This Morning's Forum: Road Pricing Worked in London. Can It Work in New York?

New York City's Streetsblog reports on a conference yesterday about congestion pricing (which has been implemented in London and tested in Stockholm) in the blog entry "Three Concrete Proposals for New York City Traffic Relief."

I don't think implementing congestion pricing is politically feasible in DC, and there's a lot that we could be doing with Transportation Demand Management that we aren't doing. (However, DC's Department of Transportation has added a TDM component, and hired someone to work on it specifically, and I noticed that the title of Jim Sebastian, previously Manager, Bicycle and Pedestrian Programs, has been modified to Manager of Bicycle, Pedestrian and Transportation Demand Management Programs.)

In any case, the post is well worth reading, if only to broaden and strengthen our thinking about these issues.

From the entry:

Bruce Schaller, who released a major new study on New York City traffic congestion this morning, presented the first and most detailed answer to that question. He proposed a combined system of congestion charges, highway express lanes and parking reform, emphasizing that the plan can't just be about getting rid of cars or punishing motorists. It has to be about "making New York the kind of city that New Yorkers want."

Schaller pointed to the results of a Tri-State Transportation Campaign survey showing that 44% of New Yorkers feel that congestion pricing is "a good idea" versus 45% against. It is worth noting that congestion charging starts with much higher approval ratings in New York City than it had in either London or Stockholm.

Schaller ran focus groups to test three ideas: London-style congestion charging, highway express lanes with tolls, and increased parking fees. He found that New Yorkers, in fact, are quite sophisticated in their thinking about the city's traffic congestion problem and possible solutions.

Schaller found that there are six factors that drive public reaction to congestion pricing and other solution ideas:

1. Will reduce traffic congestion
2. Will solve my transportation problems
3. Enhances my transportation choices
4. Fair and equitable
5. Works as intended
6. Is supported and complemented by non-pricing policies

In other words, New York City's auto dealership-supported tabloid media may not be accurately reflecting New Yorkers' apparently intelligent and nuanced thinking on local transportation issues when it blares "Traffic Tax!" headlines and reports knee-jerk opposition to congestion charging and other traffic relief measures.

Reader comments to the blog entry are pretty interesting too.

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