Be prepared to make policy tradeoffs between HOV incentives and revenue goals when developing managed lanes and congestion pricing projects.

Lessons learned from a domestic scan of ten metropolitan areas.

Date Posted
01/28/2014
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Identifier
2013-L00662

A Domestic Scan of Congestion Pricing and Managed Lanes

Summary Information

The FHWA sponsored a scan of selected Metropolitan Planning Organizations (MPOs) and State Departments of Transportation (State DOTs) to determine how they are planning for congestion pricing and managed lanes. The scan was performed by conducting a survey of agencies that had been directly involved in consideration of these options in ten metropolitan areas:

  • Atlanta, Georgia
  • Dallas – Fort Worth, Texas
  • Los Angeles-Orange County, California
  • Kansas City, Missouri
  • Miami, Florida
  • Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota
  • Phoenix, Arizona
  • San Francisco-Oakland-San Jose, California
  • Seattle, Washington
  • Washington, DC

There was considerable enthusiasm for the concept of congestion pricing and pricing of managed lanes among the agencies in the metropolitan areas surveyed. The number of studies, and in particular, the consideration of congestion pricing on a regional network basis suggest that interest in and acceptance of congestion pricing and managed lanes is growing.

Lessons Learned

When developing managed lanes and congesting pricing projects:

  • Balance revenue generation and High Occupancy Vehicle (HOV) policies. To generate revenue, you may have to require HOVs to pay a toll.
  • Be prepared to make policy tradeoffs between HOV incentives and revenue goals when developing managed lanes and congestion pricing projects. For example, to meet revenue goals for a managed lanes project, it may require sacrificing HOV incentives by requiring a higher occupancy level for HOVs to use a HOT lane for free.
  • Optimize system performance by having flexible and responsive operational and pricing policies from the regional planning agencies. This will allow the planning and implementing agencies the flexibility needed without conflicting with regional policy.
Goal Areas
System Engineering Elements

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