Traffic Congestion
If you spend time in most urban or suburban areas these days, you know the frustrations of gridlocked streets: blocked intersections or backed up freeways, horns blaring and tempers flaring. There's also an invisible cost to traffic: the damaging health effects from breathing the air polluted by cars and trucks. Vehicles stuck in stop-and-go traffic produce up to three times the pollution of cars moving steadily.

Solutions: Congestion Pricing
New York and other cities are on the road to clearer streets and cleaner air. Congestion pricing is one of the innovations that will help them get there.

The idea of congestion pricing is simple: at times when the roads are busiest, drivers pay a premium to use them. Think of the way you buy an airline ticket. When you check fares, you get a wide range of prices depending on factors like when you want to fly and how many stops you're willing to make. We know that flying at convenient times costs more, and we might take a red-eye to save money.

The concept is the same on the road. An electronic toll system collects the fee as drivers enter the busiest sections of the city. The system charges drivers more during the busiest times. Those who take mass transit, carpool, walk, bike, or reschedule their trip can save money. (More about congestion pricing.)

London started charging motorists to enter its central business district in 2003 and has seen traffic congestion cut by nearly a third. Sooty particles and nitrogen oxide pollution dropped by roughly a fifth each. Singapore, Stockholm and several cities in Norway have also reduced traffic, travel time and pollution.

Critics of congestion pricing worry that neighborhoods just outside the pricing zone will see an increase in traffic and cars trying to park there. Studies in London and Stockholm show otherwise. Those cities issued residential parking permits and created park-and-ride facilities. In other cases critics fear congestion pricing of limited access roads will drive traffic to adjacent neighborhoods, a concern readily addressed by instituting better travel options such as new express buses and effective neighborhood traffic management. 

Commuters who live in areas with poor public transit fear not being able to drive – but revenue from collecting tolls is generally used to improve transportation. London, for example, raised hundreds of millions of dollars, which it invested in better transit such as new buses. Ridership rose dramatically, and bicycling increased. There, as in other places that have tried this system, skepticism gave way to enthusiastic support for the plan.

This year New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg embraced congestion pricing and unrolled a plan as part of his sustainability 'greenprint' for New York. A broad coalition of 140 groups supported the plan. After intense negotiations, Bloomberg and state leaders agreed to consider a three-year pilot program.

DOT's Urban Partnership Agreement
New York City is one of nine finalists for $1.2 billion in federal grants to try congestion pricing and other traffic-busting incentives Eight other cites — Atlanta, Dallas/Ft. Worth, Denver, Miami, Minneapolis, San Diego, San Francisco and Seattle are also vying for funds by proposing a variety of traffic-reducing tools.

Support smart transportation in your city! Thank your transportation planners today for their innovative approach to cutting traffic and pollution.