Road pricing makes sense

Road pricing (also called congestion pricing) is based on common sense supply and demand principles. When demand for the road is high, the value placed on using the road—a toll—is higher than other times of the day.

This pricing signal encourages drivers to reschedule trips, use alternative travel modes (like transit), or pay a higher fee for driving. The greatest environmental benefit accumulates when revenues generated by the tolls are used to improve local transit service.

How road pricing works

An electronically-collected toll system charges drivers more to use the most congested roads at the busiest times. As with airline tickets, the prices are cheaper at off-peak times.

Cities around the world are beginning to use congestion pricing systems to cut traffic in their urban centers and along busy corridors. In London, motorists are charged when they drive into the central business district, encouraging them not to drive during peak times or to use alternative means of transportation.

Road pricing in the U.S.

Road pricing has been employed in a limited basis at high-occupancy toll lanes on a number of highways in the U.S. Just how much these HOT lanes have helped the environment is uncertain. A number of these lanes have increased capacity and the number of cars on the road without substantially offsetting the new pollution those cars generate.

A more promising form of congestion pricing is like that demonstrated in cities like London and Stockholm where entry points into congested urban centers are priced and revenues are dedicated to improving cleaner forms of transportation.

New York City came very close to getting a congestion pricing plan in spring 2008. An extraordinary majority of New Yorkers supported congestion pricing, but the state legislature nixed the plan, despite City Council approval.

San Francisco received a federal grant to study the possibility of deploying a congestion pricing plan similar to those in London and Stockholm. The study was completed in December 2010, and the San Francisco County Transportation Authority, which developed the study, is now taking steps to prepare an environmental impact report that could lead to a cordon pricing pilot in 2015.

Watch this video overview of the study findings and recommendations, including commentary from EDF transportation expert Kathryn Phillips.