The Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act of 1991 (ISTEA) and the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990 (CAAA) are responsible for significantly restructuring the transportation planning process across the nation. In order to receive Federal funds, roadway construction or other roadway capacity enhancements must show that the completed project will not result in deterioration of the region's air quality. To achieve this, a region must have as one of its goals a balanced transportation system that provides mobility options across all potential travel modes. ISTEA also established a new direction for transportation programming across the Nation: for the first time, metropolitan areas were asked to develop a seamless intermodal transportation network that improves air quality and is energy efficient. These metropolitan programs would then be linked to State plans and ultimately a national system that would provide a multi-modal transportation network for the entire country. ISTEA also provided funding for the innovative Congestion Pricing Pilot Program, which encourages implementation and evaluation of road pricing pilot projects to manage congestion on highways through tolling and other pricing mechanisms. Since that time, road pricing has come to be considered by more and more regions as a potential solution to the dual challenges of declining revenues and increasing congestion. The concept is based on the idea of charging a fee for access to and use of a lane, road, area, or regional network for purposes of generating revenue, managing traffic congestion, or both. Road pricing is called "congestion pricing" when prices are tailored to manage congestion by using a fixed time-of- day schedule or a dynamic system which increases or decreases individual vehicle charges based on congestion levels. Road pricing in the United States is new and not well understood by the general public and elected officials. The most common form of road pricing in the United States has been high-occupancy toll (HOT) lanes. HOT lanes are converted high-occupancy vehicle (HOV) lanes that are opened to vehicles with fewer occupants than is normally required in exchange for a toll. Similarly, road pricing may also take the form of "express toll lanes," where new lanes are built adjacent to existing freeways, but their use is subject to a toll. Road pricing experiments in Europe and Asia have involved "zone pricing," where drivers are charged a fee to enter into and/or drive within a specified high-congestion location. Some zones' access or use fees are regulated by time-of-day, but others have full-time fees in effect. As states and regions consider ways to address declining revenues from the motor fuel tax, the concept of distance pricing – charging drivers for each mile they drive on the highway system – is being discussed more and more. This is often referred to as vehicle miles traveled (VMT) fees, or mileage-based user fees. These are typically seen as a revenue mechanism, but could also incorporate a congestion-pricing component. Congestion pricing is perceived by many transportation operations professionals as a tool to manage user demand. Currently, there is typically unused capacity on arterial and transit facilities at the same time that the freeway structure is being overwhelmed by volume. By charging a fee to use the most over-used element of the transportation network, operators seek to encourage road users to seek out alternative routes or modes of transportation, evening out the distribution of goods and people being transported within a network at the same time. Road pricing often has come about separate from the traditional metropolitan planning process through pilot projects and demonstrations. As the ISTEA-funded pricing demonstration projects have shown road pricing to be an effective tool, there is a growing need to incorporate road pricing into long-range plans. This document summarizes the results of a study to examine how road pricing was incorporated into long-range planning in four metropolitan planning organizations (MPOs), providing examples that could support other regions seeking to do the same. (Author/publisher)
Samenvatting