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21st Century Operations Using 21st Century Technologies
Table of Contents

Lessons Learned from Regional Congestion Pricing Workshops (RCPWs)

CHAPTER 5. KEY TAKEAWAYS AND NEXT STEPS

Based on workshop experiences and stakeholder inputs, the following key takeaways and planned next steps were identified from the workshop regions.

KEY TAKEAWAYS FOR IDENTIFYING GOALS AND OBJECTIVES

  • Managing congestion should be a primary motivation and generating revenue second.
  • Public acceptance is critical — utilize advisory groups, outreach meetings, political champions. Public engagement is critical and needs to occur early during the project development process.
  • Clean air and emissions reduction; vehicle miles traveled (VMT) reduction are important.
  • System reliability; mode shift is an essential component.
  • Safe and efficient travel for the public is important.
  • Consider social equity — concerns about ability to pay tolls, elderly, lower income.

KEY TAKEAWAYS FOR CHALLENGES AND POTENTIAL SOLUTIONS IMPLEMENTING CONGESTION PRICING

  • Impacts (costs to local roads; community impacts) on diversion should be considered.
  • Travelers may make trip decisions based on long versus short trip cost implications.
  • Tolling can impact discretionary trips.
  • Collection of pre- and post-deployment traffic data will be critical to show the potential impact of the congestion pricing approach.

NEXT STEPS (PLANNED BY THE CANDIDATE REGIONS)

  • States interested in exploring tolling as a congestion mitigation strategy can enter in a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the various state, regional and local transportation agencies to make sure they get all of the right people at the table.
  • Continue dialogue to define goals, objectives, and outcomes.
  • Get more information on cordon pricing.
  • Get more information on when and how you pick a third-party concessionaire.
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