Welcome, and I think you were standing by.
At this time everyone is in listen only mode.
I will turn it over meeting over to Ms. Joslyn power.
Welcome to the talking operations congestion pricing webcast.
I will give a brief introduction before turning to session over to our first presenter, Regina McElroy.
Please be advised that our seminar is being recorded.
Today's seminar is in a slightly different format than our usual seminar.
It will last approximately three hours with several.
To that the seminar dedicated to answering your questions.
During the presentation if you think of a question good type it into smaller text box underneath the chat area on that or the append of your screen.
Please make sure you are typing in the thin text box and not the large white area.
I will be acting during the questions threat the question and answer seminar.
During the final question and answer.
At the end of the seminar will also be taking questions over the phone line.
I would like to remind you that the session is being recorded.
It's about contain the that you and audio portion of the seminar will be posted within the next week.
I will context that to you shortly.
We encourage you to direct others in your office who could not attend this presentation to the recording.
I will let you know of the availability of those power point.
Closed captioning will also be available on the site.
At this time I would like to turn things over to Regina McElroy, the director of the Federal Highway Office of Transportation Operations.
Think you Jocelyn.
It is nice to be here this afternoon and this is our first Web and are on congestion pricing and Urban agreement, however it follows three workshops we had in D.C. and Atlanta.
It represents an abbreviated version of all we did in those workshops.
The last of about six hours and the session only last for three. We are going to be doing a lot fast-talking and go through a period number of slides.
I understand we have 72 sites registered and that probably translates into well over 100 people, so again, it is great to have you all with us.
I will be introducing as the afternoon goes on, I will be introducing some of the other speakers, but let me just briefly acquaint you with who they are.
First is Patrick de Carlos Souza, and he is the urban manager in my office and he is really an internationally recognized expert on congestion pricing.
He is a tremendous resource for the department and to the forecast today during this weather.
Wayne Berman is a team leader in the office of Transportation management.
He is responsible for advancing congestion pricing, and also falling under her umbrella of our activities intended to promote the consideration of Operations strategy and planning process.
Finally, we have Linda Koch with us.
When that is from the joint program office.
You'll find out later in this webinar if you do not know so already taught that the JPO has contributed an awful lot and the way of funding to making the current partnership solicitation work so you'll be hearing more about that.
At the start by -- should I walk through the agenda?
Real quickly, the agenda is organized into four blocks.
We will be starting off with three presentations that will really address the basics of congestion pricing and also provide some introductory material, kind of setting into context with these urban partnerships are all about
and indeed a little bit about congestion pricing is about.
Then we will stop and have some Q&A and then we will of two congestion pricing policy development.
We have 33 presenters, and then we will talk about how to design a comprehensive package of strategies.
Again, for questions and answers and then we will get into the specifics of the urban partnership agreement.
And we are followed with about 45 minutes of Q and A, depending on what you all have, we can even say launder it that makes sense.
Okay.
But the start by giving you an introductory presentation.
Unfortunately for you guys and have to listen to me.
Two of our workshops were treated to presentations, one by and another one by Tyler Duvall who is the (INDISCERNIBLE) I hope to do it justice and very quickly as well.
What I want to do is give you the rationale between the DOT congestion finished ahead.
I want to go over the element in schtick placing special emphasis on the urban partnership agreement and also discussed the U.S. DOT resources that are available to support this effort.
So why are we focusing on congestion? Why now?
Clearly has a significant impact on the country in general and each one of us individually.
ID a fax that effectiveness of U.S. industry.
We see the ability of insurers and manufacturers to really count on the overtimes and it causes us not to be able to count on delivery time, causes productivity to go down and that in terms makes goods and services cost more.
Really, if you look at it, that members are truly staggering.
Almost $200,000 across almost every year are attributed to congestion.
I am sure each and everyone of us can attest to it also, it impacts our personal quality of life, influences where people live and also where the work.
That me give you just a little bit of background information on how this congestion initiative came about.
Early last year, leaders from across the U.S. DOT gather to talk about what the Department should focus on in the last two years of its the ministration.
The question that was put on the table was, how can make a difference the number of items we talked about congestion very quickly came to the top of the list
and the group came to a consensus that it should be the department's goal to work on reducing the rate -- sorry, to work on reducing congestion and not just the rate of growth of congestion.
So the group said, and are still saying, the congestion is not at all inevitable.
This leadership group furthermore said that quote we needed was aggressive and innovative strategies to reduce the absolute level of congestion, again, rate of growth and that is what we have the with the congestion and ship.
It has six points.
First, and this is why we are here this afternoon, the department wants to enter into urban partnership agreements with one to buy major metropolitan areas.
The idea is to focus on meaningful reductions in congestion through the application of innovative solutions, chief amongst those being congestion pricing.
We also want to encourage public-private partnership, and this is all about changing the mind set out there.
We're talking about helping people put together legislation for instance.
Orders of the future focuses on new interstate and rail capacity.
We have 40 projects that were submitted and we are down to eight corridors and porting projects of interest and the final proposal is due in May, which is right around the corner.
We have a particular emphasis that is being placed on freight and we are focusing on Southern California as well as border congestion.
On the air side, you are seeing an approach summer to ground transportation, particularly when it comes to addressing congestion through pricing strategy.
Let's talk a little bit now about the urban partnership agreement.
The focus is on for keys -- tolling, transit, telecommuting, and technology.
Now I tell you the first one is the Big kahuna about all the Ts we are talking about.
I do want to say very quickly that the solutions that we expect to see submitted to pass it will not only include tolling but will also include the other Ts and very much be a comprehensive solution to congestion.
Let's talk a little bit about the other Ts.
In other -- in order to get?
Trips--what we're talking about here is the has to be sufficient transit capacity.
Today you hear about pricing and see the transit is really a key component to the success of many of these initial steps.
Transit provides a choice and so does telecommuting.
Of course with this one cut -- and get to keep people off the roads all together.
The telecommuting elements also applies flexible work schedules and really, other travel demand technology.
Overall, these agreements are going to be supported by advanced technology and attention to management and operations of (INDISCERNIBLE).
What we bring to the table.
We started with $30 million from the value pricing Program, as I said when I was introducing Linda, the JPS JPO program has contributed $100 million.
So we have just about $100 million on the table to support that urban partnership agreement.
However, there is more money to come.
We were informed that we would be under a continuing resolution for the entire deal year and this means that we don't have to worry about ear marks this year in the Department of Transportation in a truly rare event.
So we have the ability to use those funds that would have been worn under normal circumstances used in a different way.
We are going to be applying those funds to the urban partnership agreement.
And I think you should have seen some Federal Register notice is that have come out addressing exactly that.
For instance nutrients that money is on the table.
All in all, we are looking at potential for about 1.1 billion in DOT discretionary grants.
Other potential support includes 125 million in the administrators fiscal year 08 but did work ingestion initial funding, DOT loans and credit Ickes authority, expedited product --
and senior leadership which is going to make you make the case for pricing.
I know Tyler was able to make to of our workshops and he made it clear to the PRI to spends that those workshops that he personally as well as other members of the administration were available to talk two,
high-ranking political folks and urban areas, to help them see the light when it comes to congestion pricing.
And so that is worth an awful lot and that offers a very much out there on the table.
In closing, our hope is that those of you at the state and local level will be this bring the same level of effort we tried to bring to hours by way of reducing congestion.
Thank you very much, first of all and let me turn this over to Patrick and he is going to talk about the U.S. and international examples of what we have learned to date.
Regina.
Very briefly the are going to put a whole bunch of power point slides up on gridlock website, so you will see all of these plus additional Scott slides that we couldn't accommodate today because of the abbreviated format of this session.
I just want to remind you again, we are now in the congestion pricing basics session and after a break there are one to talk about policy and projects development
and after another break talk about how you design a comprehensive package of Cup transportation strategies.
So first, we want to make sure everyone understands the difference between a tolling and congesting pricing, because the to are very often confused with one another.
Talking about tolling we're talking about flat toll Andy purpose is to collect revenue.
And congestion pricing on the other hand, the facility may have already been paid for to other means Kahane but what we're doing is introducing tolls only during certain times of the day when those facilities are congested,
only on the congest and segments and for the purpose of managing demanded and got as a source of revenue.
If we do get revenue it could be used for other purposes to mention that demand but generally the purpose is to generate revenue.
I am not going to go into detail into the types and a projects we have implemented, I am just listing for you here for types of projects that have already been implemented in the United States, HOV to HOT conversions, example
and San Diego where lower occupancy vehicles are allowed to use those who reigns as a-or all vehicles may be told, although in some cases a HOV may be provided a discount and not necessarily agree service.
The card type of facility or pricing that has been implemented is introducing higher tolls during peak periods or to put another way, discounts during off-peak periods on existing tollways on the bridge between New York
and its neighboring cities.
And finally a test of per mile fees, this is at form of area wide pricing.
The technology has been tested in Seattle and in Seattle we also have some results of behavioral impact on people who were subject to this pilot test.
So I also want to talk a little bit about the broader examples of congestion pricing that have been primarily in London, Stockholm caught and Singapore, and these are a cord and pricing schemes.
Singapore actually implemented its schemes in 1975, however, they have recently in 1998 implemented night, Network pricing of its entire expressway system.
And that is the only example in the entire world of the existing facility.
The existing freeway put facilities have been priced.
And in Germany and Switzerland and Austria have implemented nationwide truck pricing schemes using again GPS based technologies.
Sold what his next picture it shows you is the gantries that were put up around in the central area of Stockholm, basically to enter and you would have a higher toll during the peak of the peak -- it was about $2.50 --
and then in the variable -- in the shoulders of that peak it would be down to maybe a dollar 25.
So this is the type of pricing that could be implemented in the United States and the suggested areas.
In Singapore, as I mentioned, the freeway system is priced here.
Have been it example of a gantry placed over an expressway that is oriented downtown, and what I will do it now is simply go on and briefly explain seven lessons that we have learned cobbled from the U.S. and foreign examples.
The first is, that we waste as much as half of our three great capacity during the rush hour when we needed the most.
This has been demonstrated on as are 91 Express told lanes where the Peak hour throughput on the lanes is half what it is on the express toll lanes,
and actually what is happening is during rush hour because of the congestion the true put her on the existing freelance drops dramatically.
Generate about 25% to one third, but in this case as you can see as much as 50%.
And what this suggests is if we can manage our freeway capacity using pricing we would gain back the lost capacity during rush hours.
Just to show you that this is not something that is only on SR91, this is I66 in Northern Virginia.
Very sick recent data simply shows you how, it is a four lane in each direction, at about 6:00 o'clock in the morning we are getting a dozen vehicles through, but if you go to 7:00 o'clock that throughput jobs,
two something like 7,000 vehicles and at the speed of a little over 30 miles per hour and later at 8:00 o'clock that drops down to work for their two only 6,000 vehicles getting through at a speed of 25 miles per hour.
So what have we learned with the bridge pricing projects, where existing facilities have been tolled?
Basically what you see here in this graphic is because of the variable tolls and the peak, and the green bars show you that people shifted and due to 820 and the red bars show you the drop in traffic.
Nearly (INDISCERNIBLE) eligible for this discount shifted their travel time at least once a the other interesting thing is that generally people are opposed to pricing and only after it is implemented test strong support materialize.
The San Diego where approval rates are around Hong 77% with the lower and higher income groups like this option because it gives them and guaranteed travel time,
and the instance in San Diego when they were given an opportunity to widen it buy four lanes, date be priced because they understand the value of pricing.
Finally, in Stockholm what you see is implementation prior to implementation.
Dinner one is when the project was implemented, the pink line shows you how after implementation the opposition dropped dramatically, and finally when the project was put to a bold, in September of to -- ,
it passed by over 50 percent to about but 42 percent.
Some people change their views when they see pricing in Stockholm be found even a small toll, like I said the highest was $2.50, and in Singapore,
you can see the use a cash card which is an anonymous -- sort of like your transit fare card which is put into this and vehicle unit and your -- money is deducted off of the card so that everything is an on an anonymous
and privacy is maintained.
But they also did in Singapore is manage that through put and they do it simply give a speech code too high, they would decrease the toll because that means that the throughput is being reduced because of the higher speeds.
On the other hand speed drop below a certain speed, the increase the toll because it did not want traffic slowed to break down and lose that throughput during peak rush hours.
Finally, what we have seen here is, we have projects that have worked, and a key thing is public opinion is going to be opposed in advance of any pricing project, but only after it is implemented do we get the public on board.
Thank you.
Now we will changed to a presentation by Regina again.
My goodness, you guys are getting a lot of the information so far today.
And at a rapid fire pace.
And it is just to get worse or better and depending on your perspective.
But there is certainly an awful lot to talk about when it comes to congestion pricing and that is why we are trying to get it all to you very quickly in a three hour format.
Let me move on here to presentation three.
What I wanted to do was give you the rationale for congestion pricing.
I want to do it in easy to understand terms and I want to give you the why from and economic efficiency point of view.
Some of you are already familiar with this and if that is the case that is great but what it wanted to do perhaps was to give you an approach that you can use in talking to the legislators in your area the public and so on,
and explain it concept that can be if not difficult to understand, at least, it is new.
So I am going to look behind the curtain if you will when we talk about congestion pricing, initially with respect to travel demand management,
but I would argue that there really is a fundamental the reason that it is a strategy worth pursuing.
And hopefully that presentation will help you understand that.
So why congestion pricing?
Why are we even talking about it today?
Why is the Department pushing to make it a reality?
First of all it maximizes economic proficiency.
It maximizes the system efficiency.
You get a sense of that from Patrick just a few moments ago when he talked about vehicles blow and throughput.
It also provides market signal for investment, and it encourages the travel option.
So let's talk about the basics of economic efficiency.
Why it makes sense to privatize Bull from a national perspective as well as an individual prospective.
Let's start with the idea of Internal cost.
Internal costs are borne directly by the user, and another way of thinking about internal costs are these the cost you can see and come directly out of your pocket.
When it comes to driving, the cost of fuel would be the example of and internal cost.
There are external cost and when we think about external costs which are thinking about costs borne by others that are external to the person making the decision to drive.
For example -- and the immediate
and specific example -- a more person driving to work as I say an additional car to the traffic flow but when that person enters the traffic flow caught it could be right at the point that they would reduce the level of service of that
particular facility.
So everyone would experience a slower commute, not just the person causing that to happen.
So that person who caused that phenomenon to take place, the kind of get a free ride.
They're not paying the entire cost associated with their decision.
And you should know that Highway externalities' go beyond congestion and they include noise and air quality and pollution and Community destruction and other things, and again, these are costs that are occasioned by others,
but those others did not necessarily make the decision that resulted in those costs.
Now it is interesting to note that even though when made aware of the external cost phenomenon, some drivers like the idea they are avoiding an extra expenditure by not having to pay for those external costs.
However, I want to point out to you that they are just really moving the cost from one pocket to another.
Of the language of economists, what seems like a cost avoided or it a savings is really just an economic transfer.
The cost will be formed -- borne by some place else by someone else in the economy.
This reality becomes clear when you consider that congestion can make travel time on the system on unreliable.
This liability creates problems for and time deliveries, ultimately increasing the cost of consumer goods, and that is why I put the note there, in one pocket and out of another.
Let me talk just a little bit now about of the malady.
Economists really like this concept of ophthalmology and I would like to associate it with the public.
What it means is allocating resources of the level of consumption is generating the highest benefit to the individuals making the transaction in society as a whole.
The first thing you need to get to in order to move to ought to malady is a market for the players really know what their costs are and they're making decisions based on those costs.
In other words, the external cost to talk about within the internalized.
Placing this idea in the context of how we operations, optimal decisions result when individuals are able to make travel decisions that truly reflect their needs and preferences.
The what we have today?
Literally what we have is rationality by delay.
When the demand for services exceeds supply, and we will be found to me that demand.
In the highway the ask users to wait.
And me take just a moment and look a little bit more closely on how the inefficient market works.
Let's say we have a traveler who is willing to make a trip when the cost is $64, but let's assume that the true cost is $6 that is when the externalities' are told again.
Now that same person willing to make the trip at $4 is no longer interested at $6, and it is these sorts of tricks that make society worse off.
On the other hand, let's look at a shipper who is willing to paper Premier price for a trip and I would argue that this to represent a lost benefit and also a mixed society worse off.
So how does it work with pricing?
While first caught the cost borne by users reflects the actual societal cost.
Second, in theory, prices are set to make the difference between implied cost and this would be mostly congestion.
They're generally sat at a level the market can bear bear Castle the first vehicle that would impede free flow conditions would be the first to enter the system.
That is what I was talking about in an earlier example, who entered the facility when things were going well but as a result of that individual's car being introduced to the traffic flow, the level of service went down.
So ideally when congestion pricing strategies are implemented, a high priority will be placed on high-performance caught lower-cost substitute.
Those are the other three Ts that I am talking about earlier.
The fact that over a given period of time when most people will take many trips.
They will buy you those trips at different levels.
For example, the way that a person commutes to work may be nontraditional caught on the other hand that same person may consider a trip trading or combining trips or taken the subway acceptable for taking other trips.
Most individuals have core preferences that are kind of entrenched if you will, but at the same time they have a wide margin around those core preferences that provide a great opportunity for substitution.
Let me turn now to the second reason we're interested in congestion pricing and that is maximizing flow and throughput.
You heard this from Patrick and he alluded to the technical explanation of this phenomenon.
He talked about how we see exactly sit this on SR 91 in Orange County, California.
We are pricing vehicles two be served per plane at three to four times on the freeway.
Now what I want to do is because for so many people this is counter intuitive, I want to offer you an easy explanation for this phenomenon.
Doug McDonald who is the secretary of transportation at Washington State sponsored a competition last year.
Ashley offered a thousand dollar private who -- to anyone who could come up with an easy explanation as to highway tolls that go up and down with demand could actually speed traffic and ease congestion.
The winner of this equated traffic throughput to rise blowing through a funnel.
And what he said was, and I think everyone has experienced this in one way or another, if the rice is done all at once into a funnel it gets backed up and flows slowly,
but it the same amount of rice is in received in a controlled fashion to an idea that the identical funnel.
While empirical evidence does exist is (INDISCERNIBLE).
We need to come up with more examples.
But I did think this was a particularly good explanation of this phenomenon, this rice explanation, and I would encourage you to use it.
The third reason that we consider congestion pricing is a that it literally provides market signals for investment.
I am sure that I am not saying anything out of school when I say that without pricing, when you get are a lot of political solutions as to where to invest.
And that is because there is really no information from the gas tax as to how much, where, or when to invest.
With pricing you have a very real demand that is truly revealed, so you get better infrastructure investment decisions.
And really got better use of all resources whether it be payment, money, or time.
Also, the fourth item is the new travel options.
We talked a little bit about this.
Apparently, one of the new options is literally the option for reliable travel time.
And also caught a better substitute.
All EC is that congestion pricing action helps to promote transit services.
So what I have talked about today append a little bit toward the radical, however, there are many examples where track dynamic pricing has worked and I'd encourage you to take a look.
Talk about movie tickets, airline fares, early bird specials at restaurants and so on.
I think everyone in this country is used to praising and they just haven't thought about it in the context of highways.
Despite this, folks are reluctant to think about alternatives when it comes to highway travel and we don't have all the answers when it comes to applying congestion pricing, but we also know that we need to start somewhere
and we are trying to do is come up with trails through these urban partnership agreements that will truly provide the evidence about congestion pricing and also give us details about things that might prove problematic.
That is all I have right now, I will turn its back over to Patrick and when he concludes his presentations, it will be time for questions and answers.
My mistake, we are open to questions and answers now.
Thank-you, I noticed a lot of good questions coming in on the chat box here, so maybe we will crowd around the telephone here and have Patrick and Regina here and I will field some of those questions.
If we don't get to all of them in this 10 minute break, we will be able to deal with some of them in the 45 minutes that we have decided the last 45 minutes of the seminar or we can deal with them on the Web as well.
So here is a question.
What is the relationship to the preparation and contract of 40 forties (INDISCERNIBLE)?
Is that something either of you want to handle?
Let me suggest that we speak about that a little bit, and also cut that is really a more appropriate question for the session that will conclude this workshop, we talk about how the seven partnerships are put together
and how we will go about applying the bonds.
It is a real quick answer I suppose, in that these are discretionary funds over and above what folks have received through other channels and there is really no relationship between them.
But when you hear that last session you'll here more on that subject.
Okay.
And then also a participant wanted to know, what the web site would be that these flights will be on.
Typically riposte them on be in and talk website is that something that you do?
We are proposing putting everything on the gridlocked website.
And that is the best source of all information for urban partnership agreements.
It has a lot of the solicitation document, Power Point presentation document , brochures, and I think you would need to develop your presentation.
Our goal is to get this in the hands of as many substances as we possibly can.
We will put that URL into the chat box.
Congestion pricing -- how do we tight the level of service pricing -- for example, does anyone price based on travel speed, time of day, etc.
Yes, it actually do variable pricing.
In other words, prices vary by time of day.
That is the most general way in which pricing is implemented.
What was the next one?
Does anyone do it?
Yes.
We have about a dozen places in the United States in planked variable pricing.
I mentioned Stockholm, Singapore, they do it on the expressway system, so its a very well understood demand Management tool.
And let me point out to that we have had six hot links in the country now, and five of them employ what we call dynamic pricing or as he said, variable pricing
and I would say that hot links is a very wonderful opportunity to demonstrate how it works and also to give folks an idea that this pricing thing really is a good thing.
Great.
Another question is, why not use congestion pricing to raise revenues?
I think in the presentation there was a statement that it wasn't done to raise revenue.
.
That is not the point at it, and if you wanted to pay for a facility could reduce congestion pricing
and in the off-peak calls hours would have that flat told it would help pave pave for the facility but generally speaking congestion pricings purpose is simply to manage demand cuts and the purpose is not to collect revenue,
so you might -- for example, it might spend a lot of example -- money setting up the gantries and getting people transponders and stuff, and that could take up a lot of cost.
But the point is the benefit you are trying to get is not the revenue but the benefit of what Regina talked about which is getting rid of the congestion
and all the huge economic benefits that flow when you eliminate congestion which is far greater than any revenue that he could collect.
Okay.
And James is wondering what the impact of congestion pricing are on energy and the environment?
With either of you -- .
It is always positive.
In fact in the Economic Report of the president there is a chapter on energy
and half of that chapter is about congestion pricing on the transportation system because of a huge impact that congestion pricing can have it on reducing our dependence on foreign oil and reducing energy consumption.
In addition of course, when people drive less and people -- topic is free flowing, you had fewer emissions and that improves equality.
So in fact, the Stockholm import pricings project was actually pushed by the Green party,
which is an environmental party that actually wanted to see congestion pricing in place for the environmental benefits rather than just the congestion reduction benefit.
the bottom line is very much a function of what happens to who travel demand on a given facility or I should say in a given area really when you take into account diversion, but how many folks are enticed to to stay at home, car pool
and literally get there personal vehicle off the road.
Great.
Let's take one more question before we go on.
The HOV Hot lines are only existing when planes have an added or has (INDISCERNIBLE).
The Lane has access capacity, and I spoke to this earlier but I think that is why hot planes are so very interesting and very attractive, because you're not taking anything away from the public in terms of choices
and options but literally giving them something new.
To have a situation where no one was using some facility or some incremental facility and then the price that and you give folks an opportunity to travel on that pricing facility.
And on the subject of new lanes, Yes caught they can be applied to new lanes also.
In fact, a proposal is in process, one of them right here in Northern Virginia, to add lanes to the freeway and price those.
Thank you for addressing those questions.
Let's move on now to presentation for, but Patrick, who is going to speak on congestion pricing and policy development.
Okay.
What we are going to do in this session, Wayne and I are going to show you again in an abbreviated form, what you need to do in order to develop the appropriate policies in order to get your elected officials
and the public on board to buy into congestion pricing.
So what I am willing to talk about next is what the public's concerns are and how you might be able to address those concerns.
And basically, there are 10 frequently expressed public concerns that I am glad to talk about, and I will quickly describe what you can do to communicate to the public about that concerned,
and what you might do in a policy contact to address that concern.
And finally I will summarize with some key every ingredients for success in selling the congestion pricing to your elected officials and the public.
So the next slide shows Yucatan concerns I am when to talk about and I will go through each of them very quickly explaining what the concern is and how you might address it.
So of course, the public doubts that pricing will be effective.
Basically people feel that right now, people do whatever they can to avoid congestion and if a point that a toll on there, they're simply going to have to pay the tolls and everything will be the same as before
and they will be simply driving in congestion and paying a toll.
Will what we have found as an example, in Florida, when have a monetary incentive, people do change their behavior.
As I said in Florida, 71% of the folks that were eligible for that discount actually shipped to at that time of travel at least once a week.
And it is true that a large share of people, maybe as many as 90%, our in a situation where they can -- can't really change their time of travel because their employer wants them to be there on time at 8:00 o'clock or whenever,
but remember that even if 10 or 20 percent of people have that flexibility, and the change that time of travel, that is all we need.
You saw in the graphs that I presented on I66 for example, just a few people in our riding at 7:00 a.m. in the morning caused that facility to break down, so if you can just 10 percent of the people are writing off the road,
which can provide a 55-mile per hour service and higher throughput of 80,000 vehicles on I66.
So the fact is that the pricing will have any effect, but the public of course is not going to believe you
and you are actually going to have to implement something in demonstrated to them as they did in Stockholm -- the public was opposed but once it was in place people saw how it worked and worked for it.
The second one is -- the public's concern that this is just another tax, taking more money out of my pocket, and this is a scheme to generate revenue note -- I guess the point here is they're trying to improve service,
they're trying to add as Regina pointed out, substitutes -- things such as transit car pooling flex time and etc., so people have options.
And the purpose is not to get more money out of people's can't pocket -- in Pat in fact any surplus revenues in the policy development, you can decide to simply return of all excess revenues to the public in the form of tax reductions
or even in the form of credits to pay for tolls and transit.
Everyone, for example, the entire resident populations in the metropolitan area would get its share -- each person would get his or her share of credits which could be used for transit or for paying tolls.
The third issue is the government is going to tell me what to do and restrict my freedom.
And this comes out of the fact that people feel they have no choice except to pay the toll.
As we explained earlier, the most important thing is congestion pricing is quick to Ashley expand the choices.
And now people have no choice except to sit in traffic.
If they have to get somewhere in a hurry that they have absolutely no choice.
Uprising does is create a premium service options of the people really need to get somewhere on time,
and if you don't want to pay the toll call what pricing does is encourage is with the toll revenues substitutes to be developed such as transit and other forms of high mobility such as carpooling.
The fact is Hawk for example when airports charge parking charges, D.C. A shuttle service being developed and that is exactly what will happen on the pricing price system.
He will seek paratransit developing and been more successful simply because there is it in an economic incentive now for development of these alternatives.
The next issue is that it hurts the poor.
The equity issue.
How will the poor be able to pay for their toll revenues?
And resolved this problem with feud by providing assistance.
And we can provide toll credits to those who cannot afford it.
The next one is the issue of privacy, and the fact that the transponder technology allows the government to know where people are at all times.
Well, as we showed you in Singapore cut that problem was solved simply by giving everyone a cash card, an anonymous card, you can simply go to the machine and fill it out with cash and when you are traveling,
as long as there is money on that card, no one knows who is paying as long as the money is deducted from the card.
And that is the type of thing that can be done to address this issue, of course, again, the public needs to be convinced that we are doing is to end the enhance options, and not simply to find out where they are going and spy on them.
The next issue that keeps coming up is that -- if we price the freeways people will divert to other roads.
But it is important to understand that yes, we raise tolls on an existing toll road and we will see that type of diversion.
However, we are not talking about toll roads, you're talking about congestion pricing where people have options instead of the diverting.
For example, polls will be lowered or nonexistent during off-peak hours.
If they don't want to pay the tolls drive earlier or later.
Cool put an additional forms of transit, carpooling, flex time, so people have options.
And the other important thing is we can prevent those people at 7:00 o'clock from causing the freeway to break down.
We will be able to actually maintain higher throughput on the freeway so there will be no reason for people to divert to parallel facilities as they do now when the freeway is congested.
The next issue is the government can't be trusted with my money, people know that when the government gets extra money is spent on pet project.
We can have legislation on where it goes and who decides how to spend the money.
Generally speaking if you have a toll facilities money is generally cent in the core.
And that people who pay the tolls and that has worked in the past to alleviate public's concerns.
One issue that was brought up and this was in an op ed that was published in USA Today by Bill Graves, the head of the American trucking Association, and he said, this will increase transport costs and hurt the economy.
Well when cordon pricing was introduced in London, there was a newspaper company who found that they could deliver newspapers in half the time because traffic was going so slowly and it they could get rid of half the trucks.
If they could do that at the National Highway System, can you see how many -- how much reduced cost that transferred when it involved.
So that is a non starter and we have shown it is not true.
The next one relates to, people feel it cost too much to collect tolls.
That is true, toll collection is much more expensive than gas tax collection, and however, as I pointed out the earlier, it is not the benefit to -- or the revenue you get that the huge benefit to the economy
and that is what we need to emphasize.
Poor example, if you can get back back whole lane of traffic and is being lost during rush hour on I66, that is equal to a lot of benefit.
Just think how much it will cost to add a lane on I66.
So for a small amount of cost or technology, we can get huge benefits to the economy and reduced the infrastructure cost.
And finally, the issue of double taxation.
I already paid for this road.
What I want to show you is -- Regina was trying to explain the external cost, and what you see on this table is -- on I66 from 67 A.M. and we have two dozen vehicles traveling at 60 miles per hour which,
it takes them to pass an minutes to totally and aggregate.
Well from seven to 8:00 a.m. It dropped to 20 miles per hour is so 60 extra minutes are caught spent by those acidic vehicles.
What causes this breakdown is gallate a very small number of vehicles -- and what you see in the last column that the 4,000 increase in social cost -- in delayed cost -- is made by 100 people and if you divide that,
who get 40 minutes of the late cause for a value of time of $12 an hour amount $28, so that is a lot of extra costs that is being pulled.
That vehicle is not paying for it.
That is what we need to explain to the public.
It is not the double taxation but the extra cost they are imposing on society that congestion pricing is seeking to balance.
Put another way -- I want to just show you here in this graphic with the public actually spends for their travel in terms of vehicle operating costs.
Look at the last column -- $0.40 per mile, that is a AAA number.
Travel time per minute is $0.60 per mile caught in the travel and accident insurance cost is about a dollar per mile.
While Quebec cost an external cost as you can see if you put in that $8 there and some for External accident cost, what you will find is, they are causing an external cost of over $8 while we are only appearing about a dollar per mile.
And finally what I want to show you is the issue of -- the had already paid for the road it is not really true because when we have roads that are in place, they don't last forever caught have to be reconstructed.
And in some cases that have to be expanded to account for additional traffic.
Here you see in this graphic, it costs -- LPN going to Federal Highway Administration cost $15 million to build an additional Luke mile line of Highway per day and have a that is in peak.
So if you take the 10,000 vehicles and divide it into the $150 million cost, versus the $15,000 generated to exert that trip.
Now you have a total of $300 million, then $10,000 vehicles in rush hour and they are now causing -- each additional vehicle is costing $30 in cost per says only $1,200 in gas taxes generated.
There is a huge subsidy or vehicles that are trying to use pressure our capacity which is so expensive expensive to provide.
In fact caught in the Washington area, there are people who live in Fredericksburg which is 15 miles away
and what we're talking about instead of 815 miles round trip there is 100 miles round trip so that is essentially $150,000 that the government or someone had to spend in order to build this long driveway to their house.
So the double taxation issue as you can see from these numbers really doesn't hold any.
Water.
So what should we do?
Provide viable alternatives unfortunately toll revenue helps you do that.
Introduce it as a Trial, as it Stockholm did with the possibility of its being voted out, and that should alleviate some concern.
Provide a money back guarantee the promise of free flow of traffic conditions, is not achieved.
Return any surpluses to the motorists and better mobility, provide low-income discounts and finally, put some of the revenue into optimizing the parallel arterial traffic signals
and to find that most traffic signals are not spent enough on optimizing their signals and they can address -- if there are any diversions it can be helped out by optimizing the signal.
Finally I have provided very briefly at some brief sort of ideas as to how you can address public concerns both by communicating when the real issues are as well as addressing the concerns through appropriate policies,
but that will be not be enough.
That is a very risky thing and you will need very brave politicians willing to take a risk.
And that is why under the Bourbon partnership agreement, but we are making available a lot of money, up to $1.1 billion to brave politicians who are willing to take a risk.
What we have found is after projects are implemented, public van is more appreciative of its benefits and politicians are successfully built voted back into office after the public actually sees how good the results are.
Thank you.
Thank you.
We're going to move on two someone you haven't heard yet today.
Mr.Wayne Berman is going to talk about the public and political Champion's case study.
We talked about the Achilles heel of congestion pricing project.
Prior to that he laid out the policy information and trading champions, and what we wanted to do today is present a case study of that, get out of kind of theoretical and talk about what one area did --
and that is Minneapolis Minnesota and you go up and talk about his experiences.
Who talked about starting out at the grassroots and the grass tops and that is creeping champions from above.
Minnesota's experience with congestion pricing as it relates to the I1994 project.
Let's click here and you'll see about six key areas that are involved in the public as.
Any public involvement and action research.
These are really a series of activity that happened in sequence, but really can happen as a complete package.
Market research is really the key -- is kind of understanding public perceptions, the reasons why it or the like or do not like pricing, with the don't understand about it, why they may not see it as a rational choice or rational option.
So the market research helps to that -- be in focus groups or interviews or surveys or however you want to do that.
The education is Billy beginning to tap into the misunderstanding or misperception, and beginning to learn a little bit about what is going to take to move the public along in terms of their understanding.
And also, it is important to understand what is going on around the country
and other areas to so that education involving the public agencies who need to articulate these kinds of actions -- having them understand what others have gone through as well.
So the education kind of has two sides to it.
The average action involves going out and talking talking to the public.
(INDISCERNIBLE) on pricing.
Communications being able to take the technical ideas that have been espoused by economists and engineers and putting it terms and that the public can't trillion understand.
Marketing and being able to package that -- It is more than the selling, it is really getting acceptance of an idea, overcoming these bears that you started off with in the market research,
and the evaluation is for a confirming that into the project that was implemented actually does help to -- the public does indeed like it.
And you will see those kind of things in the Minnesota experience.
Just to kind of paraphrase things about President Clinton, is Governor, stupid.
If you are going to engage in a pricing project you need to get a champion, and that is the governor.
Also need to engage legislative track champions.
Keep it bipartisan -- it is not relate a Republican or Democratic issue, it is an issue for everyone.
Better use of the highway system and better use of the transportation system.
Take the show on the road.
Take these folks on different areas that have actually done a pricing project and show them what is going on and show them what can be done from other areas.
You want to show them what can be done because many times it is made up of a legislation that doesn't have a pricing project but it you get to vote you want to take it on the road road.
The media is a tremendous help and there had been a number of articles recently on congestion pricing from the New York Times two, so the media has to look favorably on the pricing Program too.
To let any questions be left behind, try to answer everything.
So let's talk about what Minnesota did.
In their effort start back in 1995 with something called Twin citizens jury on congestion pricing 24 randomly selected citizens were gathered in the capital at St. Paul for roughly five days.
As it turned out, at that time, 16 or against a congestion pricing Program but eight were in favor of pricing as a way of managing and printing congestion.
Of the 16 though, there were about six that were really kind of on the edge.
They voted against the pricing now, but they said that it is possible to -- probable to do at some point in the future because it condition wasn't bad enough.
So you had roughly 14 or 15 of those people where pricing was indeed advanced.
There were other issues like pricing is not there because of the Lexus lanes and all of those issues were raised at the Forum.
But at that time the jury came out against congestion pricing.
Moving along, we'll kind of scroll through a chronology here of Minnesota is experiences here.
As I said, sorry started with a decision by a jury.
There was a proposal that was defeated by a local veto for Highway 212 to told that.
Again, I was fairly close following the citizens, and around that time the Minneapolis Age HOV plane was operating,
and people generally like that as the HOV period in 2000 there was a value pricing workshop where a number of folks around the country who had experience with pricing can to Minneapolis to talk to local leaders about the -- their
experiences with pricing.
Following that was a governor's task force, advisory task force had to development communications plan for champions for local leaders and the proposal for the across town, but that was accomplished by a Minnesota DOT at that time.
.com up with on their effort was a race called buying time.
And this was a slogan from the late nineties to early 2000 of what Minnesota can do.
In 2003, caught the project was approved by the governor, and I happened between 2001 and 2003, they felt that the plane was an operating quite well.
There was a number of ex into spaces there and there was a proposal to take the land back.
And he was really a compromise because the transit advocates in the carpool rights sharing and the kids really wanted the lanes because it -- that of the travel time it did save.
And in order to hold on to the lane it was a proposal that was advanced to raise the lane, and this made it through the legislature as a way of stating that Lane, and all the advanced research and selling that took place,
it was approved by the Legislature and governor.
There was a community task force in 2004 to help advance it locally.
and in 2006 there is the second phase of the project moving on as well, so that project is being advanced to an extension of the I394 program that is moving as well.
So let's see how it met the goals?
Improved the efficiency on the interstate.
It maintains briefed low speeds in the lane, they're using revenue to improve highway and transit -- actually went back into support transit in the corridor, and if it didn't improve as far as pricing and enforcement.
There were able to use the latest technology in this project.
The satisfaction -- again, going back to that point I mentioned earlier in public outreach was to evaluate it.
They found that 95 percent of the users we're satisfied with electronic tolling.
85percent we're satisfied with traffic speed, 55 percent we're satisfied with dynamic pricing.
Also, because the lane is not barrier separated, it has had the striping on it with wide shoulders and people were generally satisfied with that kind of approach.
If you look at the across the income levels, most folk for satisfied with the idea of pricing that plane.
I felt that single occupant drivers could be charged a tool to use that name.
And that was across a number of different incomes.
So the lane successful in generating new thinking on tolling in that quarter.
The lessons learned, it is important for the government and legislature to be prompted an educated well in advance.
They could see the benefits of having that Lane out there and that it was successful work.
The pricing projects must work from day one.
That is really important.
All the transit and activity must be in place so people can see it, feel it can't touch it, and that has to be available, and the technology has to work right away as well.
There were a few glitches with the Minnesota project but initially, the revised it passed and there wasn't any subject the can down time.
Education and outreach marketing are critical and the pricing is more likely to generate support if the transit -- if the links to transit improves,
and there were a lot of changes that were funded as a result from the revenue from the lane.
Given that, let me ask Patrick to come back on and talk about pricing some more.
Now that you know what the concerns are and how to do public outreach from Wayne, I am going to talk about how you put a package together and what we are going to do in this session is talk about some concepts,
and give you an example of what could propose as a good strategy and then give you some idea of what the cost and toll rates and revenue might be from such a strategy.
So the most important issues when you're designing a package is what are the objectives -- are they congestion relief, environmental benefits, productivity, etc.
Another issue is how are you going to use the revenue, transit, highways or simply used to reduce taxes?
And finally, the whole issue of governance and will be responsible for implementation and setting toll rates and charging policy it's a rates is key.
here are some of the concepts you see on bridges and tunnels and theoretically on ramps and the freeways.
Highway corridors may be priced -- this could be either a single facility or multiple facilities in a corridor or of course it could be some planes on a specific facility.
Alternatively, you could actually price the entire network and this could be again only some lanes of the network sets as having a hot Lane at or at home could simply cries the entire network
and here is something that has been done nationwide, praising the entire network
and the type of technology you need for that -- you really can't use that with transponder technology because of the expensive infrastructure cost for g gantries, so you have to use GPS technology.
and the type of technology you need for that -- you really can't use that with transponder technology because of the expensive infrastructure cost for gantries, so you have to use GPS technology.
Some other policy issues of you will need to grapple with it is, he can have a super hot facilities where the high occupancy vehicles are designed as something
As something like a four person carpool or higher.
Or, you can have expressed toll facilities where high occupancy vehicles other than the hackles simply pay as do all other vehicles.
In the case of Fair lanes dividing into two parts with people in that the free lanes getting credits while people in the managed lane pay a toll for guaranteed premium service.
Fast miles involves pricing the entire network and getting credits to everyone in the metropolitan area.
Everyone gets an equal budget to expend on the network.
If they need to use more than their fair share, they purchase additional credits.
If they do not use all of their credits, they can trade in for a reduced taxes.
So, one example that could be considered is what I am calling a high-performance highway, where you price the entire facility on congested segments only during peak periods.
To complement that strategy with a variety of operational strategies.
For example, ramp metering becomes more feasible when you actually reduce demand.
Currently, ramp metering can cause backups on arterial facilities and cause the entire system to break down.
Whereas, with pricing, and you can limit demand and make ramp metering more feasible.
With pricing, there is more interest for commuters to take transit while at the same time, I you have revenue that could be provided with the toll facility to go for operations of transit.
Flextime and telecommuting would be an is essential component.
If they do not have the time with their employers, they will not be able to drive earlier or later to take advantage of the lower toll rates.
Finally, a key part of this concept would be traveller affirmation.
Unless travelers know exactly where the buses stopped and what the fares are and how much the tolls are, they are not going to be able to make rational decisions, which are in their best interests, which, of course,
those decisions will also lead to a system efficiency and maximum productivity of the system.
Some of the advantages of this high-performance concept is that you will produce a recurring contestants, and fact reduce it in the short term on the freeway system.
It does not require extra barriers.
You do not need barriers between lanes.
That requires less right away.
The capacity for the lane is higher when you have many lanes next to each other as opposed to one or two lanes.
will be higher when you restore free flow on all planes and if you only manage some lanes.
Also, an advantage is that you do not need to do a lot of weaving to get into those lanes.
The entire freeway is managed.
It produces some safety issues that correlate with that weaving maneuver.
Finally, because you have more free weight capacity available, the toll can be a lot lower.
That is what we have found in Stockholm, for example.
The toll did not need to be a very high.
In the Washington area, they are talking about $20 tolls on the HOT lanes, because the capacity is so small that basically a 90 or 95% of people have to be priced off of the use of those lanes, which means, of course,
only the people with the highest value of time, which are generally people in the higher income brackets can afford those.
We are making these freeways more equitable.
I wanted to give you some idea of the cost.
In London, as you can see, capital costs were relatively high because of the camera based system.
Operating costs are taking up about half of the revenue because of the camera based system they implemented is expensive.
Stockholm introduced, in addition to cameras, it introduced transponders' technology.
That brought the operating costs much lower, as you can see as a percentage of the revenues.
Is only about 25%.
In Singapore, they only have transponder technology.
Their operating costs are only about 10% of the revenues it.
As I said, what is important is not the percentage of revenues that the costs represent, but what are the benefits?
In Stockholm, you see that the investment cost of about $260 million could be recovered in something like four or five years and had a benefit, cost ratio of 4.3, which is a really high benefit cost ratio to have a.
Here are some examples of what you might charge for a 10-mile trip.
If you priced all lanes in a freeway, if you have moderate injection, about a dollar for a trip, but if you have an extreme condition, that might raise $22.
There is a model available on our web site that help you calculate these toll rates.
The same model also calculates operation and maintenance costs.
As you can see when you have extremely congested, those costs for operating and maintenance are higher because more vehicles have to be tolled because of congestion.
You also have higher times it costs as you can see because of the fact that you need to provide more service.
However, you also get more revenues when you have extreme contestant.
You see there, and revenues are far in access of cost.
That includes both the highway and transit costs.
You have big surpluses when you have an extreme contestant.
That can be put back into investments and new capacity.
You also have higher cost-benefit ratios.
In a high-performance highway, it would not only be financially self-sufficient, that is what the numbers show you, but you would also get benefits far in access of the cost.
You would get surplus revenues with the more congested you currently have.
That is it.
Thanks.
We are now going to move onto a short time of questions and answers and take some of the questions that you posted on to the chat.
We will start with the questions that were first posted when we began this session or this part of the session and will go back at the end of the entire seminar to address some of the questions that were posted later.
Okay.
Here are the questions.
If a crash occurs in a and results in have the delays, the travelers get refunds?
In a contest in the facility, that is what you would do.
You would guarantee Service.
That, of course, provide even more incentive to the operator of the facility to clear that crash quickly.
Toll revenue is involved.
If you have a private operator, they would, on SR 91 there is someone on site to get to a vehicle very quickly to clear such incidents when they occur.
Okay.
Where is the money usually spent that is obtained from congestion pricing?
In Minnesota, by law, 50% of the revenue must go to transit.
On I-15 in San Diego, something in access of half of the revenue goes to transit.
The other half goes to operating the facility.
Okay.
R HOT lanes under the UPA?
The urban partnership agreement.
Demonstrate [indiscernible].
When you are saying HOV to HOT has been demonstrated in five cases.
We are looking for five aggressive metropolitan areas to do much broader contestant pricing under the urban partnership agreement.
Okay.
A HOV that was built as an added lane is built in eight HOT lane, is it [indiscernible].
The answer is yes.
It all depends, is the response from Jesse Young, our HOV expert.
Okay.
How about using the proceeds from congestion pricing to pay for transportation alternatives such as transit, looks like you have already answered that.
Okay.
Now, are the time frames of the urban congestion partnership agreement consistent with the legislative process these experience abroad and in the U.S. or which needs to include surplus revenues to enhance the alternatives,
this is from David.
Why don't we hold that question until the end.
I thank you will see the things that we aren't looking for and the time frames.
We can talk a little bit about that at the end.
The timeframe for all of this to happen.
For implementation of, I believe, at eight HOT lane, what is the time table, typically, it is it five years or 10 years?
Well, the more experience we get at it, obviously it will move faster.
The one that are coming on-line took much longer.
The one in Colorado took about five years from the time they started to the time they implemented it, just last summer.
Minnesota, I think it was much quicker.
They did get the private sector involved.
As Wayne pointed out, they got their legislation passed in 2003.
By 2005, the HOT lane was operating.
Interestingly, in Salt Lake City, it went from a hospital to a HOT in a matter of months.
They are using a sticker system.
It will be having electronic overhead over the next couple of years.
Okay.
This question is for you, Wayne, on your presentation on a Minnesota case study, who was polled?
That has to do with not one of the bullet.
The public was much more supportive of it once it was implemented.
This person was wanting to know who?
The short answer is everybody.
Date related try to do everyone and have been used the corridor.
It included both users and nonusers in I-394.
They certainly look to the users but also the nonusers.
You look at the chart at the end that everyone on various income levels were supportive.
It was interesting, they were at one of the session's early on.
A question came up about the survey.
We tried to survey as many people as we can.
I have seen surveys and San Diego that suggest that user support is up to about 90%.
The nonusers are closer to 65%.
There is a difference between users and nonusers.
Both have relatively high approval rate.
In a related question that I saw earlier on, what about the trucking industry?
Is there any data on their support?
The tech industry ways to adjust and pricing with tolls.
They do not understand congestion pricing.
We have heard opposition from the trucking community.
We need to take them to London and talk to the truckers over there who are in favor of the pricing scheme, because of the fact that they pay exactly the same amount as to automobiles.
They do not pay higher toll.
Generally, in the United States, tolling agencies want higher rates with trucks, when rates have to be raised, they try to stick it to the truckers.
Truckers have had a very bad experience in the United States.
They equate congestion pricing with tolls.
They are currently opposed to congestion pricing.
We really need to do a lot of hard work to get them on board.
Okay.
Here is another interesting question.
This is the last one we will take.
Is it to--could not be affected in a quarter in both directions?
Do you have examples of this?
I think that we applied both directions, short.
I think Minnesota started off with both directions.
They kind of backed away, because it was one of their earlier problems.
People in the nonpeak did not appreciate it and made it directional.
And Minnesota, the lanes were previously-could be used by both HOV as well as non HOV in the opposite direction.
People thought it was a take away, when they were not able to use it in the reverse direction and converted to a HOT lane.
It depends on the demand.
It decongestant is there, it certainly could be used in both directions.
Okay.
Thank you.
Let's move on to part three.
I believe that we are starting off with Patrick.
We are starting off with Wayne, sorry.
You have people just a little bit and I will bring Patrick on.
This next part is, now that you have the public behind you and you understand it, how do you put a package together?
What will go into it?
I want to do a couple of brief, just a couple of slides on the private development process, in a particular planning and environmental issues.
Indeed, there is a planning process that needs to be addressed, the metropolitan planning process has to be observed and any of these things that you see have to be there.
There is a development process that we go through for the decision, to steady pricing.
We need to understand the conditions, the political and public acceptance of it.
There is the feasibility.
The feasibility study that you would typically go through, environmental review and project development.
This has to be a part of it, making sure that the needs and requirements are addressed.
I will talk about that in just a moment.
Of course, and implementation.
There is oftentimes enabling legislation that has to be put into place to make these pricing programs work, but agreements and processes have to be addressed.
I will go along and tell you about the public / private partnerships.
This is really the last slide I wanted to touch on to emphasize that the traditional federal highway project development needs to be observed when developing these pricing programs.
Early and continuous interagency coordination and cooperation is a part of it.
Evaluation of alternatives and avoidance of commitments before a full evaluation is done.
Public involvement and public hearings.
In addition to the public outrage that I mentioned earlier, the timing for it the categorical exclusion, regular decision and finding of not significant impact is also part of this whole process.
Really, the project cannot proceed until those are done.
Certainly, approval constitutes acceptance of the general location and concepts by all parties that are a part of this effort.
Again, not to dwell too much on it, but to say that any of these programs, the planning process and the deeper process have to be addressed in development of these efforts.
With that, let's move on to Technology Assessment, Patrick.
Okay.
What I am going to do its very quickly show you some of the technology that has been used in the adjusted pricing but in the United States and abroad.
There is a, basically, four types of concepts that involved tolls.
There are the normal toll roads where the toll needs to bury.
Then, the next one is a heavy-duty vehicles charging, which I talked about.
It was implemented in Germany and a couple of other countries.
Finally, road users charging which is more ubiquitous charging, not just for contestant but for simply use of the roadway network.
That meeting is being proposed in the UK and Netherlands.
So, what are the technologies that have been used?
We started off in Singapore, that was the first congestion pricing before which has been used on I-15.
Automated license plate recognition was used in London and also been introduced in the United States.
It is called a video tolling.
It has been implemented in Florida and Texas.
Dedicated short range communication is your normal transponder technology, it easy it pass and other similar technologies in California and the Chicago area.
Then, we have the GPS base form global navigation satellite positioning system that has been implemented in the wet track charging examples and Germany.
Finally, something that has not been implemented but maybe on the horizon might do be using your cell phones.
The paper based systems are obsolete except for yen Utah.
No one is using them even in Singapore.
They have gone over to the electronic system.
This technology the automated number plate recognition technology is quite unobtrusive.
These are light poles and London where the camera is perched on them.
You if you are walking around in central London, you will not even notice them.
In Singapore they have transponder technology.
The do not have to be so big and huge.
They just wanted to warn people that they are entering a charging a zone here.
They have-they have on board units.
That is what I wanted to show you here.
These are the type of units that every vehicle has in Singapore.
The reason for so many different types of units are dependent upon the type of vehicle that you own.
If you have a small ego, you have a certain unit.
If you are a truck, you have a different unit.
This is the simple way that it is to use.
As you can see, you have the unit perched on there.
What the driver is doing before he enters the charging a zone is sticks his smart card in there and that is what is used to draw the funds upon.
In Stockholm, that they have the Gantries, they are not as intrusive.
This is the type of onboard unit that is used in the truck charging implementations in Germany and other European countries.
This is similar to something that was used in Seattle.
The very same company that implemented the trucking implementation in Germany and implemented it in Seattle.
It has a display.
That is useful.
Even in Singapore, they have the display so that the driver knows how much they are being tarred and gives them a better perception as to what these charged is so that we cannot avoid the times of days
and facilities that are expensive to drive on.
And another unit, very similar with a display.
Another one there.
Keep going.
This is, again in Seattle, the unit that was on the dashboard of the car.
In the future, we might see vehicle infrastructure integration technology being used to collect tolls.
There is no reason why we cannot move to that.
Keep going.
The other, very interesting development on the horizon is, instead of each tolling agency hunt their office to have these dredges and send out bills, we might have banks such as the SAT and MasterCard processing these payments,
and instead of the 10% cost to to collect, we might have something in the range of 2%, because that is what the SAT and MasterCard charge vendors for use of their facilities.
So, some other technology on the horizon is this contact less card that is used in the metric system in the Washington area.
Keep going.
This is just a summary of the different technologies, paper based, automated number plate recognition, which as I said more used in a system.
The short range communication system was used downtown in Stockholm, as well as a variable price facilities in the United States, all of our HOT lanes and variable toll facilities' use DSRC technology.
The Global System technology could be used in a pricing situation as well as freeways and HOT lanes.
It can also be used off of the freeway system on your normal system St..
That is something in the long term, as this technology gets developed and is included in all vehicles as the forecast is, every the vehicle in about 10 to 15 years will have this technology on it,
at that time you will be able to move from the fuel tax to this type of a system of charging that uses the Global positioning Systems to measure your mileage
and charge you by the smile instead of charging you indirectly as we now do through the fuel tax.
That is it.
Okay.
It looks like we are now moving on to Wayne.
Back again.
This addresses a question that we had a little earlier on the complementary strategies.
Whenever we are doing a contestant pricing Program, we tend to focus on the pricing.
There are a number of strategies that need to be put in place to make the pricing program more effective.
I want to talk a little bit about it.
There are four strategies in particular that are available.
Some of the Ts that Patrick and Regina talked about earlier.
I want to talk about the work, and telecommuting, the same name for using information technology as a substitute for a work trip, flexible work schedules, which is not one of my favorites.
Transit service improvements and traveler Information.
Linda will come on after me and talked about the technologies behind these things.
I want to give an overview right now.
Telework, telecommuting, and using technology as a substitute for the work trip.
Its benefit is to create another choice for travelers, particularly those that might be impacted by the pricing Program to allow them to substitute a trip on a particular day.
Some strategies to make it happen, certainly, the business community offering a tax credits to the community, providing eligible funding as part of the revenue from the pricing program to make it happen.
Certainly out breach technical assistance and demonstration particularly aimed at the employer in the business community is where it will happen.
Employers have a strong influence over the travelers behavior.
A couple of examples here, the Arizona State Department of health, of roughly 50% of their 3300 employees work on a telework schedule, saving $11,000 per year in office rent.
It might not sound like a lot, but for the type of program they have, it is significant.
It is a cost over and above what you normally think of in terms of travel.
It does save them money.
Oregon and Virginia offer tax credits to businesses that offer similar programs.
Washington D.C., the federal program, again, has a strong telework component to it.
A lot of our employees at the federal level here in D.C.
telework two days a week or at satellite centers.
Flexible work schedules, not one of my favorite.
An important thing to consider here is that it is made up of compressed work weeks, flex times, you're starting and stopping and adjusted work weeks also.
So, there are a number of different factors here.
One of the things that has always been interesting to me is that we have these regular day off, so people have a day off every other week, like on a Friday or a Monday.
Typically, the communes are better if you are not on those schedules.
It does have an impact on reducing the trips and finding parking spaces.
Strategies to make it happen our outreach and marketing.
Again, regulation-this is something that the Washington State and Seattle area has is the reduction trip ordinances.
It is strong in this area.
Using the funding from the pricing program to help set up these efforts.
A couple of examples around the country, it in the federal center, they reduced mourn the arrivals by 30% and a decline in the number of solo drivers.
Bishop Ranch in California right outside of the San Francisco Bay area, they reduced contestant.
All of the employers at Bishop Ranch are on a flexible work schedule arrangement.
In Seattle, date decrease solo driving by 10% as a result of flexible work schedules.
In California they saved nearly $70,000 due to-They found that people who were not party and did not use as much as sick leave as they had as opposed to when they were on the flexible--not on the flexible work schedule.
One of the significant T's is a public transportation.
Again, provide dedicated funding sourcing from the program to make it happen.
Have a dedicated lane or a right of way to make it happen.
Parking cast out programs are significant and what happens here are employees will offer employees the cash of a parking space, the cash cost of a parking space.
Employees can use that as cash to purchase the parking space or use that money to go for trends in.
Studies done in California show that indeed, most of the time, people use the cash to go into transit or right sharing.
The transit benefit programs, where the employer pays down a portion of your transit costs, pretax.
Some examples and San Diego, I-15, we saw pictures of that.
Pittsburgh has a dedicated arterial bus lane on the city's street.
It is also in the Wilshire Boulevard area in California, it has been successful for a number of years.
In Washington D.C. The Federal commit program where the federal government pays down a portion of the cost.
These are a couple of examples of dedicated lanes for transit where it can work.
This is in Minneapolis.
You see a couple of them in other cities around the country, in Oregon and London and Orlando.
That is at Columbia, just to show you that we are international here.
Traveler Information, the key to making it all happen, I believe.
Strategies would include a bridge to media, in gauging the media, in radio and TV.
That is most of the place that people get their information and root or pre trip.
That is where they get their information.
It is a public / private partnership.
Monitoring and assessing, you want to monitor and assess and make it better, not to stop it if it is not working.
I preach and marketing of our key.
In New York City, their effort included messages, travel time is information, on the highways as well as significant transit information, tips, one, two, three that gives you a comprehensive information about schedules.
In Minneapolis, the parking information system has been in place for a number of years and is successful.
In Portland Oregon, when you arrive at a bus stop, you know when the next bus is going to come.
Some of the keys to make it happen, planning and coordination have the services in place before the pricing goes into affect.
You want to show the public that it is happening and that it will work.
The people in Stockholm did not use it right away.
They used it once the pricing went into effect.
That was key to know that it was in place.
Use of revenues from the pricing program to fund the action.
Patrick refer to it earlier that you want to use those revenues to support the transit program.
You need to get commitment from the employers and business community.
That is the key.
Without these, these strategies will not work very well.
You want to seek public / private partnerships.
Again, monitor, evaluate and improve.
The systems will only get better from the assessments and evaluations that you do.
Let me ask Linda to come on and talk about the technologies that support complementary strategies.
Good afternoon everyone.
I hope that you are still with us.
We will try to get through this as quickly as possible.
I am the safety coordinator for the Transportation Program Office in Santa Rita.
Technology and operations.
Technology is not one of the four keys that make up the agreement.
If it is essential that we partner with localities that will employ a cutting edge technological strategy is.
It enables the various strategies shown on the slide.
The benefits include increased weight [indiscernible].
As Patrick has our talk to us about the role of technology and pricing.
Let's talk about some of these other strategies.
Traveler Information.
It is all about providing travelers with the information they need so that they can make choices about their options.
As it rises might include do I decide today or take transit?
Do I leave now or wait for an hour?
Which what do I take?
How will it take and where will I parked my car?
That is an increasing issue, where do I parked my car?
Travelers will feel more comfortable about using alternatives when the price freezes to [indiscernible].
The Travelers will be willing to pay if all the alternatives are congested, or they might be willing to divert when other rats provide them an adequate level of service.
Traveler behavior is tied to a traveler Information.
We need data about the system's performance.
It seems that travelers relate best to travel time information.
The time does not have to be faster, but it does need to be reliable.
Data can be selected using a variety of processed these.
The data needs to be quality check.
It needs to be turned into usable information.
are used to provide this information quickly.
On cell phones, and the hackles, on highway signs or over the Internet.
We anticipate that 62% of the population should have access through 511.
The Federal Highway an illustration of implemented the lights and they were within the following ranges, 28% reduction in the late.
20,084,000gallons of fuel savings and only.
We saw annual cost benefits of 88.5 thousand savings and Ohio.
757,000 in the [indiscernible].
Ramp metering has shown improved of 10% on highways without impacting passenger vehicle delay.
Public Safety.
We think of Public Safety and transportation on many levels.
Patrick covered technology.
More traditionally, I think travelers think of public safety of [indiscernible].
Technology is making those of public safety officials more effective.
For example, speeding up the transfer of critical to information from accident sites to Management Centers and images from accident scenes are getting sped up, such as traffic management.
Location of data, the GPS is allowed officers to respond to the correct location.
Something we do not think about is we think back as cars of as extension of our homes and we think of homes as a safe place.
As we move travelers from personal vehicles to transit, we need to provide the travelers' safety and security.
Public safety technologies that are being used to maintain a safe transportation environment include such things as cameras and to its stations and parking lot.
The technology such as GNSS software enables a more timely transit service and allow operators to give transfers from-known as the connection protection.
The transit industry is working on technology for narrow right of way and highway rights of way, and shoulders.
The integrated multi modal electronic payment information that Patrick gave you a bit of information on.
As we look to encourage this environment, it has different transportation service options.
We can use technology to make an electronic payment environment.
The payment environment can use a variety of mechanisms such as credit cards and transit cards.
By providing an integrative payment system, agencies can reduce their cost.
Telecommuting.
I know that Wayne said he prefers the flex schedule, but I think telecommuting is my favorite.
It is becoming more effective for a broader cross-section of the work force.
Many companies are using the Internet work based application so that they can access it from home.
As long as they have access to the Internet.
Along those same lines, high-speed internet is available at home.
Finally, at teleconferencing, the new conferencing and Web enabled meeting facilities such as you are using today are growing in popularity and used for business operations.
In conclusion, let me say that advanced technologies are being is to empower travelers to make informed decisions about their transportation options.
Technology is fundamental to the pricing environment and enhances the overall transportation system.
Begin met, but not.
We are going to move into the eye of a partnership agreement.
We are running a little behind schedule, as you have noticed and want to get to the important information.
After that, we will go back to the questions.
Here is Wayne.
Thanks Matt, Jocelyn.
We want to get to it, because the salt of the questions relating to get.
We want to talk a little bit about the urban partnership agreement and Federal grant program that will support the urban partnership.
We will talk for the urban partnership Program first.
The goal here is to demonstrate congested reduction in the short term over the next 18 to 24 months, probably shorter.
If the four Ts that Patrick and Regina talk to will be integrated.
The deadline for the urban partnership program is April 30th.
There, you see on the screen is the when site where solicitation information is available.
Some of the key characteristics, and we will talk more about it in the question of brought multiple facilities and or lanes but we are looking at.
Operational in the short-term by 2009.
Offering significant contest in production.
Looking at a package of synergistic strategies.
They all made to work together in the pricing program to make it work.
We are okay if this effort is a trial, similar to what Stockholm is.
It does not need to be done as a permanent effort.
We need to make sure a strong attempt has been made.
Let's move on to the supporting program.
When Regina first talked, there were a number of different programs that were moving forward to in the sink to support the congestion of the urban partnership.
There is no money associated with the urban partnership agreement.
This is where the funding starts to support the urban partnership.
The cursed one is the value pricing pilot program.
It has been around for a while.
$12million per year is available for the next three fiscal years.
25% of it is used for non tolling projects.
The project types would include the outbreak and constituency building, a pre implementation and implementation.
The deadline for this is April 30th, 2007.
You can find more about this solicitation of the operation website.
I would encourage you to go to Grant's.gov to learn more as well.
It is on that side as well.
Research and innovative technology services.
It is a program that is supporting the urban partnership Program.
Innovative funds for contestant production technologies, primarily priorities given to the urban partners, encouraged a combination of contestant reduction strategies.
Here up to $100 million is available.
We anticipate from 1 to 5 awards, roughly 10 to $100 million in the scope.
At the cost share is 80 / 20.
You can also see this at Grants.gov.
The deadline for this is also April 30th, 2007.
When Regina spoke earlier that we have an opportunity in the department over this next fiscal year and that a lot of our discretionary programs was not earmarked, one was the grants for bus and bus related equipment.
It was not a substantial amount of money available to support transit and thus related equipment that would support decongestant initiative.
It could include the acquisition of buses for service expansion.
The program is tied to the TTI 2005 urban mobility report.
They would be the focal point for these funds.
The deadline is 60 days after the publication.
That puts it at around May 274 this one.
The e-mail address is busprogram@dot.gov.
In addition, there are a not other discretionary programs that were not earmarked this year.
I want to highlight three that might relate to the urban partnership Program.
If you are anywhere near water and you want to think about a system to support a pricing program, you might want to look at that.
Transportation Committee and System project which has been typically earmarked by the type of projects that typically go to things like system improvements,
the preservation in transit that have been dashed to would look up nicely with a congestion pricing Program.
It tracks are an issue, part of the program-you might want to look to the truck program.
The deadline for this is April 30 it.
There are a number of different memos that I do on this program.
Go to the Federal Highway website and looked them up under the URL that I have listed.
Just a couple of more slides of things to consider when you bring up the urban partnership proposal.
You want to start with the proposal, the UPA should really outline the content.
You want to look to the menu of funding options that are available.
Whether it is the value pricing or the bus or whatever, to support all of that.
You are welcome to use all of those programs to support it.
Multiple applications are accepted.
We want to make sure that you recognize that the UPA and grant programs have different requirements.
You want to make sure to look at these solicitations.
It is permissible to apply for multiple Grants and encouraged, because you would not just want to apply for the urban partnership without the funding that would go to support it.
You want to submit the UPA application it specified date.
That is very important.
Eighth little bit more, the concept should demonstrate that we can reduce congestion on existing and facilities.
That is the key.
It also needs to demonstrate that contestant on a facility or group of facilities is also relevant and applicable.
Proposals should incorporate the four T's and the timeline for implementation.
We spoke about that earlier.
Proposals need to demonstrate the commitment to implement by the end of 2009.
This is a short-term effort.
Www.will try to show what we can do to reduce congestion.
The last thing that I want to do before we all come back on and open up for general questions, if you would like, is the resources to where this is all available.
I would encourage you to go to the web site there and click on the urban partnership agreements.
There is a wealth of information there, as well as slides that you might want to go to.
Also, the operations website.
Go to the pricing programs.
You will see the value pricing Program and learn a lot more about the and tolling pricing as well.
Let me turn back to Jocelyn and we will answer all of your questions.
Hopefully we have answered some of them along the way.
Let's gather the speakers here around the telephone.
Regina will not be here for the question and answer session.
A couple of hours ago, not one of the questions was, without having a current toll settings system, what level of support is federal highway willing to get?
The ITS program is technology, buns' technology.
Did you do not have an existing tolling the system, those bonds could be used to set up the tolling technology that you need.
Of the uprising is also available.
That is a total of roughly $30 million.
Another question.
Are there any specific out there on price elasticity for congestion pricing?
The rep elasticity depends on if you already have a ANPR system in place, and elasticity generally ranges from [indiscernible].
The elasticity actually increases the higher the toll that you have in place currently.
If you do not have any tolls in place and are starting off on a base of zero, you have to use the travel time as a surrogate and an equivalent value of time.
Those elasticities are in the range of -0.5.
It looks like there is another question.
European cities implemented congestion pricing have expensive public transportation networks comparable to only New York City.
Transit is a major component of the four T's,--are we as a nation ready to make that dramatic change?
What we are trying to do, that is the whole point of this pilot.
If on a demonstration basis, we can have a transit strategy is that it can work in the United States, which we have found, even in Stockholm, they have put out 200 new buses and September of 2005,
a full five months before they implemented congestion pricing.
They did not see any increase in riders at all.
On January 1, 5 months later when they did implement congestion pricing, that is when people started riding the bus.
What that suggests to us is, just having transit service in place in the United States, as in Stockholm, is not going to work.
We need transit as well as the pricing to get transit to work.
Whether or not this works in the United States remains to be seen.
That is what this whole private program is about is trying to see if strategies that have worked in Europe, in Singapore and other countries, whether that is going to work in the United States.
There is a lot of risk involved.
As Wayne has pointed out, the federal government is putting out a lot of money, as much as a half a billion dollars to see when you put in this huge amount of transit investment along with congestion pricing,
we know if you've put transit and by itself, "has showed us, it will not work.
Transit with congested pricing, whether that will work in the United States as it worked in Stockholm.
That is what we do not know, and that is what we want to find out.
We will try a new approach here.
We will go from the bottom up.
We will be talking about the urban partnership agreement.
We have a question here.
He understands that an application for -0.5 can also be submitted as an application for UPA.
Is that correct?
We have put up about 50 questions and answers on the Web site.
One of the questions there is a very detailed answer.
What I will briefly explain is that we are advising people to send the one application, one comprehensive application tool which they want to get funding from.
That combine a comprehensive application consists of several parts.
Part one is the UPA, the urban partnership agreement application, which consists of 25 pages.
Part numb to Whitby the value pricing Program, for example, if they are seeking money from that program.
There is no limit to the number of pages for that.
The part three would be the ITS program.
There is a limit of 15 pages.
You would go on and on.
There are a about a dozen programs that we have money that you are soliciting proposals for.
Your comprehensive application, but we are suggesting is that you submit that entire 12 part application to every program that you want money for.
The reason is, that perhaps you might be seeking money from a specific program that might not have sufficient money.
Let's say that you are seeking a bus money and we have a limited amount of the best money could there are a lot of applicants booking for funds.
Perhaps we could pay for some of your funds cost through the value pricing Program.
Do you have any other comments on that?
Let's move on.
How long does a recipient had to spend '07 budget of a?
It depends on which money you are talking about.
For the value pricing, it is three years.
For the ITS, it is indefinitely, hopefully the project will be implemented in the short-term.
That is the key.
You want to spend the money quickly to get the project up and running.
Okay.
This is Sara from the federal contracts office.
I and the point of contact on the ITS application as well as respect to grants.gov.
The intent is for the funds to be used within that three year period.
Bud Boyd also requested that the question and answer be recorded.
We are getting a written record of this, although we are not getting an audio record of it.
Can you clarify the commitment to implement by the end of the 2009 season?
The way that I would define and implement is that it should be in operation.
In other words, we would like to see it the project operating by December 31st of 2009.
If you have a congestion pricing scheme, new should be-up vehicles would be charged by December 31st of 2009.
Okay.
This question, I think, came in while we were talking about complementary strategies and comprehensive packages.
It seems like we are developing local approaches versus a national or consistent policy.
What are the pros and cons of this?
Is that a perspective that you share?
This is a demonstration of a national effort to look at pricing in this country in.
Yet, there are local issues.
Clearly, the attempt is to introduce some of the things that happen successful in Europe and Asia with regards to pricing.
I think Patrick mentioned or maybe Regina mentioned it if we can do a good demonstration and people see the benefits of it, then hopefully others will pick up on it and appreciate it and develop these programs.
Indeed, I think it is a national effort to develop on these initiatives.
Clearly, to carry out, it will take resources.
Another question, who pays for it the OBU?
Again, GNSS funds.
It is a technology component.
Those could be used.
If you are out of those funds, a Value pricing funds could be used.
That is why we are suggesting that people apply or send their application to all programs that they think might be eligible to use.
Here is another question to the pricing agreement.
Yes tolling a must for the UPA?
Congested pricing is a must.
I distinguish between combustion and tolling.
Contestant is something where [indiscernible].
In that sense, you say that a variety of tolling, which we call congestion pricing, is a must.
Okay.
Here is another one.
Who should lead the MPO or an offering agency?
We do not specify who should lead.
It is up to the metropolitan area, whoever they feel would be in the best physician.
Generally, it would seem to me that it would be a group of people.
It it could be the MPO in the metropolitan area or the state DOT.
Whatever they decide amongst themselves.
Is a PPP necessary, or is it an option?
It is an option in the sense that you do not absolutely need a PPP.
You obviously would need, what I call somebody to implement it.
Generally, what we have found, for example, in Minnesota, the private sector would be hired to operate and build the system, generally, a PPP is understood as a situation where the private sector takes all of the toll of revenue,
because of the risk it is taking, that is not what we are looking for.
That is a completely different issue.
That has been used in toll road projects where there is a lot of risk involved.
In this situation, we can pretty much a very easily forecast what the toll revenue will be.
There is not a