Public Transport Systems in Urban Areas - Volume D [antikvár]

U.S. EXPERIENCE IN IMPLEMENTING ROADWAY PRICING DEMONSTRATIONS AMD 1-OTHER AUTOMOBILE RESTRICTION TECHNIQUES_ by Bert Arrillaga Chief, Pricing Policy Division Office of Service and Methods Demonstrations Urban Mass Transportation Administration United States Department of Transportation 400 7th Street, S.W. Washington, D.C. 20590 This paper reports on the activities of the Urban Mass Transportation Administration in implementing automobile pricing techniques. The demonstration program with the responsibility for implementing these techniques and the innovations that are being considered for testing will be described, A summary is also presented of the work that has been done to implement these concepts. This work includes technical analyses of alternative pricing schemes and interviews of organized citizens groups to provide information on institutional and political reaction to the concepts. Results of this technical analyses and subjective interviews have provided important information about the factors affecting the acceptance and implementation of automobile pricing restrictive schemes. This information has been essential in restructing concepts to better fit local area needs and objectives and maximize the opportunity to implement these demonstration programs. THE DEMONSTRATION PROGRAM The objective of the Service and Methods Demonstrations Program is to develop new innovative methods and techniques to improve the quality and efficiency of public transportation. For proven innovations, final development steps are performed to bring ideas into application. The emphasis is on projects of national relevance that help in providing a total coordinated transportation system. The Pricing Policy Division, a major Division of this program, implements pricing and service incentives to encourage the use of high occupancy modes and to help on the national allocation of scarce resources between subsidizing fares or service improvements. The underlying objective is to increase the convenience and productivity and decrease the cost of using mass transportation. In so doing, mass transportation systems will be more competitive with the automobile. An additional objective is to directly and deliberately restrict the use of low occupancy modes and encourage the use of high occupancy modes. This objective is based on the philosophy that incentives are not enough to obtain significant modal shifts and that specific disincentives need to be applied combined with a package of tangible and visible transportation improvements to obtain noticeable increases in transit rider-ship. TYPES OF INNOVATIONS In the area of transportation pricing disincentives, three types of Innovations are being planned for implementation: areawide road pricing, corridor and spot pricing, and parking pricing strategies. In Areawide Road Pricing, a fee is charged to low occupancy vehicles for the use of a designated area during highly congested periods such as the morning peak hours, "the fee is charged by selling a windshield license sticker on a daily, weekly, or monttily basis. The extent of the charge is dependent on the desired reduction in congestion and the needed revenues. High occupancy vehicles, police, and emergency vehicles are exempted. A colateral element is the implementation of a significant amount of transportation