In early January New York began its effort of congestion pricing for drivers entering the center of Manhattan.
The program is a toll pricing system that varies throughout the day depending on how congested the roads are. If the roads are busy, drivers will pay as much as $9 to use the roads and then the price will drop down to $2.25 when there is less traffic on the roads.
The fee is collected through an electronic toll collection system that is placed along the roads throughout the city. It applies to all users of the road including motorcyclists, automobiles, truck drivers and ride-share app users, though prices may vary depending on the vehicle type.
The program was set to begin in 2024 with a charge of $15 per day but was halted prior to the November elections. It was later reinstated with the $9 fee and began operations the first week of the new year.
According to the Associated Press, other large cities such as London and Stockholm use similar programs but New York City is the first U.S. based city to start a full congestion pricing system.
We applaud New York’s efforts to use congestion pricing to tackle its traffic jams and look forward to learning from their experiences with the effort.
In Utah congestion pricing is used but only for the HOV lanes found on the freeways along the Wasatch Front. During rush hour times the price to use the HOV lanes for single passenger cars increases and the price goes down when the roads are more clear.
In Utah the argument can be made that our roads are underutilized. While the freeways have been built for capacity peaks during morning and afternoon rush hours, the freeways are underutilized for the other 18 hours of the day.
Tools like congestion pricing could play a role in helping behaviors in the state to change so that our roads last longer before needing expansion, thus saving taxpayers more money on the cost of building and expanding freeways.
Programs like congestion pricing also need to be considered as the gas tax continues to shrink as the main user fee to pay for roads in the state. With more electric and hybrid cars coming online into the fleet of cars using state roads, less and less gas tax is paid. Along with programs like the RUC, congestion pricing may help to realign road charges with road usage. Congestion pricing is one avenue policy makers should consider to make sure users of the roads are paying for the roads.