Conference Interactive Program

TRB 89th Annual Meeting (January 10-14, 2010)

Event Number:	491
Event Title:	Addressing Public Acceptance Issues with Road Pricing
Event Date:	Jan 12 2010 1:30PM- 3:15PM
Event Location:	Hilton, International East
Event Description:
Event Agenda:	Public acceptability and equity remain the principal concerns in metropolitan areas considering congestion pricing. This session discusses experiences with attempts to address these issues in U.S. metropolitan areas as well as exploration of potential innovative ways to overcome acceptability and equity concerns.

Addressing Equity in Political Debates over Road Pricing: Lessons from Recent Projects (10-4016)
    
Recent technological advances have made it far easier and cheaper to charge vehicles for road use, and indeed we are witnessing a gradual rise in electronic roadway tolling applications around the globe. While road pricing holds the promise of reducing congestion, emissions, and fuel use while raising needed revenues, the growth in toll programs and projects is halting, and well short of a groundswell. This is because the idea remains generally unpopular with businesses, voters, and the people whom they elect. One of the biggest concerns with road pricing is that it is unfair. While considerable ink has been spilt on the philosophical and empirical dimensions of road pricing, less has been written on how equity concerns have been raised and addressed in practice. This paper addresses this gap through both a review of the broader road pricing equity literature and an examination of three road pricing case studies where equity debates played prominent roles. We find that four strategies have proven most important to mitigating equity concerns and overcoming opposition to road pricing on equity grounds: (1) addressing equity issues directly and early in planning process, (2) building broad-based support among the public and interest groups for the proposal, (3) establishing trust between elected officials and transportation agencies prior to project development, and (4) enlisting the support of influential constituencies for the toll revenues. The politics of transportation finance in general, and road pricing equity in particular, is a complex and contentious process, making it difficult to separate measurable equity outcomes from perceptions of fairness, and beliefs about tolling from tactics to avoid paying them. However, the gradual operational and political success of a growing number of road pricing projects suggests that equity concerns can be satisfactorily addressed in the planning process, most of the time.

Authors
     Taylor, Brian D., University of California, Los Angeles
     Iseki, Hiroyuki , University of New Orleans
     Kalauskas, Rebecca , University of California, Los Angeles