Lessons Learned from Regional Congestion Pricing Workshops (RCPWs)

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) supports efforts by State and local governments or other public authorities as they establish, maintain, monitor, and evaluate local congestion pricing programs. FHWA hosted a series of Regional Congestion Pricing Workshops (RCPWs) to further develop, advance, promote, and enhance tolling and pricing programs and initiatives in metropolitan areas. The workshops featured experts from operating projects who shared lessons learned from their experiences establishing congestion pricing programs. The information shared was designed to help workshop participants plan, implement, and advance a congestion pricing project in their region. The workshops were conducted through an interactive and knowledge sharing approach to encourage stakeholder engagement.  This report focuses on the findings from three such workshops held between March 2016 and May 2017 in Schaumburg, Illinois; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; and Portland, Oregon. It details cross-cutting issues impacting participating stakeholders identified during the webinars, summarizes key developments achieved in the candidate regions since the webinars were hosted, and concludes with a summary of key takeaways and next steps based on stakeholder inputs and workshop experiences.

Through the RCPWs, the candidate regions were able to develop a critical understanding of the benefits and operational capabilities of congestion pricing in potentially enhancing corridor mobility performance. It also provided them with strategies to address equity concerns and how to present the benefits of congestion pricing in a way that could lead to critical political support.  The RCPWs were successful in achieving awareness that subsequently led to stakeholders garnering the necessary political support permitting all three regions to make significant progress towards implementing their first congestion pricing project(s).