Transportation's Role in Reducing U.S. Greenhouse Gas Emissions ...

Transportation’s Role in Reducing U.S. Greenhouse Gas Emissions: Volume 2
Other travelers will experience disbenefits from congestion pricing. The Traffic Choices
Study for the Puget Sound Regional Council (Kitchen, 2008) provided estimates of the
incidence of pricing’s impacts. Pricing will benefit higher-income travelers, who are likely
to place a greater monetary value on saving a given amount of time because of their
greater ability to pay. It will also benefit those for whom exact arrival time is important
(e.g., parents picking up kids at day care), as they will benefit from improved reliability
resulting from less congestion. Other travelers, who may be priced off the roads or for
whom the time savings do not outweigh the value of the fee paid, will experience welfare
losses (as measured by the economic concept of consumer surplus). The losses in
consumer surplus of $97.1 billion are the largest impact of congestion pricing, far
outweighing the $36.6 billion consumers save in travel times (Table 5.3).
Table 5.3 Benefits and Costs of Network Road Tolling in
Puget Sound Region
Benefits Dollars in Billions Costs Dollars in Billions
Time Savings $36.6 OBU Units $1.5
Reliability Benefits $4.5 Enforcement $0.1
Operating Costs $2.5 System, Data $3.8
Consumer Surplus $-97.1 Other $0.1
Operator Tolls $87.0
Totals $33.6 Totals $5.5
Present Value –
Benefits Minus Costs
$28.2
Source: Kitchen (2008). Values are net present value in billions of 2008 dollars.
Thus, until the tolls themselves are counted as a benefit, the net impacts are negative.
Therefore to achieve net benefits to the traveling public, the tolls must be reinvested or
redistributed in a manner which results in net benefits. The study also estimated the
impacts by user income group. For user groups, the transit users are the only net
beneficiaries before reinvestment of the revenues, due to their time savings not being offset
by any cost increases. For those who continue to travel via auto, or for those tolled off,
total impacts are negative unless the revenues are reinvested in a manner which generates
more offsetting benefits.
Congestion pricing should also have environmental benefits. The increased cost of travel
will result in some reduction in VMT, thereby reducing fuel consumption and air pollutant
emissions; fuel use and emissions should be further reduced due to improved operating
conditions (higher speeds and smoother traffic flow). While comprehensive estimates of
air quality benefits have not been developed, one study that examined a comprehensive
time-of-day toll in the Washington, D.C., region estimated that pollutant emissions would
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