Contemporary approaches to congestion pricing : lessons learned from the national evaluation of congestion pricing strategies at six sites.

This document represents the final report of the national evaluation of congestion reduction strategies at six sites that received federal funding under the Urban Partnership Agreement (UPA) and Congestion Reduction Demonstration (CRD) programs. The six sites, or “urban partners,” were Atlanta, Georgia; Los Angeles, California; Miami, Florida; Minneapolis, Minnesota; San Francisco, California; and Seattle, Washington. Each site implemented a comprehensive policy response to urban congestion that included four essential components known as the “4 Ts”: 1) tolling (or congestion pricing), 2) enhanced transit services, 3) telecommuting and other transportation demand management (TDM) strategies, and 4) advanced technology. The U.S. Department of Transportation sponsored an independent national evaluation of the multi-year, multi-site demonstration of congestion pricing and other supporting strategies. The contents of this “lessons learned” report are derived from the national evaluation and represent a cross-cutting review and assessment of the impacts of the six projects. The findings will be useful to state and regional agencies interested in advancing new congestion pricing programs or expanding programs already in place. The report notes the strategies that worked well across sites and those that did not. The findings are presented in the following sections: Growth and Change in Usage, Congestion Performance, Transit Performance, Telecommuting and TDM Performance, Environmental Impacts, Benefit-Cost Analysis, Equity and Congestion Pricing, Technology Performance, The Deployment Experience, Operational Impacts, and the Long-Term Effects of the UPA/CRD Projects at the Six Sites.