After discussing a staff report on road pricing at their Jan. 24 meeting, Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority directors paused to weigh the equity implications of charging motorists to drive on roads.
"The board considered a report from agency staffers that recommended road pricing, along with a host of other financing measures that could be used to accelerate construction of 28 projects that Metro aims to complete in time for the 2028 Olympics," reports Elijah Chiland for Curbed Los Angeles. The directors appeared to be stumped by equity considerations pertaining to lower-income drivers and disparate geographic transit availability.
“I am deeply concerned about how congestion pricing could be implemented in Los Angeles County,” wrote Supervisor Hilda Solis in a statement Thursday. “Before Metro moves further down this path, I feel it is critical to ensure that the benefits of congestion pricing are felt by all of our communities.”
The board approved a motion authored by Solis requesting that Metro develop an “equity strategy” and consult with academics, community groups, and local officials on ways to lessen impact on low-income drivers before crafting a congestion pricing policy.
Steve Hymon, the editor of The Source, a Metro publication, also reported on the board meeting, including his personal assessment of congestion pricing.
Congestion pricing is a regressive policy. If looked at strictly as a fee, then yes. But it’s a fee with associated progressive benefits: better transit, less pollution, fewer greenhouse gas emissions and time (and thus money) savings for many people, to name four. Fully acknowledging the pros and cons, I think, is more helpful when debating the issue.
Timely report from TransForm and Natural Resources Defense Council address the equity challenge
"Critics have long deemed congestion pricing a regressive policy that charges car-dependent people more to drive," writes Alissa Walker, Curbed's urbanism editor, on Jan. 29.
A well-timed new report—Pricing Roads, Advancing Equity—out today by TransForm and the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), explains how congestion pricing can be employed as a tool to right engrained injustices in the U.S.’s current transportation system.
What used to sound radical now sounds like common sense—road pricing is urgently needed to address climate change, traffic, and inequity in the transportation system,” said the report’s co-author Stuart Cohen, executive director of TransForm. “We believe road pricing can be a transportation equity solution. It can speed buses and carpools while providing revenue to make mass transit more affordable.”
On that last note, Metro CEO Phil Washington proposed in December using the revenue to make transit free.
Carter Rubin, a mobility and climate advocate at the Natural Resources Defense Council, also weighs into the new report in the context of the Metro's congestion pricing study. "The main takeaway [from the Jan. 24 meeting] was that Metro staff should move forward only if improving equity is the centerpiece of congestion pricing."
Pricing Roads, Advancing Equity pulls together best practices and case studies to help cities and transportation agencies evaluate the social equity—or in most cases, inequity—of their transportation systems. And then it offers guidance on how the use of congestion pricing and reinvesting in mobility can improve social equity in transportation.
What remains to be seen is what type of congestion pricing, if any, is selected by the board. Metro is considering three options: cordon pricing, similar to what has been successfully implemented in London, Singapore, and Stockholm; a mileage fee, similar to the road usage charge in Oregon and a pilot project conducted from July 2016 through March 2017 by the California State Transportation Agency, and a corridor charge applied to 10 corridors.
The full Metro board meets next on Feb. 28 and will resume discussion of the report, "The Re‐Imagining of LA County: Mobility, Equity, and the Environment. "The Ad Hoc Congestion, Highway and Roads Committee meets on Feb. 20.
Related recent posts:
-
Transit Agency Chief to Propose Congestion Pricing for Los Angeles, January 21, 2019
FULL STORY: Metro directors question fairness of congestion pricing
If Road Pricing Is Inherently Unfair and Regressive...
Road pricing has its faults as a revenue measure, but it needs to be compared to ten elements of the current system of paying for transportation, including hidden subsidies, says Joe Cortright, an urban economist with Portland-based City Observatory.
Transit Agency Chief to Propose Congestion Pricing for Los Angeles
Los Angeles Metro CEO Phil Washington will recommend to his board next Thursday that they pursue a congestion pricing program to reduce traffic congestion, improve transit, and subsidize transit fares in Los Angeles in time for the 2028 Olympics.
Report: Modest Congestion Charge Would Produce Dramatic Results in Los Angeles
Applying a cordon toll as low as $4 in Los Angeles would result in a 20% reduction in traffic congestion and modest increases in transit ridership, walking, and biking, according to a new study from the Southern California Association of Governments.
The state-sanctioned urbicide of Austin
People don’t kill cities. Freeways do.
US to reduce Colorado River water deliveries to Mexico
A new Colorado Treaty amendment reduces Mexico’s Colorado River water allocation by 250,000 acre feet.
New Jersey’s second-largest city bans standalone data centers
Jersey City will continue to allow co-location facilities, such as those meant for research institutions that store their own data.
Amtrak not solely to blame for New Jersey commuter rail's unreliability, report finds
A new study from the Garden State Initiative found that NJ Transit’s budget grew 20% across a 4 year period, but reliability declined significantly over the same period.
EPA erases limits on planet-warming pollution from power plants
Under Monday’s plan, power plants would still have some limits on how much mercury, arsenic and other contaminants they can emit.
Phoenix announces new on-demand transit service, more frequent RAPID buses
Both new services will launch in October, and are part of Phoenix's Project Effective Access Solutions for Easing Congestion.
FREE Course: Walkable City 1: Why Walkability?
After describing his path towards focusing on walkability as the essence of good planning, Jeff Speck marches through his five principal reasons for making more walkable places.
Reinventing Malls: Planning Alchemy—Turning Gray Fields Into Gold
The course focuses on the opportunities and imperatives that shape reinvention of mall sites.
Eagle County Government
Harvard University Graduate School of Design
Nashville Planning Department
The Architects Foundation
University of Cincinnati Online
The Pocatello Development Authority
The Urban Renewal Agency of the City of Pocatello
Journal of the American Planning Association