The cost of congestion

Reducing rush-hour traffic jams may come at a price — literally — that many Americans aren’t willing to pay.

“We all know that the … idea of free roads for some is close to a civil right in this country,” said David Lewis, author of a report on congestion pricing. He spoke last week at a symposium on the topic at the Brookings Institution, a Washington-based think tank.

The idea of charging drivers on traffic-clogged metropolitan highways could spread nationwide if Congress adopts a proposal for congestion pricing supported by Mr. Lewis, senior vice president at HDR Decision Economics, an architectural-engineering-consulting firm headquartered in Omaha, Neb.

His report advocates for the federal government to reward states using congestion pricing with greater federal highway grants. His aim is to reduce congestion and increase the economic benefits associated with quicker travel time.

But the federal government should not require states to adopt congestion pricing, he said.

“The best place to plan and develop highways is where the highways are. The states and localities have always been in charge of the planning. I think the federal government can help stimulate the range of choices and information available to states in that process,” he said.

Mr. Lewis’ report urges Congress to adopt a long-term congestion-pricing plan to begin in 2020.

Miami, Minneapolis, San Francisco and Seattle have announced plans for congestion pricing under the Department of Transportation’s Urban Partnership Program, in which cities receive federal funding in exchange for plans that improve transit, increase the use of technology to help consumers save time, and offer congestion-pricing initiatives, said Brian Turmail, department spokesman.

Pundits at the symposium said congestion pricing would reduce travel time while harnessing much-needed revenue for transportation infrastructure.

Travel delays in the country’s 14 largest metropolitan areas cost Americans nearly 2.37 billion hours in 2005, according to the “2007 Annual Urban Mobility Report,” a study by the Texas Transportation Institute.

At 127,000 hours, the Washington metro area ranked eighth in total hours and trailed only the Los Angeles-Long Beach-Santa Ana region in average hours spent per traveler during peak travel hours, 6 a.m. to 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. to 7 p.m.

Traffic has become more efficient in London since the city started its congestion-pricing program in 2003, with traffic falling by 20 percent and traffic speeds rising by 37 percent, Mr. Lewis said in his report.

Wasted time in the car hurts the economy, reducing worker productivity, he said. His report noted that the New York City metropolitan economy loses $13 billion annually — nearly half in lost time and productivity — because of congested traffic.

With the federal gas tax flat since the 1990s, the revenue from congestion pricing can provide additional funds for transportation projects, said David Heymsfeld, staff director for the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure.

“So if you’d assume that that tax is fixed forever, you’re going to get a smaller and smaller traditional federal program,” he said.

Mr. Heymsfeld said members of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure are concerned about the cost of congestion pricing on low-income households. With congestion pricing, costs would peak at the busiest periods of the day to discourage unnecessary travel, possibly exceeding $1 per mile, Mr. Lewis said.

His plan calls for congestion-pricing revenue to alleviate the burden on low-income households.

New fees are the primary inhibition for state and local governments to adopt congestion pricing, Mr. Lewis said in his report.

“Voters dislike new taxes. Congestion prices are not taxes; they are prices that mirror real economic costs,” he said in the report.

Congestion pricing “is definitely another way of taxing the taxpayers — no question about that,” said Lee H. Walker, president of the New Coalition for Economic and Social Change, a nonprofit organization focuses on conservative multiculturalism.

He criticized the New York City congestion-pricing proposal, calling it a form of economic discrimination because of the $8 or $9 charge to drive into Manhattan below 60th Street during the workday.

Leroy G. Comrie Jr., New York City Council member from Queens, disagreed with the city’s proposal because of the burden on his constituents.

“This creates an imbalance that creates the heaviest tax on the people who can least afford it,” he said.

The New York City Council passed the plan last week by a divisive 30-20 vote, referring it to the state Legislature. The plan aimed to reduce traffic congestion, improve air quality and use federal funds to improve mass transit.

There are three congested-pricing projects in the Washington metropolitan area.

In Maryland, construction is under way on a $2.4 billion toll road connecting Interstate 370 and U.S. 1, according to tollroadnews.com.

Tolls will cover nearly 25 percent of the state-sponsored project, said Ronald F. Kirby, transportation planning director for the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments, in an interview after the Brookings symposium.

In Virginia, the Capital Beltway will offer 14 miles of new toll lanes from Springfield to north of the Dulles Toll Road, and Interstate 395/95 will feature a new 36-mile toll lane, Mr. Kirby said.

Transurban, an investment company, and Fluor Corp., a developer, are managing these two projects.