Shift Magazine - October 7, 2019 - 25

"One thing that I think people in my line of work generally agree
on is that congestion pricing does reduce congestion. And that
if you are serious about reducing congestion, you have to use
some form of pricing," he said.
A study by the Southern California Association of Governments
found that congestion pricing in West Los Angeles would cut the
vehicle miles traveled by 21 percent in the area and vehicle hours
traveled by 24 percent during peak
travel times. The study also found that
the potential pilot areas for the L.A.
congestion pricing districts, called Go
Zones, could save an estimated $4
million a year through reduced greenhouse gas emissions, taking into
account factors such as rising health
costs and the destruction of property,
often attributed to carbon dioxide.
The Southern California group also
contends that congestion pricing
could generate a net average of $69.2 million a year in revenue,
which could go toward transportation improvements, pedestrian
amenities and other economic development initiatives.
Congestion pricing in New York is reportedly expected to generate $1 billion annually in revenue, which will be used to help improve
and make needed repairs to the city's ailing mass transit system.
Brooks Rainwater, a senior executive with the National League
of Cities, a U.S. advocacy and research group, said it is important

to look at congestion pricing in the context of how it can help
enhance the livability of urban areas.
"Because of the broader mobility environment within cities,
these types of tools give city leaders the opportunity to think
for real how they can reduce congestion, improve air quality and
help people to be able to get [around] better in these cities,"
said Rainwater, who also is director of National League of Cities'
Center for City Solutions. "Ultimately,
the level of congestion that we see in
cities is a hindrance toward people
having space for biking, walking and
just being able to, frankly, enjoy the
city the way they would like to."
But Peter Jones, a transportation and urban planning expert
who teaches at University College
London, noted the success and longterm viability of congestion pricing
hinges on factors beyond charging
drivers a fee to enter an area.
"Where it's been introduced, it's effective operationally, in the
reduction of traffic. But, of course, it has to have some public
political support, and that only tends to be in places where it
can be argued that there are good alternatives," Jones said.
"The other thing, in practice, the alternative to car driving only
becomes attractive when the door-to-door travel times are
roughly comparable." n

Maureen Bock, OReGO program manager, said some drivers
participate in the program because of the pay-as-you-go option.
"If they drive very few miles, they'll probably be better off
being enrolled in OReGO," Bock said.
More than 1,600 vehicles have participated in the program
since its launch in July 2015. About 600 vehicles are now participating. The program originally capped the number of vehicles
at 5,000, but the cap will be lifted
starting in 2020.
The Utah Department of Transportation will also implement an
opt-in road-usage charge program, open to owners of EVs and
hybrids, at the start of 2020.
Participants will be exempt from
the state's annual flat fees, which
differ based on a vehicle's fuel
source, according to Eileen Barron,
UDOT's strategic communications
manager. The accrual of per-mile charges will be capped at the
equivalent of the vehicle's flat fee each year.
Oregon and Utah are the first states to enact full road-usage
charge programs as part of the Western Road Usage Charge
Consortium, a group of 14 state transportation organizations
examining the possibility of these charges as a regional policy.

At least nine other Western states are researching the programs.
The road-usage charge program in Utah could replace the fuel
tax for all vehicles in the future, according to the state.
Nationwide, however, EV fees will generate an average of
0.3 percent of state highway funding revenue at best by 2025,
according to Consumer Reports. EVs accounted for only about
1.3 percent of the new vehicles sold in 2018.
"Clearly the trends are not favoring the gas tax both in terms of fuel
economy and inflation, and those
two forces are really what's driving down the revenue and what's
causing problems for states,"
Chris Harto, Consumer Reports
senior policy analyst, said. "Right
now, it's not EV adoption."
Katherine Stainken, policy director for Plug In America, an advoOregon DOT
cacy group representing plug-in
EV drivers nationwide, says the organization supports road-usage
fees or vehicle-miles-traveled programs as long as they apply to
vehicles across the board.
"There's a whole conversation that needs to be had on the gas
taxes in general and who's paying for the roads overall," Stainken
said. "The current gas tax program isn't sustainable." n
october 2019 * shift

Shift Magazine - October 7, 2019

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