Technologies That Complement Congestion Pricing—A Primer
Summary
Congestion pricing requires complementary technologies to promote and sustain a positive public perception. There are many different technologies available for consideration, and careful consideration of the technology is needed to define a technology solution that is tailored to suit the particular congestion-pricing approach that is under consideration. The complementary technologies have proven successful in several implementations throughout the United States and internationally. These technologies enable individual travelers to become more informed about their travel options and to begin to make travel choices that benefit the performance of the transportation system as well as satisfy their own personal needs.
Coordinated approaches that use complementary technologies reinforce the most economical personal choice for travel. Examples include pre-trip and en-route traveler information products, active traffic management, and ICM. Traveler information is a critical technology for both enabling congestion pricing and sustaining the value of congestion pricing. Travelers require reinforcing information at regular intervals so they can be guided through the priced facility. DMSs and messages via 511 telephone-based traveler information have garnered high attention from transportation agencies, and travelers have grown to expect high-quality travel condition information.
Among the many criticisms of congestion pricing is that the cost of everything that is transported will increase and ultimately be passed on to consumers. Complementary technologies can be used to demonstrate that personal benefits can be realized through congestion pricing. One approach is to describe how congestion pricing yields a net reduction in the total cost of transport because of reduced travel time. Commuters can experience more reliable travel in a congestion-pricing scheme because the overall reliability of travel, including transfer across modes, will be vastly improved. Travelers will be able to interpret and develop an accurate expectation of their congestion-pricing costs, because they encounter consistent pricing approaches and remain informed about pricing strategies in advance.
Through the application of technology, an agency can enable greater public acceptance of congestion pricing because the public can better comprehend how the congestion-pricing scheme works as they use the transportation network. Paramount to this is comprehension of the congestion-pricing strategies for the facilities or areas that they enter. Travelers need to understand that there is a personal benefit from the congestion-pricing strategy, that is, that their surrender of a personally preferred travel choice in favor of a system-optimal travel choice ultimately yields a personal benefit. Complementary technologies can reinforce the motivation of the traveler to gravitate toward a lower cost, more reliable travel option by changing the time of travel or the mode of travel.
