Reason Foundation

Recent Research and Commentary

Washington's Road to Economic Decline

April 12, 2012, 4:55pm

Adrian Moore

Gaining Public Support for Congestion Pricing on Highways

Delivering value and offering multiple options for drivers and truckers

April 9, 2012

Robert Poole

Conventional approaches toward implementing congestion pricing on U.S. freeways have made little headway. Besides not being able to overcome the political resistance from highway users (motorists and truckers), conventional pricing proposals are likely to create more losers than winners. Research suggests that social welfare would be maximized not with a single price for all freeway users but with several choices of price and service level for various categories of user. This paper has proposed one way to implement such a system, with separately priced lanes for premium-service motorists, regular motorists and heavy trucks. It has also sketched out a possible evolutionary approach to implementing such a system, in which each step can be justified on its own merits, and each creates preconditions for later moving on to the next step. This approach seems more likely to succeed in the U.S. freeway context than conventional “big bang” approaches.

Frequently Asked Questions About Increasing Mobility in Southeast Florida

Why managed lanes, managed arterials and bus rapid transit can dramatically help the region

March 27, 2012

Robert Poole

1. Your study, “Increasing Mobility in Southeast Florida A New Approach Based on Pricing and Bus Rapid Transit” claims the economic benefits to Southeast Florida from reduced congestion under your plan would be $4.85 billion per year. Where does that number come from? 

Direct savings to drivers—of time and fuel—account for $1.35 billion per year, based on a 13% reduction in congestion by 2035 (compared with the current long-range plan). The other $3.5 billion per year comes from the increase in regional economic productivity due to increased mobility (0.5% of regional GDP) that makes our urbanized area work better. 

2. Congestion seems to have peaked in the last few years, yet your study claims it will be much worse by 2035. How can that be? 

The cost of traffic congestion has increased 14-fold since 1982. The slight dip in 2007 was due to what many have called the Great Recession, which reduced driving somewhat. If the current official long-range transportation plan is implemented, the travel time index (currently at 1.23) will increase to 1.54 by 2035—and that is significantly worse than Los Angeles today (at 1.38). Note: the travel time index is the ratio of trip time during peak periods versus trip time at other times. That is not Reason’s projection: that number is derived from the official three-county long-range transportation plan. 

Increasing Mobility in Southeast Florida

A new approach based on road pricing and bus rapid transit

March 27, 2012

Robert Poole, Thomas A. Rubin, Chris Swenson

A new Reason Foundation study demonstrates how the Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach areas can alter their long-term transportation plans to reduce traffic congestion by 13 percent and boost the Gross Regional Product by $3.5 billion a year. The key ingredient is a region-wide network of express lanes like those on I-95 in Miami. These toll lanes, variably priced to remain uncongested and free-flowing even during peak travel periods, add much-needed road capacity and enable a region-wide bus rapid transit system that would increase mass transit’s speed and reliability. 

 

Yes, Traffic Congestion Does Hurt Cities

January 8, 2012, 8:00am

Samuel Staley

An increasingly vocal group of urbanists and planners are arguing that traffic congestion is good for cities, but their arguments don't square with the published research which shows significant negative impacts on employment and income.

Congestion Coalition Regains Strength Despite Research

December 18, 2011, 6:08pm

Samuel Staley

Several recent articles have suggested traffic congestion is good for cities, but research shows that slower speeds reduces productivity, income, and urban growth.

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