A Sustainable and Equitable Approach to Financing Multimodal Transportation Alternatives in Metropolitan Areas

AbstractIn metro areas in the United States, those who cannot drive have limited access to job opportunities and services located in low-density suburbs that are poorly served by public transit; at the same time, congested metropolitan freeways cause significant travel delays for commuters who have no option but to drive long distances to job sites during peak periods. In this Viewpoint, I present a systemwide approach to financing and fulfilling the transportation needs of those who do not drive while at the same time providing a congestion-free travel choice for those who do. It combines congestion pricing with cash rewards for those who choose to share rides on a network of congestion-free lanes converted from general-use lanes to priced lanes. Net revenues support multimodal travel options including transit, carpooling, and mobility hubs with transportation services to and from trip origins and final destinations, also known as first- and last-mile services. The strategy would allow existing metropolitan freeway networks to be transformed into financially viable, sustainable, and equitable multimodal systems providing high-quality travel choices that could lead to more sustainable urban development patterns.Keywords: cash rewardscongestion pricinghigh-occupancy toll lanessustainable developmenttransportation financing Notes1 The economic rationale for roadway congestion pricing is that drivers impose significant external costs that they do not pay for, such as travel delays imposed on other travelers, as well as environmental costs imposed on society at large. This distorts their choice of travel mode in favor of driving, increasing traffic demand and reducing use of alternatives such as shared travel modes.2 Cash payments would be funded using revenue from tolls paid by those who run out of toll credits.3 Alternatively, the program could give discounted toll rates to low-income drivers.4 New tolls have successfully been imposed on all lanes of existing free bridges, such as the SR 520 bridge in Seattle (USDOT, Citation2015).5 For example, see Atlanta’s existing and planned express lanes network (Georgia Department of Transportation, Citation2021).6 Converting two lanes was found to provide less net operating revenue due to the increase in rewards that would need to be paid out because a larger share of solo drivers would have to be attracted to transit or carpooling to ensure that congestion gets no worse on the free lanes; both the reward per person and the number of persons to be rewarded would increase significantly.7 With less congestion, toll rates would be lower, reducing revenue. However, with lower traffic demand, a smaller share of commuters would need to be attracted to shared travel modes to achieve targeted traffic volumes, reducing the number of commuters to be rewarded as well as the magnitude of the required cash reward per commuter.Additional informationNotes on contributorsPatrick DeCorla-SouzaPATRICK DECORLA-SOUZA (pdecorla@gmail.com) currently serves as the public–private partnerships program manager at the U.S. Department of Transportation. However, he authored this article in his personal capacity and the views expressed are not necessarily the views of the U.S. Department of Transportation.