Congestion Pricing Advocates Keep Foot On Gas

Mass. Has Congestion, But Pricing Reform Hasn’t Gained Traction

SEPT. 10, 2024…..Congestion pricing was one of the most contentious issues in Swedish politics for years, as one transportation official from the Scandinavian country recently recalled. And then something unexpected happened: people got used to it.

Following an “extremely heated debate” about implementation of higher tolls on roads that at times are most prone to traffic, Stockholm commuters adjusted to the new reality, according to an official in the Swedish Transport Administration.

“It was easily the most debated issue in Swedish politics for several years, actually, but once it was in place, it was like, ‘Okay, not so bad,’” Jonas Eliasson, director of transport accessibility for the Swedish Transport Administration, said Thursday. “It was sort of made uncontroversial in the same sense as speed limits or traffic signals.”

Eliasson was one of the panelists invited by the advocacy group Transportation for Massachusetts to explore the landscape for congestion pricing, an idea that reformers have pushed but which has failed to gain traction in Massachusetts and other parts of the United States.

Stockholm launched a fee on vehicles entering and exiting the central part of the city in 2007, aiming to disincentivize driving at already-crowded peak times. Eliasson said the policy, which was later expanded to Gothenburg, another Swedish city, has “decreased congestion enormously.”

“I actually thought that at least some of the effect would wear off over time, but it’s actually the other way around — it has grown bigger over time,” he said.

Some parts of the United States have variable pricing on highways or major crossings, though Matt Woodhouse, an assistant vice president for engineering and professional services firm WSP USA Advisory, said the majority of those cases deploy the technique as an option — motorists can pay more for faster travel — rather than a more blanket charge disincentivizing driving at certain times.

Advocates see the change as a way to shift travel patterns and generate money for investments, but the idea has yet to catch on here.

Former Gov. Charlie Baker in 2021 vetoed a proposal to study congestion pricing systems. The following year, lawmakers sent him updated language crafting a commission to study “mobility pricing,” which would examine congestion pricing and other topics like public transit fares. Baker sent it back with an amendment expanding the panel’s membership. The Legislature never took up the amendment, allowing the underlying proposal to die when the term ended.

Supporters thought they had notched a landmark victory in New York, which moved in 2019 to charge drivers $15 for entering Manhattan’s business district. That plan was forecast to raise $15 billion for New York City’s transit system, but Gov. Kathy Hochul indefinitely paused it this summer shortly before it took effect.

“The fact that we won this program in 2019, and now it’s 2024 — it’s a really long time, and as we all know, a lot of different things have happened in that period of time. It has not stopped the need for congestion pricing. Actually, it has exacerbated the need,” said Betsy Plum, executive director of the New York-based Riders Alliance.

Some skeptics of the policy argue that it would put unaffordable costs on lower-income motorists who do not have other viable options, or that transit systems are not reliable enough to offer commuters a better alternative.

Eliasson said while it “definitely helps if you have a good public transit system,” it’s not necessary, pointing to options like working from home and bike lanes that motorists could choose instead of driving at peak times.

And Plum said a “great, great majority” of lower-income travelers rely on public transit, not driving. She pointed to a 2017 study from the Community Service Society that found only 2 percent of the “working poor” would be subject to congestion pricing fees.

“It feels grossly inequitable to me that we would say to those [98 percent of] individuals that you do not deserve a subway and bus system that works, and that your time is not worth the investment that we would make with congestion pricing,” Plum said.