Solution 2.0 Action 2.1Action 2.2Action 2.3

02. Improve Roadway and Trail Performance

Annual Congestion Cost (Per Driver)

Baltimore $1,115
Washington $1,834
Richmond $729

Source: 2015 Urban Mobility Scorecard, Texas A&M Transportation Institute

While roadway congestion is a sign of robust economic activity, excessive congestion inhibits our economic performance by limiting the ability of consumers to access jobs, arrive on time for work and meetings, and efficiently access necessary services like education and healthcare. Many parts of the region suffer from excessive congestion today. Congestion is most acute in the Washington and Baltimore metro areas, as well as along the I-95 corridor connecting Richmond to the District. On average, congestion costs each Baltimore metro resident $1,100 annually and each Washington metro area resident $1,834 annually—the highest amount for any metro area in the nation.1 Without regional action, projections show congestion will worsen by 2040—growing by more than 150 percent throughout the Capital Region—eventually consuming 50 percent of the time spent in a vehicle.

Addressing Roadway Congestion

Possible Solutions

Build Highway
Additional Capacity
  • Requires infrastructure investment and land
  • Free lane access induces more trips that can negate most benefits from new capacity
  • LA spent $1.6 billion over six years to widen the I-405 that resulted in average rush hour travel
Manage roadway demand by tolling new/untolled roads or implementing decongestion pricing zones
  • Toll revenue pays for capital and maintenance investments for the facility
  • Improves travel time, reliability, and decreases congestion
  • Increase person throughput
  • Can generate revenue to invest in public transportation
Develop transit
network and service
  • Requires infrastructure investment and land on the type of transit (i.e. bus versus rail)
  • Investment in transit alone provides minimal decrease in roadway congestion
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Action 2.1

Expand and Coordinate the Region’s Highway Performance-Driven Toll Lane Network

What

Roadway congestion places a significant burden on many of our 10.2 million residents and their employers. Convincing just a small number of residents to shift travel from driving alone to alternative trip options can reduce congestion, which translates into improved speed and reliability.

Performance-driven tolling is a tool that allocates a fee to single-occupant vehicles for the use of certain roadways at specified times. When deployed correctly and combined with other strategies meant to reduce single-occupancy vehicle use, performance-driven tolling creates incentives for consumers to divert trips to non-peak periods, increase the number of vehicle occupants, or opt for public transportation and carpooling. As a result, congestion on those roadways is reduced, speeds are increased, transit use may rise, and reliability improves. Additionally, investing the revenues raised back into the transportation system can provide consumers with improved travel options across the board. Performance-driven tolling can also more equitably levy the costs for the road’s maintenance and capacity expansion.

Principles for Performance-Driven Tolling in the Capital Region

  1. Tolling investments should improve the transportation system, not just the tolled facility
  2. Toll planning should be coordinated regionally to deliver the benefits of greater mobility and reliability to all consumers of the transportation system
  3. Decision-makers should prioritize providing the greatest number of people access to economic opportunity, not moving the most vehicles or generating the most revenue
  4. Consumers of all income levels should benefit from the tolling investment, including those without the financial means to afford the tolls
  5. Tolling revenues should be invested in cost-effective public transportation enhancements
  6. Public agencies should conduct robust and broad public engagement to develop goals, performance metrics and public benefit assessments for each tolling project, whether delivered by the public agency or by a public-private partnership

Why

The Capital Region is at the national forefront of using performance-driven tolling to combat roadway congestion and improve mobility and access. In total, Maryland and Virginia have 35 toll facilities operating, under construction, or in planning stages (13 in Maryland and 22 in Virginia).1 However, not all the Capital Region’s toll facilities deliver performance-driven outcomes, which creates an inconsistent patchwork of tolled facilities oriented around different and sometimes uncoordinated goals. This patchwork structure limits the potential benefits to the consumers—and, in certain areas, persistent congestion results where toll systems start and end.

Maryland is considering a new tolling network in the Washington metro area with connections to the Baltimore metro area and Virginia’s existing system at the American Legion Bridge and the Woodrow Wilson Memorial Bridge.2 While valid concerns have been raised about impacts from the project’s design and toll policies, which must be addressed, the proposal creates an opportunity for the Capital Region to deliver a performance-driven tolling network that improves mobility and access for the entire transportation network. This should include a new American Legion Bridge—a critical connection that represents one of the most congested roads in the entire Capital Region3—as the link between Fairfax and Montgomery counties, which host over 35 percent of the region’s jobs and households.4 Revenues from the performance-driven tolls could be used to pay for a new bridge that will allow for rapid transit connectivity between Fairfax and Montgomery counties, which is not an option today.

Capital Region Toll Facilities

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Action 2.2

Investigate a System to Charge Drivers Entering the Washington Metro Area’s Most Congested Central Business Districts

What

A cost-effective way to reduce roadway congestion, enhance mobility options, and improve the performance of the entire transportation system is to charge drivers a toll to enter congested central business districts. Cities around the world use this form of decongestion pricing—also known as “regional zonal pricing” or “cordon pricing”—to reduce congestion. Typically, the congestion fee is charged during weekdays and is waived or discounted for specific groups of transportation users (e.g., emergency vehicles, buses, electric vehicles, non-commercial vehicles registered to disabled persons, etc.).

In the Capital Region, severe and unpredictable congestion occurs during most of the day in the District’s central business district and portions of Arlington County, including the Pentagon, Rosslyn, Pentagon City, and Crystal City. The Capital Region could improve congestion management in these activity centers by instituting decongestion pricing programs. The region should investigate the potential benefits of implementing a decongestion pricing program for the District and Arlington.

Why

The Capital Region is one of the most congested regions in the United States1, with severe congestion occurring in the core business districts of the District and Arlington. Decongestion pricing has proven successful at reducing congestion in cities around the world. Milan, Italy, has reduced central Milan’s vehicle congestion by approximately 33 percent as a result of its weekday decongestion pricing program2. Likewise, London saw a 30 percent reduction in congestion; Stockholm saw inner-city traffic decline by 20 percent; and Singapore’s dynamic decongestion pricing system has achieved a 24 percent drop in traffic3. Studies predict decongestion pricing would achieve significant results in U.S. cities, as well—New York City could see a 13 percent reduction in weekday commuter traffic into central Manhattan4 and the Capital Region could see 17,000 daily trips into the District shift to transit5.

In a 2015 study of various transportation strategies for the District, Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) included a $5 charge for vehicles entering the District’s central business district and portions of Arlington County6. The study found this decongestion price—combined with removing free parking—would result in an increase in transit ridership of 30 percent over 2040 projections7. By studying decongestion pricing comprehensively as a region, we can better understand both the potential benefits and how it could be deployed as part of a coordinated, larger transportation strategy.

Establishing a decongestion pricing program for the region’s most congested central business districts could significantly enhance our entire transportation system as well as improve travel speeds and the reliability of roadways within the charged zone. Regional decongestion pricing zones establish annual sources of revenue that have generated more than $100 million in other regions throughout the globe. By using these funds to invest in transit and transportation infrastructure—such as new buses, park-and-ride spaces, and bicycle infrastructure—cities can achieve widespread benefits throughout their transportation systems.

New HOV4+ Lanes Were Established

London
Decongestion Charge The cordon pricing scheme uses automatic number plate recognition in an 8-square-mile area (21-square-kilometer zone). Vehicles are registered automatically by cameras that photograph the plate number. The system consists of overhead gantries, cameras at all entrance points, pavement markings, and street signage.
Results – Transportation System Improvements
  • 300 new buses
  • Updated bus routes
  • Expanded bus service
  • 8,500 park-and-price spaces
  • Expanded bike and pedestrian infrastructure
Results – Congestion, Traffic Flows Compared to pre-congestion pricing congestion levels, in 2004 Transport for London reported a 30 percent reduction in traffic congestion, a 30 percent increase in average speed, and significant increases in travel time reliability. Traffic entering the zone during charging hours has declined by 18 percent, and traffic circulation within the zone has declined by 15 percent. Bus service increased by 23 percent, and reliability and journey time improved as well. As a result, bus rideship has increased by 38 percent.
Annual Net Revenue 137 million pounds/year (USD $182 million)
Stockholm
Decongestion Charge The cordon congestion tax scheme uses an automatic number plate recognition in a 13-square-mile area (35-square-kilometer zone). Vehicles are registered automatically by cameras that photograph the number plates. The system consists of overhead gantries, camera at all entrance points, pavement markings, and street signage. The scheme was launched in 2007 after a successful trial in 2006. Taxis and for-hire vehicles, such as Uber, also oagy the tax.
Results – Transportation System Improvements
  • 197 new buses
  • 16 new bus routes
  • 2,800 new regional park-and-ride spaces
  • Expanded bike and pedestrian infrastructure
Results – Congestion, Traffic Flows Traffic to and from inner-city cordon was reduced by 20 percent, and traffic delays decreased by 30-50 percent. Vehicle miles traveled decreased by 14 percent in the cordon and decreased by 1 percent outside the cordon. After the variable pricing system was introduced in 2016, traffic congestion dropped an additional 5 percent during that period.
Annual Net Revenue 1.3 billion krona/year (USD $155 million)
Singapore
Decongestion Charge The electronic road pricing (ERP) scheme is fully automatic on specific routes, times of day, and directions, with variable pricing designed to respond to congestion in real time. Vehicles are required to have an in-vehicle unit on the dashboard and a smart card with the fare stored on it. Overhead gantries detest the type of vehicle and the congestion on the route at specific times, and deduct the variable fee from the smart card. the ERP scheme was launched in 1998, replacing a cordon pricing scheme that was first implemented in 1975.
Results – Transportation System Improvements
  • 197 new buses
  • 16 new bus routes
  • 2,800 new regional park-and-ride spaces
  • Expanded bike and pedestrian infrastructure
Results – Congestion, Traffic Flows Traffic to and from inner-city cordon was reduced by 20 percent, and traffic delays decreased by 30-50 percent. Vehicle miles traveled decreased by 14 percent in the cordon and decreased by 1 percent outside the cordon. After the variable pricing system was introduced in 2016, traffic congestion dropped an additional 5 percent during that period.
Annual Net Revenue 1.3 billion krona/year (USD $155 million)

Source: A Way Forward For New York City - 2017 (PDF)

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Action 2.3

Complete the Baltimore Greenway Trails Network and Capital Trails Network, and Establish a Richmond Trail Network Strategy

What

Connected trail systems can lessen demand on the roadway network, improve connections to jobs and activity centers, increase regional economic activity, contribute to healthy communities, and enhance access to the outdoors and our iconic parks and landscapes in both rural and urban areas. Maryland, the District, and Virginia have more than 1,000 multi-use trail miles, with major nationally-recognized trails such as the East Coast Greenway, the C&O Canal Towpath, the Anacostia Tributary Trails, the Capital Crescent Trail, the Mount Vernon Trail, the W&OD Trail, and the Virginia Capital Trail.

Yet, despite considerable investments, the region’s trails do not form coherent and connected regional networks in the Baltimore, Washington, and Richmond metro areas. In many instances, the trails also do not provide seamless connections to non-trail bicycle and pedestrian networks. Federal, state, and local governments should collaborate with trails groups and private entities to speed up the delivery of the Baltimore Greenway and the Capital Trails Network, and establish a trail connecting activity centers from Ashland to Richmond to Petersburg with the 52-mile Virginia Capital Trail.

Capital Region Trails

Why

Many commute trips are less than five miles, a distance most can bike. In addition, many non-commuting trips can be completed efficiently by biking or walking if safe options exist. Trail connections to essential destinations such as jobs and transit stops can lower demand on the region’s roadway network, which reduces congestion.

However, the lack of trail connectivity diminishes the region’s ability to conveniently overcome man-made barriers, such as roads, to access jobs, schools, and outdoor opportunities. This lack of trail connectivity encourages consumers to drive rather than complete trips by bike or foot, limits greenspace for recreation, and isolates communities.

The Capital Region already benefits from clusters of locally and regionally connected trails in some areas. A few critical investments would create a network of trails—creating a sum far greater than its parts.

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Contact Us

Phone Number

General Inquiries

202 765 2024

Email Address

info@greaterwashingtonpartnership.com media@greaterwashingtonpartnership.com
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