Road Pricing

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Road Pricing

Road pricing, sometimes called congestion pricing or value pricing, aims to apportion scarce road space by market pricing rather than queuing. As increasing population densities in growing metropolitan areas press on available resources, pricing has been used to deal with land, communications facilities, public transportation service, waste disposal, and building construction. But in the case of roads queuing, not pricing, apportions available capacity. Value pricing could correct this anomaly. Road pricing can also provide useful information to motorists about congestion, as, for example, SR 91 in Southern California, by continuously adjusting toll rates to reflect congestion levels, the system communicates to motorists approaching the route just how bad congestion ahead is. At the same time, there is at present widespread political resistance to road pricing. This study will examine issues of political feasibility of road pricing.