IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v12y2020i9p3655-d353162.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Evaluating the Traffic and Emissions Impacts of Congestion Pricing in New York City

Author

Listed:
  • Amirhossein Baghestani

    (Department of Civil Engineering, The City College of New York—CUNY, New York, NY 10031, USA)

  • Mohammad Tayarani

    (School of Civil & Environmental Engineering, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853, USA)

  • Mahdieh Allahviranloo

    (Department of Civil Engineering, The City College of New York—CUNY, New York, NY 10031, USA)

  • H. Oliver Gao

    (School of Civil & Environmental Engineering, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853, USA)

Abstract

Traffic congestion is a major challenge in metropolitan areas due to economic and negative health impacts. Several strategies have been tested all around the globe to relieve traffic congestion and minimize transportation externalities. Congestion pricing is among the most cited strategies with the potential to manage the travel demand. This study aims to investigate potential travel behavior changes in response to cordon pricing in Manhattan, New York. Several pricing schemes with variable cordon charging fees are designed and examined using an activity-based microsimulation travel demand model. The findings demonstrate a decreasing trend in the total number of trips interacting with the central business district (CBD) as the price goes up, except for intrazonal trips. We also analyze a set of other performance measures, such as Vehicle-Hours of Delay, Vehicle-Miles Traveled, and vehicle emissions. While the results show considerable growth in transit ridership (6%), single-occupant vehicles and taxis trips destined to the CBD reduced by 30% and 40%, respectively, under the $20 pricing scheme. The aggregated value of delay for all vehicles was also reduced by 32%. Our findings suggest that cordon pricing can positively ameliorate transportation network performance and consequently, improve air quality by reducing particular matter inventory by up to 17.5%. The results might facilitate public acceptance of cordon pricing strategies for the case study of NYC. More broadly, this study provides a robust framework for decision-makers across the US for further analysis on the subject.

Suggested Citation

  • Amirhossein Baghestani & Mohammad Tayarani & Mahdieh Allahviranloo & H. Oliver Gao, 2020. "Evaluating the Traffic and Emissions Impacts of Congestion Pricing in New York City," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(9), pages 1-16, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:12:y:2020:i:9:p:3655-:d:353162
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/9/3655/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/9/3655/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Souche, Stéphanie & Mercier, Aurélie & Ovtracht, Nicolas, 2015. "Income and access inequalities of a cordon pricing," Research in Transportation Economics, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 20-30.
    2. Abulibdeh, Ammar & Andrey, Jean & Melnik, Matthew, 2015. "Insights into the fairness of cordon pricing based on origin–destination data," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 61-67.
    3. Schaller, Bruce, 2010. "New York City's congestion pricing experience and implications for road pricing acceptance in the United States," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 17(4), pages 266-273, August.
    4. Train,Kenneth E., 2009. "Discrete Choice Methods with Simulation," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521766555.
    5. Börjesson, Maria & Kristoffersson, Ida, 2015. "The Gothenburg congestion charge. Effects, design and politics," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 75(C), pages 134-146.
    6. Zhang, Xiaoning & Yang, Hai, 2004. "The optimal cordon-based network congestion pricing problem," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 38(6), pages 517-537, July.
    7. De Vos, Jonas, 2016. "Road pricing in a polycentric urban region: Analysing a pilot project in Belgium," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 134-142.
    8. Olszewski, Piotr & Xie, Litian, 2005. "Modelling the effects of road pricing on traffic in Singapore," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 39(7-9), pages 755-772.
    9. Daganzo, Carlos F. & Lehe, Lewis J., 2015. "Distance-dependent congestion pricing for downtown zones," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 75(C), pages 89-99.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Younes Delhoum & Rachid Belaroussi & Francis Dupin & Mahdi Zargayouna, 2020. "Activity-Based Demand Modeling for a Future Urban District," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(14), pages 1-24, July.
    2. Bingsheng Huang & Fusheng Zhang, 2022. "Analysis of Traffic Oversaturation Based on Multi-Objective Data," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(15), pages 1-21, July.
    3. Tariq Munir & Hussein Dia & Hadi Ghaderi, 2021. "A Systematic Review of the Role of Road Network Pricing in Shaping Sustainable Cities: Lessons Learned and Opportunities for a Post-Pandemic World," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(21), pages 1-20, October.
    4. Krystian Szczepański & Katarzyna Bebkiewicz & Zdzisław Chłopek & Hubert Sar & Dagna Zakrzewska, 2023. "Analysis of the National Annual Emission of Pollutants from Road Transport in Poland in the Years 1990–2020," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(10), pages 1-22, May.
    5. Yang Shao & Zhongbin Luo & Huan Wu & Xueyan Han & Binghong Pan & Shangru Liu & Christian G. Claudel, 2020. "Evaluation of Two Improved Schemes at Non-Aligned Intersections Affected by a Work Zone with an Entropy Method," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(14), pages 1-24, July.
    6. Kun Jin & Wei Wang & Xuedong Hua & Wei Zhou, 2020. "Reinforcement Learning for Optimizing Driving Policies on Cruising Taxis Services," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(21), pages 1-19, October.
    7. Wang, Ding & Tayarani, Mohammad & Yueshuai He, Brian & Gao, Jingqin & Chow, Joseph Y.J. & Oliver Gao, H. & Ozbay, Kaan, 2021. "Mobility in post-pandemic economic reopening under social distancing guidelines: Congestion, emissions, and contact exposure in public transit," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 153(C), pages 151-170.
    8. Lijuan Yang & Eldon Y. Li & Yu Zhang, 2020. "Pricing and Subsidy Models for Transshipment Sustainability in the Three Gorges Dam Region of China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(17), pages 1-20, August.
    9. He, Brian Yueshuai & Zhou, Jinkai & Ma, Ziyi & Wang, Ding & Sha, Di & Lee, Mina & Chow, Joseph Y.J. & Ozbay, Kaan, 2021. "A validated multi-agent simulation test bed to evaluate congestion pricing policies on population segments by time-of-day in New York City," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 101(C), pages 145-161.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Ahmadi Azari, Kian & Arintono, Sulistyo & Hamid, Hussain & Rahmat, Riza Atiq O.K., 2013. "Modelling demand under parking and cordon pricing policy," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 25(C), pages 1-9.
    2. Börjesson, Maria & Kristoffersson, Ida, 2018. "The Swedish congestion charges: Ten years on," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 107(C), pages 35-51.
    3. Eliasson, Jonas, 2016. "Is congestion pricing fair? Consumer and citizen perspectives on equity effects," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 1-15.
    4. Eliasson, Jonas, 2017. "Congestion pricing," MPRA Paper 88224, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    5. Jens West & Maria Börjesson, 2020. "The Gothenburg congestion charges: cost–benefit analysis and distribution effects," Transportation, Springer, vol. 47(1), pages 145-174, February.
    6. Ortúzar, Juan de Dios & Bascuñán, Raúl & Rizzi, Luis Ignacio & Salata, Andrés, 2021. "Assessing the potential acceptability of road pricing in Santiago," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 144(C), pages 153-169.
    7. Azari, Kian Ahmadi & Arintono, Sulistyo & Hamid, Hussain & Davoodi, Seyed Rasoul, 2013. "Evaluation of demand for different trip purposes under various congestion pricing scenarios," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 29(C), pages 43-51.
    8. Bofinger, Peter & Feld, Lars P. & Schmidt, Christoph M. & Schnabel, Isabel & Wieland, Volker, 2018. "Vor wichtigen wirtschaftspolitischen Weichenstellungen. Jahresgutachten 2018/19 [Setting the Right Course for Economic Policy. Annual Report 2018/19]," Annual Economic Reports / Jahresgutachten, German Council of Economic Experts / Sachverständigenrat zur Begutachtung der gesamtwirtschaftlichen Entwicklung, volume 127, number 201819.
    9. Saxena, Aditya & Gupta, Vallary, 2023. "Carpooling: Who is closest to adopting it? An investigation into the potential car-poolers among private vehicle users: A case of a developing country, India," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 135(C), pages 11-20.
    10. West, Jens & Börjesson, Maria, 2016. "The Gothenburg congestion charges: CBA and equity," Working papers in Transport Economics 2016:17, CTS - Centre for Transport Studies Stockholm (KTH and VTI).
    11. Vanoutrive, Thomas & Zijlstra, Toon, 2018. "Who has the right to travel during peak hours? On congestion pricing and ‘desirable’ travellers," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 63(C), pages 98-107.
    12. Börjesson , Maria & Kristoffersson, Ida, 2017. "The Swedish congestion charges: ten years on: - and effects of increasing charging levels," Working papers in Transport Economics 2017:2, CTS - Centre for Transport Studies Stockholm (KTH and VTI).
    13. Marazi, Naveed Farooz & Majumdar, Bandhan Bandhu & Sahu, Prasanta K. & Potoglou, Dimitris, 2022. "Congestion pricing acceptability among commuters: An Indian perspective," Research in Transportation Economics, Elsevier, vol. 95(C).
    14. Börjesson, Maria & Kristoffersson, Ida, 2014. "Assessing the welfare effects of congestion charges in a real world setting," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 339-355.
    15. Jia, Shuwei & Liu, Xiaolu & Yan, Guangle, 2019. "Effect of APCF policy on the haze pollution in China: A system dynamics approach," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 125(C), pages 33-44.
    16. Shao, Jing & Yang, Hangjun & Xing, Xiaoqiang & Yang, Liu, 2016. "E-commerce and traffic congestion: An economic and policy analysis," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 83(C), pages 91-103.
    17. Lehe, Lewis J., 2017. "Downtown tolls and the distribution of trip lengths," Economics of Transportation, Elsevier, vol. 11, pages 23-32.
    18. Bernardo, Valeria & Fageda, Xavier & Flores-Fillol, Ricardo, 2021. "Pollution and congestion in urban areas: The effects of low emission zones," Economics of Transportation, Elsevier, vol. 26.
    19. Juan Pedro Muñoz Miguel & Ana Elizabeth García Sipols & Clara Simón de Blas & Francisca Anguita Rodríguez, 2021. "A Model to Evaluate the Effect of Urban Road Pricing on Traffic Speed and Congestion in Madrid City Center and Its Surrounding," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(15), pages 1-23, July.
    20. Guo, Qianwen & Sun, Yanshuo & Li, Zhi-Chun & Li, Zhongfei, 2017. "An integrated model for road capacity choice and cordon toll pricing," Research in Transportation Economics, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 68-79.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:12:y:2020:i:9:p:3655-:d:353162. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.