in the corridor. 

From a regional perspective, the main question to be answered was “how many 

people would choose to use the managed lane at what price.” This resulted in 
Advancing Congestion Pricing in the Metropolitan Transportation Planning Process: Four Case Studies 

1-6 

relatively simple modifications to the traffic assignment routines that did not try 

to account for more complicated changes in travel patterns such as changes to 

trip distribution patterns, trip-making volume, or housing/job location decisions. 

In the San Francisco Bay Area, MTC is moving from a trip- to activity-based 

model to give more precision to pricing analysis. The model also has been modified to do better mode choice prediction since mode shift is an important impact 

of pricing. Perhaps most important, MTC planners and analysts use latest travel 

survey data from The Bay Area Transportation Survey to get accurate elasticities 

for modeling. MTC also uses benefit/cost analysis to explain the benefits of 

pricing and equity assessments that explain impacts and benefits on different 

income groups. 

In the Dallas/Fort Worth region, the emphasis was on toll roads and HOT lanes, 

and thus the North Central Texas Council of Governments (NCTCOG) model 

development focused on assignment-path decisions rather than more extensive 

modeling of travel pattern changes. NCTCOG was concerned, however, about 

whether road pricing impacted poor people more than other parts of the population and developed techniques to understand which populations would be 

paying tolls. Moving forward, however, NCTCOG has plans to improve their 

analytical tools using before-and-after studies on the SH 161 toll road now under 

construction to capture eight different behavior changes, such as route, mode, 

destination, and housing location. 

The Puget Sound region has the most extensive plans for pricing – with VMT 

fees in its long-range vision. As a result, the policy boards tasked with developing the long-range plan demanded better answers relating to changes in driver 

behavior as well as development patterns and economic impacts. PSRC spent 

several years developing new travel demand modeling and benefit/cost analysis 

techniques. The Traffic Choices study funded in part by the VPPP provided a 

wealth of data on travel behavior changes under priced conditions that found its 

way into the travel demand model. One byproduct of these sophisticated tools 

was the need to develop new approaches to communicate the findings to lay 

audiences. 

Communication of Road Pricing Concepts Is a Challenge Everywhere 

Communication of road pricing concepts and consensus-building can be 

difficult, especially when those concepts are unknown and untested. In the 

Dallas/Fort Worth region, road pricing is a logical outgrowth of toll road 

development that had been going on for decades. This incremental approach 

aided public and stakeholder acceptance. Engagement is continuous to maintain 

support and visibility for tolling and pricing. 

In the San Francisco Bay Area, MTC endured failure of Bay Bridge pricing proposals over several years, but now has gained acceptance of a HOT network in 

its long-range plan and recently implemented time-of-day pricing on the Bay 

Bridge. The HOT lane network benefited from successful HOT lane projects in 
Advancing Congestion Pricing in the Metropolitan Transportation Planning Process: Four Case Studies 

1-7

other parts of California, but the region’s acceptance of the HOT lane network 

also sprang from the idea of expediting development of the HOV network over 

and above what regular funding would allow, rather than congestion pricing per 

se. Despite the experience elsewhere, MTC works hard to explain how HOT 

lanes would work, how HOT lanes benefit transit users, and how the “Lexus 

lane” concept is misguided. 

Both Mn/DOT and the Metropolitan Council in the Twin Cities have been 

undertaking public communications efforts surrounding road pricing (in particular HOT lanes) for 10 years in the aftermath of a failed HOT lane proposal. In 

particular, the Humphrey Institute of the University of Minnesota has been 

active (both locally and at the national level) in trying to understand people’s 

attitudes and crafting messages that address lingering concerns. Through 

engagement of influential decision-makers and a policy of “leaving no question 

unanswered” when it comes to the HOT lanes projects, Mn/DOT has finally 

brought about two successful HOT lane projects and, with the Council, continues 

to plan for more pricing in the future. 

PSRC had the most extensive need for communication, because it was exploring 

the most extensive use of pricing in its plan. Pricing had been discussed for 

years in the region, including support by the Secretary of Transportation. A key 

element of the approach was to emphasize that pricing was one element of a 

larger plan. Recognizing early the challenges they would face, PSRC formed a 

Pricing Task Force that could get educated on the more complicated points of 

road pricing, and then carry that message back to their constituents. PSRC also 

had a well-respected champion that could speak to elected officials and gain 

their support. 

Pricing Is One Element of a Cohesive Transportation Plan 

All four regions found that making road pricing one element among many of a 

cohesive transportation plan was effective at gaining acceptance for the concepts. 

This meant integrating project lists, road pricing concepts, and decisions about 

how to handle potential revenue, showing that these pieces all worked together. 

In the Puget Sound region, especially, pricing was a cornerstone of the plan, with 

the revenue to be generated by large-scale pricing of the existing highway system 

a key element of the financial plan as well as a key mechanism to move towards 

achieving greenhouse gas emission reduction goals. The same was true in the 

Dallas/Fort Worth region, where pricing, in the form of tolled highways and 

lanes was an important revenue source for highway expansion. In the San 

Francisco Bay Area, HOT lanes were a way to increase highway capacity through 

more effective use of existing and planned HOV lanes, and contribute a revenue 

source to accomplish that. In the Twin Cities region, HOT lanes were part of a 

mix of strategies, including bus-only shoulder lanes, priced dynamic shoulder 

lanes, and other elements of the long-range plan. 

Advancing Congestion Pricing in the Metropolitan Transportation Planning Process: Four Case Studies 

2-1

2.0 Case Studies 

2.1 DALLAS/FORT WORTH CASE STUDY

Road Pricing Policies Grew out of the Planning Process 

The Dallas Fort Worth region was an early player when it came to road pricing, 

when the Dallas/Fort Worth Turnpike opened in the late 1950s, built by the 

Texas Turnpike Authority (TTA). The bonds for those toll roads were paid off in 

1977, after which toll collection ceased. Around that same time, the TTA developed other toll projects, such as the Dallas North Tollway and Mountain Creek 

Lake Bridge, which were the first projects of a growing tollway system in the 

region. Over the decades, the TTA (later reconstituted as the North Texas 

Tollway Authority or NTTA) developed extensions to the Dallas North Tollway, 

as well as two new toll roads, the President George Bush Turnpike (PGBT) and 

Sam Rayburn Tollway (SH 121). Recent efforts include public-private partnerships to construct managed lanes on North Tarrant Express (IH 35W/IH 820/

SH 183) and LBJ Freeway (IH 635). In addition, the proposed managed lane 

system has been included in the FHWA Value Pricing Pilot Program. 

The financial constraint requirements of the Intermodal Surface Transportation 

Efficiency Act (ISTEA) in the 1990s led the NCTCOG to look much more aggressively at tolling as a means to finance its extensive highway expansion needs, 

and the result was a policy to consider whether corridor improvements could 

“support” pricing. NCTCOG started by assuming that all new capacity can be 

priced and then approached the financial component by looking at the priced 

and nonpriced transportation system as a whole. Each project does not necessarily have to support itself. Toll revenue becomes one of many revenue sources, 

with the aim of reducing public expenditure. As a result, NCTCOG has a policy 

that all new limited access highways should be evaluated for toll potential and 

all reconstructions should include priced express lanes as appropriate. 

NCTCOG sees pricing as a tool to achieve objectives such as supporting 

economic vitality, increasing safety, increasing accessibility and mobility, and 

environmental protection and enhancement. Air quality was another strong 

motivation of NCTCOG’s plan, since the region is in nonattainment status. 

When considering plan options, NCTCOG realized that pricing by itself will not 

change behavior, but can work with other elements of the plan to achieve transportation and other objectives. The current plan does not address climate 

change, but the plan update that is now in process will. 

The NCTCOG policies that are in Mobility 2030: The Metropolitan Transportation 

Plan for the Dallas/Fort Worth Area, 2009 Amendment, are the result of years of 

evolution of individual projects until the need for consistent policy relating to toll 
Advancing Congestion Pricing in the Metropolitan Transportation Planning Process: Four Case Studies 

2-2 

setting and use of revenue became clear. These policies are described in the sections below. 

The Dallas/Fort Worth Region Considers a Wide Range of 

Pricing Options 

There are three types of priced facilities being considered in the region: traditional toll roads, managed HOV lanes (called HOT lanes in other places), and 

stand-alone express managed lanes which may or may not have HOV priority 

(see Table 2.1). Over time, all three types should have a managed component to 

them, i.e., price differentials by time of day, vehicle type, occupancy, technology. 

For now, the traditional toll roads do not have this aspect, but the regional policy 

points to move in that direction over time. 

Table 2.1 Road Pricing Projects in the Dallas/Fort Worth Region 

Existing Committed Planned 

Toll Roads, Bridges, and Tunnels 

Dallas North Tollway 

President George Bush Turnpike 

(PGBT) 

Sam Rayburn Tollway (SH 121) 

Addison Airport Toll Tunnel 

Mountain Creek Lake Toll Bridge 

Lewisville Lake Toll Bridge 

SH 161, Traditional toll road, under 

construction 

SH 121 (Sam Rayburn Tollway), 

part open, part still under 

construction 

Trinity Parkway (new toll road) 

Southwest Parkway (new toll road) 

President George Bush Turnpike 

Extension, toll road 

SH 360 Extension, toll road 

Add main lanes on SH 170, toll road 

Loop 9 between I-20 and SH 287, 

toll road 

Managed HOV Lanes 

 I-30 managed HOV lane, new lanes 

I-635 (LBJ Freeway) and I-35E 

managed HOV lanes, new lanes 

North Tarrant Express, managed 

HOV lanes, covering routes 183, 

820, 35W 

Express Managed Lanes 

 DFW connector, which includes four 

miles of express managed lanes 

Source: North Central Texas Council of Governments, via interview. 

Innovative Strategies for Use of Road Pricing Revenue 

The excess revenue from priced facilities is available to fund projects on the 

entire transportation system including other toll facilities, nontoll facilities, and 

transit-related projects. Excess revenue over and above construction and 

maintenance/operations expenses is split along the concept of “near neighbor, 
Advancing Congestion Pricing in the Metropolitan Transportation Planning Process: Four Case Studies 

2-3

near timeframe.” This is in Regional Transportation Council (RTC)2 policy, 

defined as follows: 

 Near neighbor: 

– Seventy-five percent stays in the county where the revenue is collected; 

and 

– Twenty-five percent goes to the rest of the region based on the distribution of home locations of toll tag users in January of that year. 

 Near timeframe: 

– Seventy-five percent up front; and 

– Twenty-five percent over time. 

One exception is the NTTA concession for SH 121, which was paid 100 percent 

up front. There is a disagreement over whether the concession payments on 

SH 121 go to the state highway trust fund called Fund 6, or to the region. 

Policies for use of the money are established in advance of each transaction, 

under the general guidelines described above. NCTCOG developed a set of 

business terms for tollways and managed lane projects in the region covering 

topics such as: specific toll rates for peak and off-peak periods, treatment of 

transit vehicles, toll increase provisions, use of comprehensive development 

agreements, and disposition of excess revenue. 

Evaluation Tools Designed to Meet the Challenge of 

Analyzing Pricing 

NCTCOG’s travel demand model treats toll roads as an assignment-path decision that does not loop back through mode choice or land use. NCTCOG validated the models to observed volumes on toll facilities, and have generally found 

that tolling would produce about 40 percent diversion.3 NCTCOG plans to 

improve their data and analytical tools through a full before-and-after study in 

the SH 161 corridor in which they hope to capture eight different behavior 

changes in this study (e.g., route, mode, destination, housing location). 

Environmental justice (EJ) also has been a significant issue, and NCTCOG has 

worked extensively with FHWA, Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT), 

and others to address this. NCTCOG has an environmental justice tool that 

 

2 The Regional Transportation Council is the independent transportation policy body of 

the metropolitan planning organization. 

3 Note that this comment was made without considering toll rates or the specifics of 

available alternative routes. However, the toll rates, by policy, are consistent through 

the region; and there is a consistently dense network of parallel arterials, implying that 

some consistency of outcome appears reasonable. 
Advancing Congestion Pricing in the Metropolitan Transportation Planning Process: Four Case Studies 

2-4 

addresses trip distribution effects by feeding back through the path decision. 

The tool looks at whether people living in EJ communities that use toll facilities 

have access to free facilities. NCTCOG does extensive EJ analysis as part of 

project studies. 

An emerging view on the environmental justice topic is the importance to evaluate not just who is paying tolls, but how the money is spent. In the case of the 

NCTCOG region, excess revenues are spent entirely on nontoll projects such as 

other highways or transit. This spending offsets potential environmental justice 

concerns. Also, NCTCOG has found that people of low income sometimes have 

high values of time because of inflexible job and childcare schedules. 

Communications and Consensus-Building Takes a Lot of Work 

NCTCOG uses a full array of communication tools, including press releases, web 

presence, and presentations. However, even though NCTCOG and TxDOT have 

been talking about the concept of pricing and tolling for years, they find that the 

public and policy-makers still have difficulty understanding the nuances. Once 

projects open however, these agencies found that the complaints stop. For 

example, when SH 121 opened, NCTCOG did not get many complaints; rather, 

the feedback was positive since people had the new highway alternative. 

The region struggles with the concept of how many toll roads is the right balance. People have understood for years that there is not adequate traditional 

revenue to build the highways and highway lanes that need to be built, so there 

has been acceptance of tolling for new highways and pricing for highway expansion. The fact that the policy is applied consistently throughout the entire region 

also is helpful. 

One challenge has been the complaint of double taxation. NCTCOG tried to 

address this complaint by emphasizing the system benefits of the use of the toll 

revenue, but they do not know what the reaction will be when the managed 

lanes projects start to open. With managed lanes, there will always be a free 

option, so NCTCOG expects that will help public acceptance. 

NCTCOG staff believed that these considerations have contributed to their success so far: 

 Consistent staff at NCTCOG working on these issues for 20 years. If the staff 

had changed over more frequently, the job would have been more difficult; 

 Strong analytical foundation through improving modeling tools; 

 Consistent message with respect to the benefits of pricing; 

 Policy coordination with elected officials; and 

 Desire to create a sustainable transportation system and acknowledgment 

that there is not enough money. 

 
Advancing Congestion Pricing in the Metropolitan Transportation Planning Process: Four Case Studies 

2-5

Despite these successes, the region has had to face public and elected-official 

backlash that emerged out of the aggressive pursuit of public-private partnerships a few years ago. In 2007, the Texas legislature imposed a two-year moratorium on new partnerships (called Comprehensive Development Agreements, or 

CDA) that impacted further toll development. Many CDA that were underway 

were grandfathered and not impacted by the moratorium, but the legislation still 

created uncertainty. There also were controversies surrounding the award of a 

CDA for SH 121, which had originally been awarded to a private concessionaire, 

but later given to the North Texas Tollway Authority. 

Prepared for the Unexpected 

The State and region have built in a variety of backstops to guard against the 

unexpected. 

Revenue Shortfalls 

One of the biggest concerns has to do with toll revenues being lower than 

expected. In the case of managed lanes, the region has tried to shift as much revenue risk as possible to the private sector. However, the traditional toll roads to 

be built will be public projects meaning that there is no risk transfer. 

The region has consistent toll setting policy, and NCTCOG believes that its toll 

rates are set conservatively low, at about half the revenue-maximizing rate. This 

gives them the ability to raise tolls if needed. 

An element under discussion in the current Southwest Parkway and SH 161 

negotiations with NTTA and TxDOT is for the NCTCOG and TxDOT to guarantee debt service repayment in the event of lower than expected revenue 

collections in early years of a facility. This additional backstop is because 

NTTA’s system revenues are needed for current construction commitments, 

which normally would otherwise be cross-pledged to new projects. 

NCTCOG may put aside some programming authority from SH 121 revenues 

(state dollars, kept in the state treasury for assignment to projects by NCTCOG) 

to use as a form of debt service reserve and thus allow NTTA to issue debt with 

higher bond ratings and more money available for project funding. 

NTTA would own the roads in question like any other of their properties. The 

difference would be that debt issued to finance these two roads also would have 

a financial commitment from NCTCOG and TxDOT to offset revenue shortfalls. 

These advanced funds would then be repaid with future revenues. 

Revenue Leakage 

With modern open-road tolling applications, there is an increased temptation for 

drivers to try to get away without paying tolls. In response to this, the region is 

developing administrative courts to deal with toll violators, to avoid clogging up 

the regular courts. 
Advancing Congestion Pricing in the Metropolitan Transportation Planning Process: Four Case Studies 

2-6 

Operations 

Managed lanes have now been tested in several markets around the United 

States, and there is a reasonable understanding of how to optimize flow and 

avoid congested premium lanes. However, each region is unique, and this risk is 

being managed by setting toll rates by time of day, as opposed to dynamically 

based on traffic levels. Once there is a history of the demand profile, dynamic 

pricing will be tried. 

Summary of Dallas/Fort Worth Experience 

An early adopter of tolling, the Dallas/Fort Worth region has continued to pursue aggressively road user fees as a means to fund its extensive backlog of transportation projects. In recent years, the region has embraced new notions of 

managed lanes as a means of achieving highway expansion. With the region’s 

citizens already are familiar with tolling, it has been relatively easy to advance 

new toll projects, since those toll projects bring with them new transportation 

options. Acceptance grows once the projects open. The jump to managed lanes 

is not without its controversies, but given the experience with tolling in the 

region, not as difficult as it may be in areas without a prior history of tolling. 

As the region moved from individual project development to more widespread 

use of tolling and managed lanes for all highway expansion, the region moved to 

incorporate a consistent set of rules in its regional transportation plan. The 

region has had to address issues such as how to spend excess revenue and 

whether road pricing projects unfairly impacts environmental justice populations, and has developed policies and evaluation tools in response. What sets 

this region apart from the other case study regions is the extent to which new 

highways and new capacity are a part of the transportation landscape. The other 

case study regions are more focused on traffic management than new capacity. 

2.2 PUGET SOUND REGION CASE STUDY

Road Pricing in the Seattle Region Grew from Individual Projects 

into a Comprehensive Long-Range Vision 

In the mid-1990s, Washington State was among the first to look seriously at 

public-private partnerships (PPP) to advance high-cost/high-need projects, and 

one project emerged from the process – construction of a second span of the 

Tacoma Narrows Bridge, to be supported by toll revenues. Although the project 

evolved from being a concession-style public-private partnership to a more 

common design-build approach, the result was a new toll bridge in an existing 

toll-free corridor. While tolls had been commonly used in Washington to finance 

bridges in the past, there had been no tolls in the State since tolls were removed 

from the Evergreen Point Floating Bridge (SR 520) in 1979. The Tacoma Narrows 

Bridge project also was notable in that it was the first time a toll had ever been 

added to an existing toll-free corridor (although the new toll was technically only 
Advancing Congestion Pricing in the Metropolitan Transportation Planning Process: Four Case Studies 

2-7

on the new bridge, which served the southbound direction). The next individual 

project to emerge was a four-year HOT lane demonstration on SR 167, which 

opened in 2008, supported by the Value Pricing Pilot Program. 

At the same time, the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) 

continued to look at options for replacing the SR 520 floating bridge – a 

multibillion-dollar project with a substantial shortfall in funding. Tolling, 

potentially with time-of-day pricing was under study as a possible solution. 

When the U.S. Department of Transportation (U.S. DOT) announced its Urban 

Partnership Agreement (UPA) grant program, a collaboration of the region, state, 

and King County applied for a grant that would allow time-of-day tolling on the 

existing SR 520 Bridge in advance of construction of a new bridge, in addition to 

active traffic management and other complementary actions. That project is 

expected to open in the spring of 2011. 

While these projects were being studied, designed, and built, the State Legislature 

became curious as to whether or how tolling and road pricing might fit into the 

future of transportation in Washington State. Some of the groundwork for this 

had been laid by the Department of Transportation secretary who was a passionate 

believer in the potential for congestion pricing to allow highways to operate at 

maximum capacity. The result was a Comprehensive Tolling Study that considered 

a broad range of policy motivations and applications, evaluated institutional and 

technical considerations, considered a variety of case studies, and resulted in 

eight policy recommendations that were mostly adopted by the legislature. 

Also in parallel, the PSRC received a VPPP grant to conduct a pilot project to see 

how travelers change their travel behavior (number, mode, route, and time of 

vehicle trips) in response to time-of-day variable charges for road use (variable 

or congestion-based tolling). The project, called the Traffic Choices Study, placed 

Global Positioning System (GPS) tolling meters in the vehicles of about 275 

volunteer households. The project involved observation of driving patterns 

before and after experimental tolls were charged for driving on any of the major 

freeways and arterials in the Seattle metropolitan area. The Traffic Choices 

Study received a lot of public attention, and provided valuable behavioral information to feed the PSRC’s travel demand model for better analysis of road 

pricing. 

These prior experiences and history of discussion laid the groundwork for further discussion of pricing in the PSRC’s long-range plan update called 

Transportation 2040. As it began Transportation 2040, PSRC created a Pricing 

Task Force. This was the first task force created in the plan update, in recognition of the potential role that pricing might play in the long-range plan, and that 

pricing deserved a hard look. Both the need for nontax financial resources and 

the desire to use price to modify travel behavior were driving forces behind tolling and road pricing in the plan. 

As Transportation 2040 evolved, all of the plan alternatives had a pricing component. According to PSRC, Transportation 2040 promotes transportation financing 
Advancing Congestion Pricing in the Metropolitan Transportation Planning Process: Four Case Studies 

2-8 

methods, such as user fees and tolls that will sustain maintenance, preservation, and 

operation of facilities and reflect the costs imposed by users. 

 The plan recommends a phased financial strategy based on transitioning away from 

current gas taxes and other traditional transportation revenue sources. The 

Transportation 2040 financial strategy calls for moving toward the implementation 

of new user fees, including tolls. The region also will explore a fuel tax replacement, 

such as vehicle-miles traveled (VMT) charges, and other pricing approaches to fund 

and manage the transportation system. The financial strategy assumes a nexus 

between the tax, fee, or toll and the use of the revenues. 

 It is assumed the strategy of implementing tolls will start with developing highoccupancy toll (HOT) lanes, and tolling individual highway and bridge facilities in 

their entirety as they are implemented. The plan also gave guidance for the strategy to 

remain flexible and accelerate the implementation of tolls earlier than 2020 wherever 

feasible.4

The PSRC General Assembly adopted the Transportation 2040 plan in May 2010, 

with 98 percent of the vote in favor. Although pricing is a key feature in the 

plan, considerably more work is needed to implement a pricing policy, including 

state legislation. In the meantime, the following road pricing projects are in the 

pipeline: 

 Nearing Commitment: 

– I-405 HOT lane corridor, as an extension of SR 167 HOT lane as a one-totwo-lane HOT system with likely approval in 2011. 

 Proposals: 

– SR 509 Extension as a toll road; 

– SR 167 Extension as a toll road; and 

– Alaskan Way Viaduct replacement as a toll road. 

Greenhouse Gas Emissions A Big Concern 

Air quality conformity was not an issue in the PSRC region, but greenhouse gas 

emissions were a big concern. A desire to be serious about greenhouse gas emission reductions, spurred on by a legislative mandate for significant reductions in 

greenhouse gas emissions over the next several decades turned out to be a big 

incentive for many stakeholders to consider pricing. 

Although air quality conformity was not a concern, financial conformity was an 

issue when it came to defining sources of revenue for the financially constrained 

plan. Since the plan alternatives (and the preferred alternative) all relied on 

 

4 Puget Sound Regional Council, Transportation 2040 Frequently Asked Questions, at 

http://psrc.org/assets/3175/FAQs.pdf, accessed on August 4, 2010. 
Advancing Congestion Pricing in the Metropolitan Transportation Planning Process: Four Case Studies 

2-9

pricing – a new, untested source – to generate revenue, some questioned the stability of the financial resources to pay for transportation system improvements. 

PSRC staff believed there would be the same level of skepticism with proposals 

to increase existing sources, which may have been as much as, or even more of a 

political struggle to achieve. 

Transportation 2040s Investment Plan Is Sized to Expected Revenue 

from Road Pricing and Other Sources 

As plan alternatives were developed, PSRC sized the extent of transportation 

improvement plans to the amount of revenue expected. Alternatives were purposely structured to test different toll philosophies, whether tolling existing 

facilities or added capacity. In this way, decision-makers could see the nexus 

between the ability to undertake investments and pricing. 

Rules on the Use of Pricing Revenue 

Transportation 2040 assumes that over time there is an evolution of rules related 

to the use of revenue from road pricing. In the beginning, is the plan makes 

some connection between road pricing revenues and the improvement projects, 

but later, with a tolled network, revenues may be generated without specific 

investments. This is still a controversial point. 

There is a clear policy to balance revenue with investments. PSRC expects that 

over time, pricing revenue would be offset by reductions or eliminations of other 

revenue sources. According to PSRC staff, there was a “general understanding”

that a certain portion of toll revenues would go to transit, but the details of this 

policy have to be worked out in the future. 

Washington State has a constitutional restriction on the use of motor fuel taxes 

for anything other than the highway system (called the 18th amendment). This 

restriction does not affect toll revenue, but current legislative policy does limit 

toll revenue to be spent in the corridor in which it was raised, with some flexibility for the Legislature to decide on a case-by-case basis to include nonhighway 

expenditures such as local arterials or transit programs in the definition of the 

highway corridor. 

Significant Changes to Analytical Procedures 

In order to accommodate the groundbreaking policy choices being studied, 

including road pricing, PSRC undertook an extensive effort to update their travel 

demand and related models. Their model underwent an extensive peer review. 

Some examples of the improvements include: 

 The land use model is now parcel-based, representing individual households. 

PSRC then develops synthetic population estimates from the households. 

The results of the land use model feed the travel demand model, so travel 

model socioeconomics are no longer static, allowing estimates of changes to 

land use patterns due to transportation system changes. 
Advancing Congestion Pricing in the Metropolitan Transportation Planning Process: Four Case Studies 

2-10 

 An activity generator replaced the trip generator. As a result, activity patterns can change due to downstream changes in the transportation system 

(including pricing). 

 Off-model tools and techniques for toll rate setting, called the Toll Optimization 

Model (TOM). The TOM uses Ramsey price rules for partial tolling of networks, recognizing the increasing costs on nontolled roads due to diversion, 

and optimized the performance of the entire system, not just the tolled 

highway. 

 A benefit/cost analysis procedure disaggregated to a fine level of detail, 

including vehicle class and origin-destination pairs. 

 Emissions factors came from the new Motor Vehicle Emissions Simulator 

(MOVES) model (PSRC is a beta test site). 

Despite the significant enhancements, PSRC staff still see some shortcomings in 

their revised modeling approaches. These include: 

 Income classes across all mode choices are not as granular as desired as part 

of the multiyear effort to develop an activity-based model. 

 Pedestrian and bicycle options are not adequately handled. Some stakeholders wanted to see complete health impact analysis. An element of the mode 

choice model showing how walking and biking could be beneficial to health 

could be useful. But there are tradeoffs in terms of what you can afford to 

pursue. 

 There is a need for better representation of potential impacts of system management on networks, with all modes. 

 Vanpools and parking management strategies are at a coarse scale. The data 

needs to fix this are “mind-boggling.”

PSRC staff continues to monitor industry developments to be able to apply the 

latest techniques, including: 

 NCHRP HR 08-57: Improved Framework and Tools for Highway Pricing 

Decisions; 

 SHRP2-C04: Improving Our Understanding of Highway Users and the 

Factors Affecting Travel Demand (Emphasis on pricing and congestion); 

 SHRP2 C10: Partnership to Develop an Integrated Advanced Travel Demand 

Model and a Fine-Grained, Time-Sensitive Network; and 

 SHRP2 L04: Incorporating Reliability Performance Measures in Planning and 

Operations Modeling Tools. 

Bringing the level of detail and techniques on the supply side and the demand 

side together is the difficult part. As PSRC staff moves forward with the 

improvements, they have the goal of looking at benefit/cost at a disaggregate 

scale, yielding an analysis of who wins and who loses with different concepts. 
Advancing Congestion Pricing in the Metropolitan Transportation Planning Process: Four Case Studies 

2-11

Effective Communication to Aid Informed Decision-Making 

Treating tolling and pricing as integral to plan development was important to the 

success of PSRC’s process. PSRC realized that they could not fund transportation in the same ways as in the past, so were more open to ideas such as VMT 

fees and tolling. Once the public understood how the current system was broken, there was more openness to pricing and tolling alternatives. The decision to 

create the Pricing Task Force was a foot in the door to discuss pricing issues, and 

allowed other conversations about pricing to move forward. 

The message that was difficult to communicate was how pricing would contribute to congestion reduction. PSRC introduced new methods of measuring the 

value of different investments during the plan update (not just for road pricing). 

These new methods were difficult for people to understand, and there was particular difficulty with the concept of monetizing benefit/cost. Ultimately, however, these measures were successful at getting participants in the planning 

process to understand the value of different packages. In particular, the new 

benefit/cost measures highlighted the fact that congestion had a cost, which 

encouraged those involved in the planning process to take a fresh look at transportation problems, solutions, and costs. 

Individual projects (SR 520, Tacoma Narrows Bridge, and SR 167) already were 

in progress and had a lot of traction. PSRC was able to point out that the region 

already was using pricing, thereby defusing many arguments against the idea. 

Tolling individual projects did not seem to be a big issue, but tolling the whole 

network was more difficult for those involved in the process to grasp and accept. 

With 15 years of pricing debate, the professionals knew that pricing could be an 

effective way to achieve their goals, but PSRC was worried that “leading with 

pricing” would be dangerous, giving the appearance that they already had made 

decisions. A clear champion for pricing was a former chair of the Washington 

State Transportation Commission, who was well respected by decision-makers. 

His support allowed pricing to be taken seriously, and not treated as a fringe 

theory. 

There was only one example of problematic communications that PSRC staff 

could recall. PSRC experienced problems communicating the concept of parking 

pricing because the public, stakeholders, and policy-makers did not understand 

it. The parking pricing idea was supposed to be a surcharge applied at the 

regional level to dampen demand and raise substantial revenue, but audiences 

pushed back because they were concerned that these measures would be difficult 

to apply at a regional level and would require more detailed analysis than was 

possible in this plan update. PSRC pulled back substantially on this concept. 

There was concern that the model was not adequately reflecting reduced 

demand to shopping locations. 

Although PSRC did not encounter any communications “brick walls” to speak of, 

communicating full system pricing was a challenge. Also, there were quite a few 

single-issue stakeholders: those that believed that pricing was “the answer” did 
Advancing Congestion Pricing in the Metropolitan Transportation Planning Process: Four Case Studies 

2-12 

not seem to care about economic development, while others focused more on 

transportation system effectiveness and economics. 

The concept of “equity” was challenging because it was difficult to define and 

difficult for people to understand. Equity was a concern, though, and dictated 

how plan alternatives were analyzed and presented. PSRC examined equity in 

four ways: 1) the geographic distribution of benefits and adverse impacts by 

county and county subarea, 2) the distribution of benefits and adverse impacts 

by income groups, 3) the distribution of benefits to freight and passenger 

vehicles, and 4) an accounting and comparison of benefits of investments to 

minority and low-income residents. 

PSRC developed new evaluation tools, well beyond what had existed before, 

either in the region or elsewhere. But the additional capabilities caused participants in the planning process to be even more critical of the analytical 

shortcomings of the new system – there was just too much to absorb, and there 

were many subtleties that were difficult to comprehend. In the end, PSRC staff 

reminded policy-makers that data is meant to aid decisions and that they should 

use their best judgment when it came to making choices. 

Counting on Extensive Use of Road Pricing to Fund the Long-Range 

Plan Is a Big Risk 

In reviewing the Transportation 2040 financial plan, FHWA was concerned that 

road pricing was an untested new revenue source that had not yet been authorized by the State and would require additional Federal approvals. As such, road 

pricing might not be a “reasonably foreseeable” revenue source. PSRC staff reasoned, on the other hand, that even though other revenue sources such as 

increased gas taxes had a history, there was little inclination to increase them to 

the amounts needed to fund needed highway expansion. Therefore, any increase 

in revenue, whether from a new source or an existing source, would be equally 

risky. 

Summary of Puget Sound Region Experience 

Road pricing in the Puget Sound region incubated over the course of almost two 

decades, starting with a few individual projects, and culminating with a longrange transportation plan that calls for the most extensive application of road 

pricing for both revenue and traffic management in the United States. The 

process was not without its setbacks, but a combination of leadership by highprofile elected officials and appointees, plus the willingness to expend the 

resources to develop and apply state-of-the-art analytical tools provided a strong 

base from which to advance. The analysts also took the time and effort to communicate the findings and work with stakeholders over the course of years. This 

contributed to increased public understanding of the implications of both action 

and inaction with respect to the transportation system. 
Advancing Congestion Pricing in the Metropolitan Transportation Planning Process: Four Case Studies 

2-13

2.3 MINNEAPOLIS/ST. PAUL REGION CASE STUDY

Two Decades of Interest in Pricing 

Pricing policy began to be mentioned in 1992 to 1993 in Metropolitan Council5

planning documents as an option for consideration following a directive from 

the State Legislature directing the Mn/DOT and the Metropolitan Council to 

study and implement, where appropriate, congestion pricing, toll roads, and a 

mileage-based tax. The State recognized the potential public acceptance hurdles 

around road pricing and encouraged a public outreach process to begin discussion of the concept. At the direction of the legislature in 1995, Mn/DOT and the 

Metropolitan Council undertook the Minnesota Road Pricing Study that 

included a comprehensive public outreach process using such techniques as a 

citizens’ jury, focus groups, opinion leaders survey, personal interviews, and a 

telephone survey. The process was designed to uncover acceptability issues and 

frame acceptable pricing options. The results indicated some support for road 

pricing depending on how the collected revenues are used and what those revenues replace or supplement. 

According to Metropolitan Council planners, study of road pricing in the 1990s 

and support for study in planning documents was inspired in good measure by 

the successful implementation of the California SR 91 express toll lanes project. 

However, stronger and more specific road pricing policies came with the advent 

of the I-394 MnPASS lanes project, which was largely the responsibility of 

Mn/DOT working with the State Legislature. 

A Decade of Trial and Error 

Advocates at Mn/DOT first proposed I-394 HOT lanes as a demonstration 

project in 1997. However, lack of sufficient consensus especially among legislative and local decision-makers, and more importantly, lack of public support, led 

to failure of the proposal. In 1995-1996 Mn/DOT launched the TransMart 

Public-Private Partnership (P3) Toll Road Initiative. The TH 212 corridor was 

selected for development of the region’s first toll road under a P3 agreement. 

The proposal was killed by a provision in state law (Minnesota Statute 160.85) 

that allowed any community in the path of a toll road to have veto power, which 

one of the communities exercised. 

A Value Pricing Advisory Task Force was formed in 2000/2001, aided by the 

University of Minnesota Humphrey Institute. The task force included state legislators and city officials, and consensus formed around testing pricing on the 

underutilized HOV lane on this facility. The influence of this Task Force recommendations, and the recognition that pricing should be tested in the Twin 

 

5 The Metropolitan Council is the regional planning agency serving the Twin Cities 

seven-county metropolitan area. 
Advancing Congestion Pricing in the Metropolitan Transportation Planning Process: Four Case Studies 

2-14 

Region, led directly to the introduction of legislation authorizing conversion of 

HOV lanes to HOT lanes. With that authorization, and with support of both the 

Governor and Legislature, Mn/DOT launched the I-394 MnPASS HOV lane conversion to HOT. 

The Federal Value Pricing Pilot Program supported the demonstration project on 

I-394. The I-394 express lanes opened in May 2005 and involved conversion of 

existing underutilized HOV lanes from Highway 101 to I-94 in the Minneapolis 

area – a distance of about 9 miles in one direction and 12 in the other. The lanes 

are dynamically priced during peak hours in the peak direction and remain free 

to buses, 2+ HOVs, and motorcyclists. The lanes are free to all users during offpeak periods (and in the nonpeak direction during the peak periods). The I-394 

project goals are to maintain traffic flow and alleviate congestion in the corridor. 

Fifty percent of net revenues after payment of capital and operating costs are to 

be dedicated to transit. 

While the I-394 MnPASS lanes were being implemented, Mn/DOT undertook 

the MnPASS System Study, which looked at the potential for a system of toll 

lanes without HOV priority to relieve congestion. The study also considered 

potential financial outcomes and engaged a group of opinion leaders and stakeholders. The result was a memorandum of understanding between Mn/DOT 

and the Metropolitan Council (the region’s MPO) to consider tolled express lanes 

in all expansions of the highway system. 

In September 2009, building on public support of I-394, the I-35W express lane 

opened, with 2+ carpools free and dynamic pricing in the peak periods. A portion 

of the 16-mile-long facility uses a converted shoulder lane available at most congested times. Potential express lanes are being investigated on other corridors. 

Pricing Experience Influences Long-Range Plans 

The Metropolitan Council’s 2030 Transportation Policy Plan (the Plan) adopted 

in 2004 and updated in 2009 encourages pricing in tandem with a mix of strategies, including HOT lanes, bus-only shoulder lanes, priced dynamic shoulder 

lanes to mitigate congestion (Strategies 9b and 9c of the Plan). Pricing options 

also appear under optimizing Highway Performance (Strategy 11d), Pricing 

(11f), Multimodal Investment (2e), Multimodal System (9b), and Optimizing 

Trunk Highways (9c). 

Pricing is one of the five “key components” of the Plan to cope with “limited 

resources” and pricing is cast as fully complementary with transit and HOV 

strategies described in the other four strategies. Having a fiscally constrained 

plan forced a closer look at regional resources and at the aging transportation 

system, which enabled pricing to come up in discussions. However, roadpricing revenues are a secondary motivation – the primary motivation is efficiency, mobility, and congestion management. Thus, the main justifications for 

pricing derive from the Congestion Management Plan. 
Advancing Congestion Pricing in the Metropolitan Transportation Planning Process: Four Case Studies 

2-15

The Plan projects needs and capabilities of the highway system 50 years into the 

future. Within this context, pricing and managed lanes are important components. The Transportation Finance section of the Plan also references pricing as 

among priority strategies for “Federal funding” of multimodal investments. 

In late 2009, the Metropolitan Council and Mn/DOT began collaboration on two 

related efforts aimed at creating short- and long-term visions for the highway 

system in the Twin Cities region, with the intent of informing another Plan 

update. The goal of the first study, the Metropolitan Highway System 

Investment Study (MHSIS) was to identify methods and improvements to 

achieve the greatest efficiency out of the region’s highway system and manage 

congestion from a systemwide perspective. Rather than focusing on building 

capacity alone, the new strategy will focus on improvements that build on 

existing management strategies and provide relief to identified problem areas 

throughout the system. 

A second study, the MnPASS System Study Phase 2 (MnPASS 2) was intended to 

analyze and make recommendations for the next generation of MnPASS managed lane projects. Whereas the MHSIS focused on the long-term perspective, 

MnPASS 2 focused on short-term implementation opportunities (2-10 years). 

Based on the analysis performed in the MHSIS and MnPASS 2 studies, a managed lane system long-term vision was developed and has been included in a 

Plan update anticipated to be adopted in November 2010. The draft Plan update 

calls for developing managed lane corridors either within the existing right-ofway, or with minimal additional right-of-way. It is also the intent to implement 

these projects in accordance with existing design standards, to the greatest extent 

possible. In some instances, however, some design flexibility may be necessary 

to reduce costs and make it possible to implement the project within existing 

funding constraints. The managed lane vision includes almost 102 miles of managed lanes, but these are not funded. The fiscally constrained plan calls for 

funding of the 3.9-mile I-35E MnPASS lane, and for another $35 to $70 million for 

other, unspecified MnPASS projects. 

Road Pricing Revenues Are Limited to Operations, Maintenance, 

and Transit Service in the Priced Corridor 

On the I-394 HOT lane, Minnesota Statute 160.93 specifies that excess revenues 

(after capital, and operations and maintenance costs) are to be devoted to capital 

improvements in the corridor and to transit enhancements in the priced corridor 

on a 50/50 basis. On the I-35W UPA project, revenue also is dedicated to 

improved transit in the corridor and capital improvements in the corridor by 

formula. 

Roles of Agencies 

Mn/DOT has had a sustained interest in congestion pricing and has consistently 

devoted staff resources to the topic. Mn/DOT staff working on intelligent 
Advancing Congestion Pricing in the Metropolitan Transportation Planning Process: Four Case Studies 

2-16 

transportation systems (ITS) introduced the idea of road pricing, conducted studies, and worked with the Humphrey Institute over several years – waiting for 

the right opportunity to propose pricing. Legislation passed in 2003 allowed 

charging tolls on I-394. Support from state legislators brought the Governor onboard and allowed Mn/DOT to quickly identify and implement the project. 

Mn/DOT has had a sustained interest in congestion pricing and has consistently 

devoted staff resources to the topic. Mn/DOT staff working in planning, 

research, and project development introduced the idea of road pricing, conducted studies, and worked with the Humphrey Institute over several years – 

waiting for the right opportunity to propose pricing. Legislation passed in 2003 

allowed for conversion of HOV lanes to HOT lanes. Support from state legislators and the Governor allowed Mn/DOT to quickly identify and implement the 

I-394 MnPASS HOT lane project. 

The Metropolitan Council has worked together with Mn/DOT over the years in 

the planning for toll lanes. Generally, strategies planned for implementation in a 

corridor or subarea must be accepted by Mn/DOT and adopted by the Council 

as consistent with the policy plan, according to Strategy 9h in the Plan. As the 

region’s transit operator, the Metropolitan Council also is a stakeholder with 

respect to transit operations in priced corridors. 

In terms of the Federal role, the VPPP provided pivotal support for the I-394 

HOT lane project, and the Federal UPA grant supported the I-35W project. The 

Federal UPA grant also encouraged increased collaboration between state and 

local agencies as a condition of the grant. 

Metropolitan Council Is Using the Four-Step Model for Analyzing 

Road Pricing 

The Metropolitan Council updated its four-step travel demand model several 

years ago to be able to accommodate evaluation of HOT lanes. The model evaluates traffic in both the main lanes and HOT lanes, and calculates a toll that 

would keep the HOT lane free-flowing. The model is not sensitive to income 

levels, and assumes that all drivers have the same value of time, which was a 

simplifying assumption. Model modifications were made for a recent study of 

opportunities for new tolled express lanes that would not allow HOV to travel 

free. 

Council planners believe modeling must be based on good information about 

specific travelers in the affected area and anticipated users of the priced facility. 

For example, an up-to-date traveler survey for I-394 was useful to assign travelers to the lane, alternative modes, and routes. 

In 2010, Mn/DOT conducted an update of the MnPASS System Study to consider MnPASS opportunities that might be built without significant widening or 

right-of-way takes. Since the business rules for new MnPASS lanes would be different from the existing lanes (e.g., HOV would not be allowed free use, and the 
Advancing Congestion Pricing in the Metropolitan Transportation Planning Process: Four Case Studies 

2-17

lanes would be open all day), the model needed to be updated to accommodate 

these changes. 

Communications and Consensus-Building 

The guiding communication philosophy with respect to road pricing in 

Minnesota is to leave “no question unanswered” in all interactions. Also, and 

very importantly, Mn/DOT acknowledged that it is impossible to anticipate all 

possible outcomes of a demonstration. Assurance was given that if the project 

worsened conditions, adjustments would be made. In fact, that was necessary in 

the early weeks of operation on I-394 MnPASS. 

Communications also have been geared toward anticipating interests of key 

affected parties. For example, for the I-35W project, Metro Transit conveyed the 

transit benefits in workshops for transit riders. When drivers are the audience, 

travel-time reliability and free-flow conditions are the main concerns. 

Communications have deemphasized revenue generation in favor of improved 

congestion management and improved travel options, and have stayed away 

from any hint at pricing of existing lanes. When the issue of income equity arose, 

project proponents were able to reference findings from other projects (e.g., I-15 

in San Diego) that showed little in the way of income equity concerns. 

Communications around the entire new Policy Plan also attempts to gear subjects 

to appropriate stakeholder groups i.e., technical, local government, other regions, 

and public. The Council public relations office maintains lists for opt-in registration to receive e-mail updates and meeting notices, and invites specific professional, civic, and community organizations to participate in plan development. 

Early on in the consideration of road pricing in Minnesota (in the mid-1990s), the 

Humphrey Institute convened a Citizens’ Jury to opine on the potential uses of 

tolling in the State. There have been extensive consensus-building and stakeholder involvement activities throughout the consideration of road pricing in the 

Twin Cities metro area. An I-394 MnPASS HOT Lane Community Implementation 

Task Force was formed in 2004 to guide the department through project implementation. Representatives from the community included six city councils, citizen 

representatives, American Automobile Association (AAA), trucking association, 

transit-oriented groups, and state legislators. The Task Force met monthly and 

visited California’s SR 91 and I-15 projects to guide project design. 

The Humphrey Institute (part of the University of Minnesota) brought neutrality 

and objectivity to pricing discussions and worked to educate stakeholders. For 

example, the Humphrey Institute and Mn/DOT sponsored public roundtables 

on “Rethinking Transportation Finance,” organized legislative seminars on road 

pricing, and held stakeholder workshops twice a year. An important feature of 

consensus-building first for I-394 and continuing thereafter involved a “grasstops 

approach.” The approach reached out to elected officials and community leaders 

who then can communicate with their constituents to get support first of elected 
Advancing Congestion Pricing in the Metropolitan Transportation Planning Process: Four Case Studies 

2-18 

officials before the public. Another communication tactic was keeping the media 

informed. 

Mn/DOT also has been diligent about assessing public reaction along the way. 

For example, survey work to evaluate I-394 showed that the MnPASS lanes were 

benefiting transit vehicles and there was not much effect on carpools. Surveys 

also showed support from 75 percent of the population. 

Managing Risks through Incremental Development 

The Twin Cities region has been successful at developing pricing projects and 

policies in a methodical way, demonstrating concepts, and then moving on. This 

has allowed the region to test, evaluate, and incrementally develop HOT lanes in 

the region and gradually address enforcement, technology, and merge/weave 

operational risks. There also have been lower profile technical studies, to test 

concepts such as mileage-based user fees. 

Summary of Twin Cities Experience 

Road pricing has been a topic of interest in the Twin Cities since the mid-1990s. 

Despite early defeats on project proposals, continued persistence by agencies and 

public officials has led to two projects moving forward, and recognition of 

pricing as an element of the long-range transportation plan. The 2030 Policy Plan 

encourages pricing in the form of HOT lanes and priced dynamic shoulder lanes 

to mitigate congestion. The Metropolitan Council has collaborated with 

Mn/DOT in the investigation of an expansion of the MnPASS system that might 

be accomplished in the short term. Lead agencies in forwarding pricing have 

demonstrated the importance of incremental steps and decision-maker involvement to gaining successful projects. The agencies also have demonstrated the 

importance of an open and responsive planning and communication process 

attentive to concerns of affected parties. 

2.4 SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA CASE STUDY

Road Pricing in the San Francisco Bay Area Is Emerging from 

Years of Planning 

Road pricing in the Bay Area was first considered in the early 1990s when the 

MTC convened the Bay Area Congestion Pricing Task Force to consider time-ofday pricing on the Bay Bridge. The task force was composed of business and 

environmental group stakeholders and secured one of the earliest grants from 

the FHWA congestion pricing pilot program. That initial effort did not move 

forward, but the success of HOT lanes in other parts of the country led to interest 

in the Bay Area to try this approach. These early efforts reflected a general philosophy at the MTC to encourage pricing whenever possible as well as land use 

planning that is oriented towards transit. 
Advancing Congestion Pricing in the Metropolitan Transportation Planning Process: Four Case Studies 

2-19

The next serious foray into congestion pricing was led by the Alameda County 

Congestion Management Agency (ACCMA), which developed a plan for a HOT 

lane on I-680 through the Sunol Pass that links the Tri-Valley area to Fremont 

and Santa Clara County. The ACCMA has been evaluating improvement alternatives in the I-680 corridor since 1990. With the help of a Value Pricing Pilot 

Program grant received in 2002, the southbound-only HOT lane is expected to 

open September 2010. 

As familiarity and acceptance grew around the potential of HOT lanes, other 

HOT lane studies and plans followed, including I-580 Tri Valley area, and SR 85 

and U.S. 101 in Santa Clara County. These projects are expected to open in the 

coming years. Studies have also been conducted of HOT lanes in other parts of 

the Bay Area, including Sonoma and Marin Counties on U.S. 101. 

Bay Area Express Lane Network 

With growing interest in HOT lanes around the Bay Area, MTC realized the need 

for a coordinated approach to HOT lanes in the region. In 2006, the agency 

planned a network of HOT lanes sharing design, finance, and operational characteristics. MTC included an 800-mile network of HOT lanes in the regional 

long-range transportation plan for the first time in the Transportation 2030 Plan, 

adopted in 2005. 

The HOT network follows the layout of the 2002 update of the Regional HOV 

Master Plan, and assumed a regional express bus system operating on the network. The Bay Area’s carpool lane system is incomplete because of funding 

shortfalls. With the express lane network, existing carpool lanes would be converted to express toll lanes and the revenue would be used to finance completion 

of the carpool/express lane system as well as other important transportation 

projects and transit operations in the express lane corridors. 

As MTC and its partner agencies move into implementation of the network, they 

hope to accelerate delivery of some portions of the express lane network and 

reduce costs through a “Rapid Delivery Design” approach that fits express lanes 

within existing right-of-way. 

Pricing is a headline element in MTC’s Transportation 2035 Plan for the San 

Francisco Bay Area adopted in April 2009. The next step to HOT lane development will be corridor studies for each part of network to specify exact configurations, costs and revenues, and operations. 

MTC’s Transportation 2035 Plan 

The Transportation 2035 Plan evaluated the HOT lanes network with express bus 

enhancements as both a general strategy, compared to regional freeway operational improvements and regional rail expansion, and as a specific investment. 

The evaluation applied performance measures used by MTC to evaluate all 

project candidates in the planning process. Performance measures included 

benefit/cost ratio; collision reduction; delay reduction; reduction of carbon 
Advancing Congestion Pricing in the Metropolitan Transportation Planning Process: Four Case Studies 

2-20 

dioxide and particulate matter emissions; reduction of vehicle miles traveled; 

and affordability of housing and transportation for low-income households. 

MTC also developed a legislative framework for the express lane network that 

addresses issues such as the roles and responsibilities of the key players, use of 

revenue and project development processes. 

Congestion Pricing on the Bay Bridge 

In July 2010, the Bay Area implemented variable pricing of the Bay Bridge. The 

1989 Loma Prieta earthquake brought down a part of the upper deck onto the 

lower and vividly demonstrated the vulnerability of the bridge to earthquakes. 

Since then, rising concerns about the earthquake susceptibility of all aging 

bridges in the Bay Area, especially the heavily traveled Bay Bridge, combined 

with waning state funding for needed upgrades, has turned the tide. Most active 

and influential interest groups came to support raising tolls if revenues were 

devoted to seismic retrofit and operations/maintenance for bridges. 

MTC was able to piggyback successfully on the need for a toll increase in 2009 by 

proposing peak pricing as both logical and familiar in terms of paying more 

when demand is greatest, and in terms of dampening congestion. MTC also 

addressed concerns revenues might not be devoted to Bay Area projects as the 

State owns the Bay Bridges and might decide to channel revenues to other purposes. Under California law, while Caltrans is responsible for the day-to-day 

operations, maintenance, and toll collection, the Bay Area Toll Authority (BATA) 

sets tolls and administers toll revenues. BATA is empowered specifically with 

toll setting and revenue allocation powers and is governed by MTC, thus subject 

to local control. Under existing BATA policy, bridge toll revenues are dedicated 

to bridge operations and maintenance with excess revenues devoted to bridge 

transit. While some commuters raised objections, major stakeholder support 

held and the new peak toll schedule went into effect on July 1, 2010. 

Congestion Pricing in the City and County of San Francisco 

In addition to regional initiatives, the San Francisco County Transportation 

Authority (SFCTA) has been studying congestion pricing for the downtown area 

of San Francisco since 2004 when an areawide system was explored in the 

Countywide Transportation Plan of that year. Detailed examination began in 

2007 under a Value Pricing grant. The plans being considered involve charging a 

fee to cross or travel within a downtown zone or cross major portals leading into 

San Francisco. So far, proposals have been controversial. There is considerable 

opposition especially from the business community who contend economic 

impacts in San Francisco may be unlike those in London and Stockholm where 

areawide schemes exist like the one proposed for the city. So far, this proposal is 

not included in the Regional Transportation Plan. 
Advancing Congestion Pricing in the Metropolitan Transportation Planning Process: Four Case Studies 

2-21

Adoption of the HOT Lane Network Required Extensive 

Consensus-Building 

Successful adoption of the new HOT network required building consensus 

among several stakeholders. Consensus focused on principles adopted with the 

network plan for revenues collected in a corridor to be returned to the same area 

for HOT development and operations. Other principles included maximum use 

of existing right-of-way, use of best technology, and a common system of marketing and branding. Much of the consensus-building occurred as MTC and 

regional partners developed proposed enabling legislation (AB 744). Though the 

legislation ultimately failed to progress, MTC is pursuing authority to implement 

the network under existing state law that allows for additional HOT lanes in 

northern California. MTC expects the principles developed through hard won 

consensus will endure. 

Revenue allocation was a major consideration. The counties with more remunerative express lane corridors expressed concern that net revenues would be 

diverted build HOT lanes with less revenue potential. The legislation addressed 

the concern by specifying that 95 percent of revenues would return to where 

collected and 5 percent would be a “backstop” for areas where net revenues are 

insufficient. 

Gaining consensus took time and effort. A special HOT Lanes Executive 

Committee was formed that included representatives from Caltrans, county congestion management agencies, BATA, and California Highway Patrol. Although 

automobile, truck, environmental, business interests, and cities were not formally 

represented on the committee, they were active through standing advisory 

committees for development of the Transportation 2035 Plan. 

Environmental groups raised concerns about the HOT network as “new highways in sheep’s clothing” contributing to more travel and emissions. 

Environmental concerns are one of several reasons AB 744 failed to progress. 

Other reasons included efforts by the state professional engineers’ union to seek 

guarantees of all work (which goes beyond current law), and a need to update 

revenue projections based on current economic trends. 

Another important negotiating point was between Caltrans and MTC on design 

issues of merging, ingress, and egress. Caltrans preferred separate acceleration 

and deceleration lanes with no mixing in general purpose lanes, increasing the 

freeway footprint. MTC desired less expansion. Final details of design were not 

settled and will be worked out as corridor plans develop. 

Income equity was raised in early planning for the I-680 HOT lane, but devoting 

significant revenues to transit patronized by lower-income groups has blunted 

criticism, as has independent analysis by academics at San Jose State. 
Advancing Congestion Pricing in the Metropolitan Transportation Planning Process: Four Case Studies 

2-22 

Air Quality Conformity Was Not a Significant Issue 

When reviewing the air quality impacts of the HOT lane network compared to 

regular HOV lane network, MTC estimated that CO emissions would be reduced 

by 10 million tons over 40 years because HOT provides higher speeds for more 

vehicles. There also would be expected CO2 and NOx benefits. However, specific new HOT lanes will require Environmental Impact Report (EIR) analysis. 

MTC Is Modifying Its Models to Address Road Pricing 

Analytical Needs 

The analysis of HOT lanes for the regional plan was done with the existing fourstep model. Future demand by vehicle class, income quartile and trip purpose 

was passed to a separate sketch-level toll optimization model to estimate traffic 

and revenue in the HOT lanes. Although the procedure allows for iterating 

between forecast with the regional travel demand model and the toll optimization model, this was not done for the HOT lane system study because of resource 

constraints. 

In large part due to increased attention to road pricing in the region, MTC is 

moving from trip- to activity-based modeling to give more precision to pricing 

analysis. The micro-simulation framework in which the activity-based model is 

applied allows MTC to assign a value of time for each synthetic person in the 

region, allowing each “traveler” to decide whether paying a toll is “worth it.” 

With representations of the number of household passengers in each part of a 

trip, representation of carpooling behavior is also improved, which is important 

for analysis of HOT lanes. Activity-based models also identify income categories 

to each household, which is useful in equity analysis. 

The model also has been modified to do better mode choice prediction since 

mode shift is an important impact of pricing. Both highway and transit path 

choice models are embedded in the trip mode choice model. The highway pathchoice models allow travelers to select the best “free” or “pay” path. 

Perhaps most important, MTC planners and analysts use the latest travel survey 

data from the Bay Area Transportation Survey to get accurate elasticities for 

modeling. Benefit/cost analysis is considered important for explaining the benefits of pricing and equity assessments by income group. 

Communications 

With respect to the HOT lane network, MTC framed communications (web site, 

press releases, etc.) to emphasize expediting development of HOV network over 

and above what regular funding would allow, with tolls from HOV contributing 

needed revenue. MTC also emphasized the return of revenue to the corridors 

where that revenue was generated and calling HOT lanes “express lanes,”

emphasized the concept of speeding travel. 
Advancing Congestion Pricing in the Metropolitan Transportation Planning Process: Four Case Studies 

2-23

The MTC web site references FHWA’s Value Pricing Pilot Program and a Reason 

Foundation paper on HOT networks. MTC’s frequently asked questions section 

of the web site explains the HOT concept, rationale, and timeline; and indicates 

that it is a well-tested concept. The web site emphasizes the attractiveness to 

expanding HOV and transit use, and addresses the oft-used moniker of HOT 

lanes as “Lexus lanes.” The web site also has links to other HOT projects in the 

United States. 

The HOT lane network plan stresses the collaborative effort needed to arrive at 

the plan, including agencies, business groups, and local governments. The plan 

also indicates that HOT principles would result in more throughput and reduced 

delays; benefits would be commensurate with revenues collected in a particular 

corridor; existing highway right-of-way would be used; designs would be tailored to each corridor, but there would be consistent geometrics and signage. 

Communication also pointed out the benefits for the economy through congestion management; health and safety; equitable mobility options. 

Summary of San Francisco Bay Area Experience 

After early attempts to implement/introduce congestion-pricing on the Bay 

Bridge, the Bay Area began looking at HOT lanes as other regions successfully 

implemented road pricing projects. The impetus began at the county level, but 

as several counties initiated studies, the Metropolitan Planning Commission, 

which functions as the region’s MPO, undertook comprehensive studies on a 

system of toll lanes that would have consistent operating characteristics and 

standards. 

Through extensive analytical studies, outreach, and consensus-building, MTC 

included a network of approximately 800 miles. The network promised to accelerate development of the long planned HOV network by adding the HOT 

component. 

Aside from the regional HOT lane system, the Bay Area Toll Authority recently 

adopted time-of-day tolls designed to spread demand and alleviate congestion, 

and the San Francisco County Transportation Authority is studying a cordon 

pricing concept similar to that enacted in London several years ago. 

Advancing Congestion Pricing in the Metropolitan Transportation Planning Process: Four Case Studies 

Appendix A 

A-1

A. Acronyms Used in This Report 

AAA American Automobile Association 

ABAG Association of Bay Area Governments (San Francisco Area) 

ACCMA Alameda County Congestion Management Agency 

BATA Bay Area Toll Authority 

BRT Bus Rapid Transit 

CDA Comprehensive Development Agreement 

CMA Congestion Management Agency 

CMP Congestion Management Plan 

CO Carbon Monoxide 

CO2 Carbon Dioxide 

EIR Environmental Impact Report 

EJ Environmental Justice 

FHWA Federal Highway Administration 

GPS Global Positioning System 

HOT High-Occupancy Toll 

HOV High-Occupancy Vehicle 

ISTEA Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act of 1991 

Mn/DOT Minnesota Department of Transportation 

MnPASS Managed Express Lanes in Minnesota 

MOVES Motor Vehicle Emissions Simulator Model 

MPO Metropolitan Planning Organization 

MTC Metropolitan Transportation Commission 

(San Francisco Bay Area) 

MTP Metropolitan Transportation Plan 

NCTCOG North Central Texas Council of Governments 

(Dallas/Fort Worth Area) 

NEPA National Environmental Policy Act 

NOx Nitrogen Oxide 

NTTA North Texas Tollway Authority 
Advancing Congestion Pricing in the Metropolitan Transportation Planning Process: Four Case Studies 

Appendix A 

A-2 

PGBT President George Bush Turnpike 

PPP Public Private Partnership 

PSRC Puget Sound Regional Council (Seattle Region) 

RTC Regional Transportation Council 

SFCTA San Francisco County Transportation Authority 

SH State Highway 

SR State Route 

TIP Transportation Improvement Program 

TOM Toll Optimization Model 

TTA Texas Turnpike Authority 

TxDOT Texas Department of Transportation 

UPA Urban Partnership Agreement 

U.S. DOT U.S. Department of Transportation 

VMT Vehicle-Miles Traveled 

VPPP Value Pricing Pilot Program 

WSDOT Washington State Department of Transportation 
Advancing Congestion Pricing in the Metropolitan Transportation Planning Process: Four Case Studies 

Appendix B 

B-1

B. References 

B.1 Dallas/Fort Worth Region Case Study 

Mobility 2030, 2009 Amendment, especially Sections 1 and 17. 

http://www.nctcog.org/trans/mtp/2030/2009Amendment.asp. 

Managed Lanes Implementation in Dallas/Fort Worth, Presentation to Tarrant 

Regional Transportation Coalition, March 4, 2009, by Maribel Chavez, P.E., 

TxDOT and Michael Morris, P.E., NCTCOG. http://www.nctcog.org/trans/

presentations/TRTC_ManagedLanes_030409.pdf. 

2005 Regional Value Pricing Corridor Evaluation and Feasibility Study, prepared 

by URS, for NCTCOG. http://www.nctcog.dst.tx.us/trans/mtp/valuepricing/

index.asp. 

RTC tolling policies. http://www.nctcog.dst.tx.us/trans/committees/rtc/

index.asp. 

Developing Procedures for the Determination of Mobile Source Air Toxics 

(MSAT) and EJ Impacts, presentation by Dan Lamers, NCTCOG to IBTTA 

Facilities Management Workshop, April 28, 2008. 

B.2 Puget Sound Region Case Study 

The PSRC web site has considerable information about the plan and the analytical details on its web site. In particular: 

 Transportation 2040. http://psrc.org/transportation/t2040/t2040-pubs/

final-draft-transportation-2040; and 

 Transportation 2040: Draft Environmental Impact Statement. 

http://www.psrc.org/transportation/t2040/t2040-pubs/trans2040-deis/. 

These appendices in particular shed light on analytical techniques: 

 Appendix E: Technical Description of the Modeling Framework; 

 Appendix K: Data Analysis and Forecasting at the PSRC: New Tools Within 

and Integrated Modeling Framework; and 

 Benefit/Cost Analysis web page, with several helpful references: 

http://www.psrc.org/data/models/benefit/cost analysis/. 
Advancing Congestion Pricing in the Metropolitan Transportation Planning Process: Four Case Studies 

Appendix B 

B-2 

B.3 Minneapolis/St. Paul Region Case Study 

2010 Transportation Policy Plan, Adopted 2009, Amended 2010, Metropolitan 

Council. http://www.metrocouncil.org/planning/transportation/TPP/2008/

index.htm. 

Minnesota Department of Transportation I-394 MnPASS Technical Evaluation, 

Final Report. Prepared by Cambridge Systematics, Inc. November 2006. 

http://www.mnpass.org/pdfs/394mnpass_tech_eval.pdf. 

Buckeye, K.R., and L.W. Munnich, Jr. Value Pricing Education and Outreach 

Model: I-394 MnPASS Community Task Force. In Transportation Research 

Record No. 1960, Transportation Research Board, National Research Council. 

Washington, D.C. 2006. 

Munnich, L.W., Jr., and K.R. Buckeye. I-394 MnPASS High-Occupancy Toll 

Lanes: Planning and Operational Issues and Outcomes (Lessons Learned in 

Year 1). Transportation Research Record No. 1996, Transportation Research 

Board, National Research Council. Washington, D.C. 2007. 

MnPASS System Study, Prepared by Cambridge Systematics, Inc., 2005. 

http://www.mnpass.org/systemstudy_archive.html. 

Rebecca Kalauskas, Brian D. Taylor, and Hiroyuki Isek. Motivations Behind 

Electronic Road Pricing. What is the Driving Force Behind the Worldwide Rise 

in Tolling? A Review of Innovative Road Pricing from Across the Globe, 

UCB-ITS-PRR-2009-16, California PATH Research Report, page 2. 

http://www.path.berkeley.edu/PATH/Publications/PDF/PRR/2009/

PRR-2009-16.pdf. 

Kenneth Buckeye and Adeel Lari. Measuring Perceptions of Road Pricing 

Alternatives: Minnesota Public Outreach Effort, Transportation Research 

Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board, Transportation Research 

Board of the National Academies, ISSN0361-1981, Volume 1558/1996. 

http://trb.metapress.com/content/e628t42847624478/. 

Fact sheet. http://www.dot.state.mn.us/upa/documents/legfactsheet0309.pdf. 

Overall information, reference to other cities. http://www.dot.state.mn.us/upa/. 

Publicity video. http://www.hhh.umn.edu/centers/slp/vp/vp_org/about/

videos.html. 

I-35 customer information, MnPASS outreach events, survey results, operations. 

http://www.mnpass.org/outreach.html. 

Minnesota Statues 160.84 through 160.93, available at: https://www.revisor.mn.gov/

revisor/pages/statute/statute_chapter_toc.php?year=2006&chapter=160. 
Advancing Congestion Pricing in the Metropolitan Transportation Planning Process: Four Case Studies 

Appendix B 

B-3

B.4 San Francisco Bay Area Case Study 

2030 Plan. http://www.mtc.ca.gov/planning/2035_plan/index.htm. 

HOT Principles. http://www.mtc.ca.gov/planning/hov/Res3868_Att_B-HOT_

Network_Principles.pdf. 

HOT Lane Analysis. http://www.mtc.ca.gov/planning/hov/HOT_Phase_3_

report/2_HOT_Lanes_Final_Report.pdf. 

FAQ. http://www.mtc.ca.gov/planning/hov/faq.htm. 

Bay Bridge Pricing proposal. http://www.mtc.ca.gov/news/info/toll_

increase.htm. 

Bay Bridge Pricing Proposal Power Point. http://www.mtc.ca.gov/news/info/

2009/Toll_Increase_Recommendation_12-9-09.pdf. 

Bay Bridge Pricing Analysis Power Point. http://apps.mtc.ca.gov/meeting_

packet_documents/agenda_1367/3_TollIncreaseRecommendationFinal.pdf. 

Advancing Congestion Pricing in the Metropolitan Transportation Planning Process: Four Case Studies 

Appendix C 

C-1

C. Literature Review 

The team conducted a literature review of both planning process reports and 

congestion pricing reports to identify important themes and trends that would 

form the foundation for the case study interviews. 

Decision-Making Framework for Pricing Decisions 

“Improved Framework and Tools for Highway Pricing Decisions, Draft Final 

Report Volume I: Decision-Making Framework for Highway Pricing Decisions,”

Project NCHRP HR 08-57, Prepared by Parsons Brinckerhoff, Inc., July 2008. 

In a review of planning for road pricing projects, Parsons Brinckerhoff, Inc. (PB) 

recommends four phases in the planning of road pricing projects: from 

1) exploration to; 2) option development; 3) feasibility assessment; and 

4) investment or finance study. PB indicates the phases follow traditional transportation planning. However, some findings and recommendations of relevance 

to integrating road pricing into planning: 

 Finance Phase of Planning – PB indicates the investment and finance phase 

of study for road pricing, while common to many transportation planning 

activities, entails unique tasks. For projects financed by debt backed 

proceeds for future tolls, an “Investment Grade Study” is needed to finalize 

funding arrangements in a “Financial Plan,” the formal document that details 

a project’s cost estimate, revenue structure, and financial resources. Projects 

not relying upon debt finance based on future tolls do not require this step 

but still require detailed finance analysis. 

 Planning by Project or Comprehensively – PB suggest “two broad approaches 

may be used to initiate and assess tolling and pricing, including a comprehensive approach going through the four phases identified or a project 

approach focusing on a specific corridor or area.” As PB notes, both 

approaches “are valid” and, “this research effort demonstrates that a flexible 

decision-making framework is likely to incorporate both approaches, capitalizing on their respective strengths” and tailored to reflect “regional transportation needs, institutional arrangements, and politics.” Examples of 

comprehensive approaches are cited in the SF Bay Area, Washington State, 

Colorado, Atlanta, and Texas. 

 From Projects to Regional Assessments – PB finds, “Many regions begin 

their experience with pricing as a result of low-hanging fruit situations where 

there is a clear logic behind the use of tolls on a new or existing facility. If 

pricing is implemented successfully ... a region may consider embarking on a 

comprehensive assessment of pricing in other settings, with subsequent 

projects moving forward for further assessment as a result.”
Advancing Congestion Pricing in the Metropolitan Transportation Planning Process: Four Case Studies 

Appendix C 

C-2 

 Matching Pricing to Goals and Contexts – PB proposes road pricing planning should match up types of pricing options with appropriate goals and 

contexts. PB suggests HOT conversions, existing tollways, new facilities, and 

other concepts are best suited to varying goals and conditions and a planning 

approach needs to select concepts accordingly. Likewise, the exact form of 

pricing needs to match the congestion problem. Thus, integrating road 

pricing in to planning depends on how pricing strategies fit with local, 

regional, and state goals and priorities around congestion, finance, and the 

environment. 

 Environmental Review and Road Pricing – PB notes environmental reviews 

as part of road pricing planning vary with state law and custom suggesting 

integration of road pricing into planning will vary by location. They note, “In 

certain cases, the consideration of tolling and pricing may be introduced 

while the environmental process is underway or even after it has been completed.” At a minimum, this change would require a reevaluation of the 

analyses completed. The level of detail of the reevaluation depends on the 

circumstances surrounding the particular project. In situations where the 

introduction of tolling and pricing is determined to be “significant,” a supplemental environmental impact statement must be prepared. 

 Modeling and Road Pricing – PB finds planning for road pricing is an 

“intense endeavor” given “behavioral models must consider both tolled and 

nontolled alternatives, as well as multiple tolling scenarios. Standards can be 

particularly high when private sector investment is involved (to meet 

bonding requirements).”

 Legal and Legislative Matters – PB notes an important stepping stone in the 

planning process is assessing legal and legislative requirements. Planning 

will vary depending in large measure on Federal aid to facilities. PB notes, 

“State and local jurisdictions have the greatest flexibility to implement tolling 

and pricing on local roads and highways that have been, or will be built 

without Federal funding. Greater restrictions apply when tolling and pricing 

are used on the Federal Aid Highway System, or on HOV lanes or busways 

funded with transit monies. As a result of these restrictions, the vast majority 

of tolling and pricing projects implemented over the past 50 years have 

involved either new state or county toll roads or the expansion of preexisting 

toll facilities that have been incorporated into the Interstate Highway 

System.” Likewise, “Various state and local authorities also are needed to 

implement tolling and pricing projects. Local legal requirements are dictated 

by state and local statutes and regulations, as well as pricing and toll collection 

policies and mechanisms used to raise financing. Policy-makers interested in 

pursuing tolling and pricing projects should consult with legal experts to 

identify the specific requirements that would apply in their regions.”
Advancing Congestion Pricing in the Metropolitan Transportation Planning Process: Four Case Studies 

Appendix C 

C-3

 Screening Criteria – PB enumerates several planning screening criteria 

important to consider as road pricing is integrated into planning: 

– Congestion relief potential; 

– Consistency with state and regional plan goals; 

– Ability to improve the efficiency of the regional transportation network; 

– Public acceptance; 

– Institutional feasibility; 

– Safety impacts; 

– Order-of-magnitude construction cost; 

– Revenue generation potential; and 

– Financial viability. 

Domestic Scan of Congestion Pricing and Managed Lanes 

A Domestic Scan of Congestion Pricing and Managed Lanes, prepared for the Federal 

Highway Administration, U.S. DOT, DKS Associates, with PBSJ and Jack Faucett 

Associates, February 2009. 

This recent survey by DKS Associates of selected MPOs and state DOTs in 

10 metropolitan areas examined how they are planning for congestion pricing 

and managed lanes. Important findings for integrating road pricing into planning include: 

 From Projects to Plans – The study found initiation of congestion pricing in 

eight metropolitan areas with pricing projects “has started with individual 

projects,” versus deriving from within regional plans themselves. Specifically, “In most cases, the desirability of a congestion pricing or managed 

lanes project did not emerge directly from a congestion management plan 

(CMP) assessment of options,” and “most congestion pricing or managed 

lanes projects are ... initiated and advocated for by agencies within the metropolitan area and are incorporated into the Metropolitan Transportation 

Plan (MTP) and the Transportation Improvement Plan (TIP) by the MPO as 

updates of these documents occur.” One example is how HOT lanes gradually developed into the regional plan as a network approach within the San 

Francisco Bay Area. There, “the initiative for the HOT lane projects came first 

from the ACCMA and the Santa Clara County CMA (the Santa Clara Valley 

Transportation Authority).” Thereafter, “The MPO (MTC) took the lead to 

develop the regional plan for a HOT lane network.” Nor did state agencies 

generally derive congestion pricing projects from within broad or systematic 

planning efforts but instead came from site-specific studies. Specifically, 

“The state DOT was often the initiator but survey respondents generally did 

not indicate that the projects proposed were part of the statewide planning 

effort.”
Advancing Congestion Pricing in the Metropolitan Transportation Planning Process: Four Case Studies 

Appendix C 

C-4 

However, the report also finds as interest has moved from individual projects 

to regional approaches, “integration into the metropolitan planning process 

also has increased.” Specifically, MPOs are making “a greater effort to provide an appropriate interagency collaborative process for identifying the 

need for the projects, identifying the options and alternatives to be considered, formulating an appropriate evaluation process, seeking public and 

stakeholder input, and identifying a preferred approach.”

 Exemplary Approaches – The report identifies some “exemplary approaches”

to planning useful for consideration in integrating road pricing into planning. 

The report points to the Seattle area where PSRC has updated its CMP to: 

“... identify the location where congestion is greatest and potential future 

locations for possible application of congestion pricing; specify pricing, 

demand management and system management strategies as specific options; 

establish a specific evaluation method (in this case, benefit/cost analysis 

model) as well as other more traditional performance measures such as 

safety, reliability, access as well as delay; coordinate with Washington DOT 

long-range transportation plan, to insure it incorporates outcomes of the MTP 

update.”

 Revenues – Another important finding relevant to integrating road pricing 

into regional and state planning has to do with revenues. The report finds in 

Minnesota, a policy position has evolved in the MTP pertaining to road 

pricing revenues. Policy indicates “revenue generated from the managed 

lanes will be used for the cost of implementation and maintenance. The net 

revenue from the I-394 MnPASS project has not been sufficiently large to 

warrant consideration of these revenues in the MTP financial constraint.” 

Likewise in Virginia with the adoption of the I-95/I-395 HOT lane project 

into the 2007 MTP, policy sets out how revenue obtained will be used to 

cover the costs of each project, and excess revenue will be used to fund transit improvements. 

 Air Quality – The report notes the importance of road pricing plans meeting 

air quality requirements, suggesting integration of road pricing into planning 

must take into account air quality requirements and assessment processes. 

The study found all HOT land projects reviewed involved assessing air quality impacts and attending to mitigation to meet National Environmental 

Policy Act (NEPA) and/or CEQA requirements. One MPO in Kansas City, 

MARC, is attempting to make environmental review and analysis integral to 

regional planning rather than analysis done after projects are identified. The 

initiative is entitled Linking Environmental and Transportation Planning. 

 Models/Analysis – Integration of road pricing into planning depends on 

good modeling and analysis. The analysis of congestion pricing among the 

metropolitan areas surveyed relied on the regional travel model for analysis. 

The model often is supplemented by other tools with added sensitivity to 

pricing and/or for analysis of costs and benefits. Microsimulation models 
Advancing Congestion Pricing in the Metropolitan Transportation Planning Process: Four Case Studies 

Appendix C 

C-5

have been used to assess the travel time and level of service associated with 

alternative pricing scenarios, level of service, traffic impacts on local streets 

and general purpose lanes, as well as the impacts to lower-income travelers. 

Other common performance measures include vehicle-miles traveled, emission volumes, vehicles-hours traveled, and individual and network delays 

savings. Proprietary toll revenue models have been used for analyses in 

some areas. 

Advancing Congestion Pricing in the Metropolitan Transportation Planning Process: Four Case Studies 

Appendix D 

D-1

D. Interview Guide 

1. Road Pricing Projects and Programs in your region: 

a. Let’s start by confirming what has been proposed in the past 10 years by 

your agency or others in your area of jurisdiction? 

b. What is committed to in the sense of pending implementation? 

c. What has moved forward into implemented project, if any? 

2. What (if any) road pricing strategies currently are being considered in the 

MTP, Constrained Long-Range Plan, TIP, or other relevant agency plans? 

a. To what extent did the road pricing proposals emerge from the regional 

planning process via vision, goals, criteria, deficiencies, and finance 

assumptions, versus coming from outside the planning process (such as 

individual project proposals)? 

b. If proposals originated outside the regional plan process via vision, goals, 

criteria, deficiencies, and finance assumptions, were they later incorporated into the plan, and if so, how? 

3. To what extent did the role of conformity, or other air quality planning, figure in the pricing proposals now in agency plans? 

a. If air quality did play a role in planning, what was the significance of climate change or other specific air quality issues? 

b. Did air quality provide an incentive or a hindrance to pricing planning 

and implementation, or some combination? 

4. To what (if any) extent did financial considerations influence congestion 

pricing proposals in your region? 

5. To what extent if any is road pricing combined in a package with other transportation improvements or initiatives? 

a. Transit? 

b. Other? 

6. What plans have been outlined for distribution/use of potential excess revenue from the pricing strategy? 

a. Were there any legal or constitutional restrictions to consider? 

b. To what extent were any such requirements a factor in developing the 

plans? 
Advancing Congestion Pricing in the Metropolitan Transportation Planning Process: Four Case Studies 

Appendix D 

D-2 

7. Agency Roles. The role Federal, state, or local regulations and guidelines 

play in spurring or hindering current road pricing plans. 

a. Role of Federal programs, such as: Urban Partnerships; Value Pricing Pilot; 

Express Lanes Demonstration (ELD); Congestion Reduction Demonstration 

(CRD); Section 166 HOV to HOT; Interstate tolling restrictions; 

b. Role of state DOT; 

c. Role of MPO; 

d. Role of other regional agencies (such as congestion management agencies 

if they exist, or transit agencies); and 

e. Role of municipalities or counties. 

8. Analytical methods and issues. 

a. Analytical approaches used to evaluate pricing proposals now in plans. 

Use of models in analysis, including which models were used, strengths 

and weaknesses, any modifications; interface with regional transportation 

and air quality models; foreseeable improvements, changes in response to 

issues that were identified. Particular topics: 

i. Transportation effects (e.g., volumes, VMT, transit ridership, trip 

reduction, elimination, diversion); 

ii. Transportation effects (e.g., congestion levels, level of service, corridor 

speed, system speed, transit ridership); 

iii. Revenues; 

iv. Costs/benefits; 

v. Equity; and 

vi. Other? 

9. Communications and consensus-building. 

a. How road pricing strategies are framed and objectives communicated; 

b. If/how views of stakeholders, interest groups, key decision-makers for 

and against were assessed and taken into account toward acceptable 

compromises; if/how nurturing of champions and allies was done; 

c. If/how packaged with transit; 

d. Revenue distribution plan; 

e. Treatment of “stick point” issues, e.g., equity, effectiveness, economy 

impacts, revenue redistribution; 

f. Samples of perceived successful or problematic communication methods 

or approaches (flyers, newsletters, press releases, public hearing materials, brochures, web information, opinion/attitudinal surveys); and 

g. For ongoing programs, customer information materials (e.g., newsletters, 

mailings, and web information). Pros/cons of each. 
Advancing Congestion Pricing in the Metropolitan Transportation Planning Process: Four Case Studies 

Appendix D 

D-3

10. Contingencies for potential negative impacts, e.g., technology or operations 

glitches, enforcement problems, lower than expected revenues, etc. 

11. References. 

a. Analytic, modeling experts; 

b. Personnel in public relations or elsewhere directly responsible for relevant communications; and 

c. Relevant reports, meeting minutes, in-house documents, consultant studies, web sites. 
U.S. Department of Transportation 

Federal Highway Administration 

Office of Operations (HOP) 

Mail Stop: E86-205 

1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE 

Washington, DC 20590 

Report No. FHWA-HOP-11-002