EXPERIENCE IN ACHIEVING ACCEPTANCE OF CONGESTION PRICING

Congestion pricing has been viewed as the answer to a number of urban transportation objectives, including congestion relief, mobility enhancement, and air quality and environmental improvement. It has been proposed as a 'market-responsive' alternative. Yet, despite its widespread acceptance among economists and transportation professionals, congestion pricing has not so far been widely accepted by the public. This lack of public acceptance has been the stumbling block to past attempts at implementing congestion pricing. Recently, the United States Federal Highway Administration has supported congestion pricing programs. These include research addressing the institutional political and equity issues, and funding for a congestion pricing pilot project. The primary objective of these programs is to address the main obstacle - public acceptability of congestion pricing. This paper examines the congestion pricing programs in various cities which have been designed to explore the feasibility of congestion pricing. The aims are to highlight the initiatives undertaken to enhance public acceptance, and to outline key lessons learned from these experiences. Finally, it examines the level of public support achieved. (a) For the covering entry of this conference, please see IRRD abstract no. 890658.