Urban Partnership Agreement and Congestion Reduction Demonstration Programs: Lessons Learned on Congestion Pricing from the Seattle and Atlanta Household Travel Behavior Surveys (original) (raw)

This paper presents lessons learned from household traveler surveys administered in Seattle and Atlanta as part of the evaluation of the Urban Partnership Agreement and Congestion Reduction Demonstration Programs. The surveys use a two-stage panel survey approach to analyze the impacts of the federally sponsored variable tolling programs on corridor users’ daily travel choices and opinions. Key lessons learned are that pricing does influence travel behavior (as expected), particularly with respect to route choice and the timing of trips. Pricing does not appear to have a noticeable impact on telecommuting, and impacts on mode choice and occupancy depend on the design of the tolling project and the regional context. In addition, the surveys found that travelers utilizing the priced facility notice and appreciate the improvement to traffic conditions and that attitudes toward tolling change with direct experience. The key implications of these lessons learned are that: near term shift...