Final Proceedings of "Getting Started with Congestion Pricing: A Workshop for Local Partners"

Introduction

In 2010, a one-day workshop was developed to provide local agencies with a means to come together and learn more about the process of planning and implementing a congestion pricing facility. Two regional workshops were conducted in Hartford, Connecticut, and in Charlotte, North Carolina. These workshops brought together transportation practitioners and policy makers on a local level, who were interested in learning how to go about planning and implementing pricing projects in their areas.

This paper provides a broad review of the congestion pricing introductory workshop for local agencies developed for the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) by the Texas Transportation Institute (TTI), in cooperation with Battelle. The purpose of this review is to provide feedback to the FHWA regarding the effectiveness of the workshop in accomplishing the objectives outlined by the sponsor and in gathering information on the needs of the local agencies that are considering a future transportation system with lane pricing.

The content of the two workshops varied slightly to provide extra discussion time to cover the topics of most interest to the agencies participating. This report provides a summary of the workshops, with details on discussion points from both workshops. Appendices A and B provide the agenda for each workshop.

Hartford, Connecticut

The first of two workshops was held on November 16, 2010, at the Connecticut Department of Transportation’s (ConnDOT) Hartford Office. The workshop was a one-day event attended by state department of transportation representatives.

Speakers at this workshop included representatives of ConnDOT, FHWA, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey (PANYNJ), the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT), TTI, and Wilbur Smith Associates (WSA).

Charlotte, North Carolina

This second workshop was developed in cooperation with the North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT) and the Charlotte Department of Transportation (CDOT). The workshop was held April 20, 2011 at the Charlotte-Mecklenberg Government Center.

Representatives of various governments and government agencies in the region, developed from a list provided by both NCDOT and CDOT, were invited to attend. Speakers included representatives from the City of Charlotte, FHWA, the Georgia Regional Transportation Authority (GRTA), the Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT), TTI, NCDOT, and CDOT.