SWRPA (South West Regional Planning Agency) sponsored a panel on the topic of congestion pricing for our parking lot I-95. From the Advocate:
Congestion pricing is different from tolls because it doesn’t charge a flat fare to motorists regardless of the time, DeCorla-Souza said.
With advances in technology, cash lanes are not needed with congestion pricing, he said. Tolls can be collected at high speeds using transponder tags such as EZ-Pass, or by taking photos of license plates.
The Federal Highway Administration would not support a method to reduce traffic if it led to toll plazas that slow cars down, DeCorla-Souza said.
“That would defeat the whole purpose,” he said.
Fares would be highest during rush hour, DeCorla-Souza said. There may be no tolls late at night and early in the evening, he said.
The state Department of Transportation is seeking federal money to study congestion pricing. But DeCorla-Souza said the federal government is more interested in awarding money for congestion pricing rather than a study of it.
Congestion pricing does work in the right conditions. Chiefly those conditions that provide alternatives to using those congested roads at peak times. One has to wonder exactly how people would be able to choose another time or transport option here in fairfield county. It’s not like there’s spare capacity to park a car at a rail station. And if there was a parking space, it’s not like there’s a seat available on the peak trains. And it’s not like the MTA has decided to recently tack on a $1 surcharge to those short hop trips that keep cars off the highways. And do I even bring up the very limited options of how to get to places once you arrive at your Connecticut destination?
The key graf is of course the grant money, dangled like a carrot from the hands of Federal Elmer Fudd towards our wascally CT DOT. Implement a congestion pricing plan, they say, and we’ll give you money. And we all know how the CT DOT is able to execute plans, don’t we? Dare we imagine how the DOT would execute a federally funded congestion pricing plan?
Maybe it would go something like this. They’d construct toll plazas that would automatically scan license plates or EZ-Pass transponders. But the billing software won’t talk to the scanners, because that part will be outsourced to a contractor, and none of the supervisors will bother to check that the work get implemented correctly. A bankruptcy of the contractor will mean the feds will back out of paying for the plan and the legislature and governor will respond by banning cigarette ashtrays in vehicles under 3 tons.
Source: The Advocate, Feds endorse highway toll system,
