US grants $838m to 5 metro areas for tolling, transit, telecommutes & technology - ADDITIONS

US transport secretary Mary Peters has announced $838m of grants to New York City, San Francisco, Seattle, Minneapolis and Miami for congestion relief programs each of which involves tolls. The grants are part of an Urban Partners program under which 26 states and metro areas submitted proposals. The five selected were judged by USDOT to be the most effective.

The New York City grant of $354m will help to implement Mayor Bloomberg's plans for improving mobility via a congestion charge south of 86th Street and other improvements.

Grants for study alone were rejected. The grants announced are for implementation of the pricing plan and the grant to NYC is conditional on the congestion charge getting final clearance in the state legislature.

Tolls need to be variable by time of day or by density of traffic to be effective in combatting congestion, so most of the schemes will involve toll rate variability. As well as tolls the plans had to provide for improvements in transit, telecommuting and technology.

All the chosen urban partners sign an agreement in which they state: "congestion is one of the greatest threats to our nation's economic prosperity and way of life. Whether it takes the form of trucks stalled in traffic, cargo stuck at overwhelmed seaports, or airplanes stuck on the tarmac, congestion costs the nation an estimated $200b a year. The problem of traffic congestion in our major metropolitan areas in particular is severe and worsening. In 2003 traffic jams in the nation's largest 85 urban areas cost Americans 3.7b hours and 2.3b gallons of fuel. Congestion is also affecting the quality of life in America by robbing us of time that could be spent with families and friends and in participation in civic life. The signatories to this MOU do not believe that gridlock is our inevitable fate."

Many MPOs and DOTs around the country believe exactly that gridlock is inevitable, and have planned for worsening congestion in their longrange transportation plans. Transit enthusiasts and environmentalists regard congestion as their friend. They see worsening road congestion as likely to thwart the growing use of motor vehicles and an encouragement to people to ride bicycles, trains and buses, and to walk.

All projects involving the federal grant must be complete by 2009-09-30.

see http://www.fightgridlocknow.gov/

New York City

The New York congestion pricing program is now being cast as a 3 year pilot program. A day pass will be needed 06:00 to 18:00 Monday thru Friday for travel in the central area pricing zone - Manhattan south of 86th Street. The day pass will be $8 for outside cars (those entering or leaving) and $4 for inside cars (those resident within the zone) with outside trucks paying $21 and inside trucks $5.50. There will be discounts for low-emissions trucks. Rebates off these tolls will be granted for those with transponders.

The central area toll is forecast to reduce car traffic in the zone 11% and to reduce delays by 20 to 40%, decrease pollution emissions 6 to 12%, and increase transit use by 94k/day.

The grant of $355m goes heavily to transit improvements.

One of these is an exclusive bus lane on the East River.

The termsheet for an agreement with NYC is here.

San Francisco

San Francisco's plan called "Accelerate" involves:
- a variable price toll at Doyle Drive on traffic going to or from the Golden Gate Bridge
- variably priced parking downtown and in approach corridors
- toll lanes on I-580 and I-680 Alameda Co to San Jose
- toll lanes managed network in Silicon Valley (Santa Clara Co) including construction of three toll lane to toll lane direct connector ramps at interchanges (CA85/US101 South, CA85/US101 North, CA237/I-680)
- BRT and transit priority streets

The termsheet for an agreement with San Francisco for a $159m grant is here.

Seattle

Seattle's congestion relief plan focusses heavily on tolls on the Lake Washington bridge and approaches designated State Route 520 (WA520) presently 2x2 lanes. Tolling of the bridge will help fund the project to replace the bridge witha new 2x3 lane facility, manage traffic for free flow and support bus rapid transit operations.

There was already agreement that the new bridge would be tolled but this will advance tolling by applying it to the existing facility. Variable tolls may also be extended to I-90, the parallel east-west route to the south of WA520 which also is heavily constrained in right of way width.

The Washington state presentation concentrated heavily on the damage done by lane overload - "the amazing shrinking freeway" they called it with throughput dropping to about 60% of the normal 2,000 to 1200 vehicles/lane/hour in peak hours when flow has broken down. They want to manage traffic so speeds of over 50mph (80km/hr) are maintained on expressways.

The termsheet for an agreement with Seattle for a $139m grant is here.

Minneapolis-StPaul

Minnesota DOT declares HOT lanes managed with dynamic pricing based on lane density to be "a proven success". Their plan:
- conversion of HOV to toll lanes on I-35W the major north south route through the middle of the region
- a new concept of dynamically priced shoulder lanes (PDSL) after restriping main lanes to 3.3m (11ft) and rebuilding merge areas
- accelerated BRT
- expanded park-&-ride and express bus facilities
- developing six other priced corridors - I494, US169 off I-394, I-35 and MN77 off I-35W, I-94 east of StPaul, and MN36 and I-35E to the northeast
- 19 lowcost improvements with big congestion relief payoffs including improved geometrics of ramps, ramp meters, signal retiming, signing and striping changes
- variable speed limits and lane controls as in UK's M42
- detailed focus on congestion relief in planning

The termsheet for an agreement with Minneapolis is here.

The planned federal grant is $133m.

Miami

Maimi has huge traffic volumes on I-95 - on the busiest stretch just south of the Golden Glades IC 300k/day putting it right up there in daily volumes with I-5, I-405, I-110 in Los Angeles, US101 in San Francisco, H401 in Toronto, I-75/85 in Atlanta, the George Washington Bridge NY-NJ. There are four free general purpose lanes and a single HOV lane each direction. Flow in both regularly breaks down from overload.

The immediate plan for the 34km (21 miles) from I-595 IC in Fr Lauderdale to I-395/FL836 in downtown Miami is to maintain the existing 2x4 free lanes (F) but to get rid of the single pure HOV lane (H), restripe the leftside lanes to 3.3m (11ft) and eliminate the leftside shoulder to get two toll lanes (T) in each direction for a FFFF/TT/TT/FFFF format in place of the present FFFF/H/H/FFFF. There would be only five entries and exits to the toll lanes encouraging their use for longer trips and they would be managed for free flow with variable toll rates.

COMMENT: Hopefully the toll lanes on I-95 won't delay a revival of the better Central Expressway project that was at an advanced planning stage in 2004 by the Miami Dade Expressway before mindless anti-road opposition got it shelved. Planned to run parallel with I-95 but 6km (4 miles) west along the right of way of the CSX/Amtrak rail lines through gritty commercial areas it would help the economy of a rather depressed area of Miami, provide more direct connections to Miami Airport and a real alternative to I-95 for many trips.

see http://www.tollroadsnews.com/node/749

The Miami I-95 toll lanes would be part of a planned area network of managed lanes. It is also made the centerpiece of new bus rapid transit routes spreading out in northern Miami Dade and Broward counties. The project is estimated to save 21 minutes in travel time Ft Launderdale to Miami and 15mins in what is now a 30min bus trip Golden Glades to Miami and make trip times more dependable.

Costs of phase 1 are quite modest:
- minor roadworks, upgrade of I-95/FL112 IC $65m
- ITS $22m
- BRT capital $10m

The termsheet for an agreement with Miami for a $63m grant is here.

Dallas

The Dallas proposal, one of several losers had little new pricing - just I-30. Also a proposal to price a new HOV direct ramp on I-635.

San Diego

Another loser San Diego has a longterm plan for an extensive network of toll managed lanes most supporting express bus, and they are expanding the successful I-15 toll HOT lanes. Their most interesting proposal is on I-805, a north-south route parallel to I-5 where they plan:
- a new 32km (20mi) BRT route
- automated lane keeping (steering) for trucks
- variable pricing applied to ramp meters with 107 candidate locations

Atlanta

Georgia Tolls proposed using their Cruise Card technology - eGo sticker tags and TransCore systems -  for dynamic pricing. The first project proposed was taking and expanding on existing HOV lanes I-85 outside the I-285 Perimeter highway and to the northeast of central Atlanta, then extending it through the network of radials - I-75 north and south and I-20.

The Atlanta presentation makes a powerful case for the proposal but we hear it was not judged to have firm enough local political support. It had letters of support from the Governor and Lt-Gov and the chair of Senate transportation but not from the state secretary of transportation.

see presentations from TRB
http://www.trb-pricing.org/modules.php?name=Downloads&d_op=viewdownload&cid=15

TOLLROADSnews 2007-08-15 COMPLETED THIS REPORT 2007-08-20