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Consumer

Information

 Printed on Recycled Paper

United States

Environmental Protection

Agency

Air and Radiation EPA420-F-97-030

December 1997

Office of Mobile Sources

Congestion Pricing

Congestion pricing provides a disincentive to driving by imposing fees in

congested areas which vary depending on location, time or vehicle

occupancy. These fees are intended to reduce congestion and improve

air quality by encouraging people to change their travel patterns:

shifting to off-peak periods, less congested travel routes, higher

occupancy vehicles, or a different mode of transport (e.g., public transit,

walking, bicycling).

What is congestion pricing?

Congestion pricing refers to fees charged for driving on specific roadways during times of dense traffic. It serves to encourage drivers to

consider alternatives to driving alone (ride sharing), alternatives to

driving (e.g., public transit, walking, bicycling), different routes, or

different travel times. A congestion fee may be more or less expensive

depending on location, time of day, or the number of passengers in a

vehicle. Congestion pricing strategies fall under the jurisdiction of and

are implemented by municipal, regional or state governments.

Significance

Air pollution remains a problem for many areas across the country, even

though vehicles have become cleaner through technological innovation.

As regional, state, and local officials work to reduce mobile source air

pollution, the federal government, industry, and public interest organizations continue to identify alternative methods that have the potential to

reduce air pollution from mobile sources. Congestion pricing measures

are some of those options that use the market, rather than regulatory
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directives, to encourage the reduction of polluting activities or the

increase of less-polluting alternatives.

The goal of congestion pricing policies is to mitigate traffic congestion

and improve air quality. Congestion pricing strategies are designed to

shift travel to alternative modes, routes, destinations and/or time of day.

Some of these transportation modes and temporal travel shifts lead to

reduced vehicle trips and miles traveled, as well as improved traffic flow

or speeds.

Theoretically, emissions will be reduced somewhat from congestion

pricing measures because the imposed fees will result in some current

drivers switching from driving alone to car pooling or utilizing mass

transit. Thus, there will be fewer overall miles driven, which directly

eliminates the emission of harmful pollutants. The fewer miles that are

driven during peak hours (rush hour), the more traffic congestion is

reduced, which results in less idling. Idling is known to contribute

significantly to air pollution (e.g., carbon monoxide emissions and

smog).

In addition to goals of alleviating congestion problems and improving air

quality, other factors have led transportation authorities and air quality

regulators to consider congestion pricing measures. These include

continuing trends in metropolitan travel demand growth, the recognition

that construction of new road capacity may not always be feasible or

desirable, the development of new electronic tolling technologies with

potential to greatly reduce implementation costs, and the need for new

infrastructure investment revenue sources.

Additional Benefits

Besides improving air quality and reducing congestion, other environmental and financial benefits may result from congestion pricing policies. In terms of environmental benefits, both oil and fuel consumption

are reduced. Potentially, drivers have the opportunity to save time and

money. Drivers that choose to pay higher congestion fees in order to

access less congested roadways such as high occupancy vehicle lanes

(HOV) will save time due to more free flowing traffic. People who

decide to forgo driving altogether and opt to use mass transit will save

money due to reduced or eliminated vehicle operation and maintenance

costs. Additionally, as more people switch to mass transit, more revenue
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will be generated that may be used for transportation improvements.

Congestion pricing also has the virtue of charging more of the costs of

building new road capacity to those who create the demand, rather than

charging drivers in general or charging all taxpayers, regardless of

whether they drive at all or use the congested facilities.

Some Concerns

Although congestion pricing has the potential to be a way of apportioning the use of limited metropolitan road space and to be a cost-effective

strategy to reduce mobile source air emissions and energy consumption,

many local and regional government officials have been reluctant to

implement congestion pricing measures because of institutional barriers

and the lack of political acceptance. Critical political and institutional

issues include public opposition to any new taxes or fees, geographic

and economic equity concerns, lack of regional transportation coordination, and the lack of alternatives to driving alone during peak traffic

periods.

For Further Information

For more information on congestion pricing, please contact Joann

Jackson-Stephens at:

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

2565 Plymouth Road

Ann Arbor, MI 48105

Phone: (734) 668-4276

Fax: (734) 668-4531

Email: jackson-stephens.joann@epamail.epa.gov

This fact sheet and additional information on transportation and air

quality are available electronically from the EPA Internet World Wide

Web (WWW) site at:

http://www.epa.gov/OMSWWW/transp.htm