Congestion Pricing in the United States: A Review of Early Implementation Experience

摘要

Motor vehicle user fees of many types have been widely debated in the United States over the past decade. Recently some have begun to be implemented on an experimental basis. This paper reviews four efforts to implement congestion pricing, one variant of a family of user fees. Three of the efforts reviewed have been successful, the fourth has not, The analysis suggests three factors that explain the early success of congestion pricing: 1) it addresses both the need to finance infrastructure and reduce social costs of transportation consumption; 2) it is a flexible policy that can be tailored to solve unique transportation problems at the level of local government; 3) it is successful in those instances where it leads to an increase in travel options. The primary conclusion is that early experience with congestion pricing is promising, although large-scale implementation will necessitate a basic shift in U.S. transportation philosophy towards an acceptance of market-based policies.