US GAO review of congestion pricing projects - useful listing, political speculation

A US GAO review of some 41 road pricing projects sponsored by some 19 tollers around the US finds they have produced some useful benefits in reducing congestion but suggests various 'equity concerns' may hamper them increasingly in the future. The report is most useful as a listing of the projects and their various characteristics. It does no new evaluation, relying on on past assessments of the various projects so there is no big news here, just useful documentation.

Almost all the show improved travel times for those paying the tolls, a few show small improvements for others, most don't.

Many of the projects involve some capacity additions and it is tough to know how much the extra roadspace of the projects contributes to improved performance, as compared to the pricing. The studies aren't up to showing the pricing helped, though it almost certainly did.

The report defines congestion pricing:

"Congestion pricing is designed to improve the flow of traffic by charging drivers a toll that can vary with the level of congestion or time of day. Drivers pay a higher price for using a lane or roadway at times of heavy traffic, and a lower price when and where traffic is light. To avoid toll payment, drivers may choose to share rides, use transit, travel at less congested (generally off-peak) times, or travel on less congested routes. Drivers who place a high value on time may choose to pay the toll to use the priced lane during congested times in return for a faster and more reliable trip. Alternatively, drivers who wish to pay a discounted toll on an already tolled roadway can travel at off-peak times."

And the rationale:

"…congestion pricing has the potential to alleviate congestion on roadways in an economically efficient way. Those who value a fast and reliable trip will pay for the option. Drivers who place a lower value on time will choose to stay in the unpriced and potentially more congested roadways. Economists believe that congestion pricing can also enhance economic efficiency by making drivers take into account the external costs they impose on others when making their travel choices. Any given driver’s highway use entails extra costs that the driver does not bear, in the form of congestion, noise, and pollution. Thus, paying a toll that reflects a driver’s value of time and covers external costs can potentially reduce congestion and the demand for road space at peak periods. We have reported that the existing infrastructure can be managed more efficiently and that congestion pricing could be one method to do so."

The report divides congestion pricing projects into two types:

(1) 14 toll managed lanes usually called HOT Lanes by professionals or Express Lanes (official naming and MUTCD term) where toll rates are set to prevent overloading the lanes and maintain speeds of about 45mph to 55mph either by dynamic pricing with variable message signs or with published schedules of different toll rates by time of day that are revised whenever necessary by traffic management criteria

(2) peakhour premiums/off-peak discounts on existing tolled facilities

Of the 41 pricing projects 30 are completed and open to traffic, 12 toll managed lanes and 18 peak price premium toll facilities.

Operating toll lanes are listed as:

- CA91 in Orange Co CA 2x2 lanes 10mi

- CA/ I-15 San Diego 4 lanes moveable barrier 20mi

- CA/I-680 Bay area

- WA167 Seattle 2x1 lanes

- UT/I-15 Express Lanes Salt Lake City 2x1 lanes

- CO/I-25 Denver most 2x1 lanes

- MN/I-394 Minneapolis most 2x1 lanes, some 2 lanes revrsible

- MN/I-35W Minneapolis

- TX/I-10 Houston 2x2 lanes

- TX/US290 Houston 2x1 lanes

- GA/I-85 Atlanta 2x1 lanes

- FL/I-95 Miami 2x2 lanes

The 18 toll facilities reported with peak/off-peak toll rate differentials are:

- four Orange county tollroads south of Los Angeles CA73, CA241, CA261, CA133

- San Francisco Oakland Bay Bridge

- WA520 bridge Seattle

- MD200 ICC

- 2 bridges Lee Co FL

- Dulles Greenway VA

- Pocahontas Parkway Richmond VA

- New Jersey Turnpike

- 6 PANYNJ crossings NY-NJ, Geo Washington Bridge, Lincoln Tunnel, Holland Tunnel, Outerbridge, Goethals, Bayonne

Eleven toll lane projects are under construction and two of the 12 operating HOT lanes are being extended.

Whole networks of toll lanes are part of longterm plans or under study in five metro areas: Atlanta, Dallas, Minneapolis, San Francisco, and Seattle. But it is not yet clear if or how many of these will come into operation.

GAO found that of the 30 pricing projects in operation 14 have had serious assessments done of their performance - five toll lanes and nine of the peak/off-peak differentiated toll facilities. No cross project evaluation has been done and the evaluations vary partly because of different emphases and issues.

"Congestion pricing has, where evaluated, helped reduce congestion. However, it is difficult to draw overall conclusions about the effectiveness of pricing because only half the sponsors with projects now open to traffic have evaluated their projects. Other results, where available, are mixed, as project sponsors have used different measures to assess performance and little has been done to compare performance across projects. Where congestion pricing projects have also added lanes, the results of pricing have not been distinguished from the results of adding capacity. Finally, congestion pricing’s impact on traveler behavior and equity has yet to be fully explored."

Travel times improved on at least some segments of all five toll lanes projects. One of these, the first investors-built (Cofiroute)  involved new lanes - CA91. FL/I-95 Miami was a mix of conversion of HOV and gaining a second or extra lane by restriping to narrow GP lanes and using shoulder. CA/I-15 SANDAG is a mix of conversion and extra lanes. WA167 and MN/I-394 were straight conversions HOV-HOT.

All provided the option of a faster trip for the toll while maintaining HOV fast trips, and sometimes also helped the tax-supported lanes alongside, sometimes didn't affect them significantly. All toll lane projects showed an improvement in throughput over their previous use. But isolating the conribution of pricing as such has not provided possible for those where there were new lanes.

On the New Jersey Turnpike off-peak discounts coincided with the introduction of peak hour tolling so there is a similar problem in isolating causes of improved travel times.

Peakhour tolls found no discernible change in throughput but reduced congestion delays. This was not spectacular. GAO says the the studies show "some success in reducing reducing congestion during peak times." Most of the effect was in moving some trips to before the peak hour or after it.

Express bus service has been quite successful in a couple of the corridors, according to GAO, but an equal number showed no change.

Equity - code word for the big redistributionist, spoils system government

Studies of 'equity' showed little change, the projects tending to benefit all income groups though not equally.

On 'equity' the geographic aspect of tolls collected on one road being used for the benefit of other roads, or other modes, is a legitimate issue, but if the issue is disparate impact on different income levels then it is absurd. All prices are more difficult for poor people to pay than for rich people. Being rich is by definition to have more money to spend in the marketplace of goods and services.

If no disparate impact by income is to be accepted via road pricing then why just roads? Food, clothing and housing are all priced, and differential impacts accepted. Why not for roads too?

Deriding toll lanes as Lexus lanes is a simpleminded leftist demagoguery often engaged in by reporters.

The GAO report doesn't make much of the issue saying that the benefits of pricing should be weighed against any equity negatives.

It is open to criticism however for engaging in a bit of obeisance to left posing as political speculation in saying that "concerns about equity" may grow, a statement made several times. Of course they "may" grow, but more likely they won't grow.

We are in an era of governmental financial difficulty in which budgets are squeezed between exploding 'entitlements' and health costs and stagnant revenues and strong resistance to higher taxes, plus looming difficulties in debt service.  Governments need more than ever to be looking to make activities like roads financially self-supporting. They can afford less to indulge in spreading 'equity' which anyway is really just a code word for government and politics over-riding market outcomes. Further we are in an age of increasing cynicism about the ability of government to make rational decisions and to operate fairly - which hardly favors trusting it with the dispensation of 'equity.'

Congestion costs are about $200b/year according to USDOT estimates. Clearly the pricing we do is way too small in scale to make a serious contribution to alleviating these costs of congestion. It needs to be the norm, rather than a few dozen projects, but they are a start.

http://www.gao.gov/assets/590/587833.pdf

TOLLROADSnews 2012-01-23