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Reducing Atlanta’s Congestion through Value-Priced Capacity

Reducing Atlanta’s Congestion through Value-Priced Capacity. by Robert W. Poole, Jr. Director of Transportation Studies, Reason Foundation www.reason.org/transportation. Congestion Is a Major—and Growing—Problem for Atlanta. Travel-time index is 1.46 today; will be 1.67 by 2030.

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Reducing Atlanta’s Congestion through Value-Priced Capacity

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  1. Reducing Atlanta’s Congestion through Value-Priced Capacity by Robert W. Poole, Jr. Director of Transportation Studies, Reason Foundation www.reason.org/transportation

  2. Congestion Is a Major—and Growing—Problem for Atlanta • Travel-time index is 1.46 today; will be 1.67 by 2030. • Value of wasted time and fuel today is $1.75 billion/year. • Full economic cost—to businesses and individuals—is about 2.5 that much.

  3. The Current LRTP Would Barely Change Travel Behavior. Commute Mode Share 2005 2030 Drive alone 83.0% 81.6% Carpool 10.3% 10.0% Transit 6.7% 8.4% After spending $26B . . . and with congestion getting much worse. Source: ARC

  4. Current LRTP Needs Revamping. • Focus is on reducing VMT via carpooling and transit. • Of total $26B investment: • $10B for transit • $5B for HOV lanes • Only $8B for highways • TTI grows from 1.46 to 1.67 by 2030

  5. Gov’s Congestion Mitigation Task Force—Major Change of Course • Goal: reduce TTI from 1.46 now to 1.35 by 2030. • Revamp long-range plan to weight congestion reduction at 70% in project selection. • Develop transparent benefit/cost methodology for project selection.

  6. Why the Transit/Carpool Model Doesn’t Reduce Congestion: • Atlanta’s density is far too low for transit to be viable for most trips. • Jobs are increasingly in the suburbs, not the “central business district.” • Most commuting is suburb-to-suburb.

  7. Commute trips suburb-to-suburb

  8. Inadequate roadway system Atlanta (radial) Dallas (network)

  9. So How DO We Reduce Congestion? Incident-related congestion: • Faster response and clearance of incidents: • Video cameras, telecommunications • Freeway service patrols • Legal changes • Better management of work zones

  10. Recurrent Congestion • Better system management & operations • Ramp metering on freeways • Arterial signal timing • Bottleneck removal • More lane capacity

  11. Freeway-Building Stopped in 1990s: but Traffic Growth Didn’t.

  12. More Capacity DOES Reduce Congestion

  13. Not Just New Capacity:Priced Capacity • Value pricing keeps the new lanes uncongested, offers premium service. • During rush hours, priced lanes offer much greater througput. • Self-generated revenues mean they can get built now, not “someday.”

  14. 91 Express Lanes, Orange County, California

  15. Value Pricing Offers Precise Traffic Flow Control • I-15: quasi-real-time variable pricing • 91-Express: fine-tuned rate schedule, periodically adjusted • 49% of peak traffic with 33% of lane capacity • Both offer reliable high speeds during rush hours.

  16. Atlanta’s Needed Lane Additions

  17. Major Proposed Additions • North-south tunnel to relieve Downtown Connector • Complete Express Toll Network on existing freeways, instead of building HOV lanes • New east-west tollway • Separate toll truckway system for long-haul trucks.

  18. North-South Tunnel Location

  19. North-South Tunnel Design Concept

  20. Express Toll Lanes Network • Same physical additions as in GDOT’s full HOV plan (plus some others). • All lanes value-priced, including existing HOV. • Only bus and vanpool go free; all others pay market price. • Enforcement very simple; valid transponder or not. • All ETL lanes available for priced vehicles, buses and vanpools; hence, far more capacity than current plan.

  21. Express Toll Lanes, Completed by 2023

  22. Benefits of ETL Compared with HOV Lanes • Self-funding from toll revenues. • Full 1,258 lane-mi. network. implemented by 2024 (vs. 813 lane-mi. by 2030). • Adds 1,133 lane-miles for all vehicles vs. just 363 (due to bus-only restrictions). • Facilitates regionwide high-speed BRT. • “Congestion insurance” for all drivers.

  23. Synergy of Priced Lanes and Bus Rapid Transit • Value-priced lane is virtual equivalent of exclusive busway (VEB). • Pricing limits vehicle flow to what’s compatible with LOS C conditions. • Reliable high speed is sustainable long-term, thanks to pricing. • Houston implementing first VEB on Katy Freeway managed lanes.

  24. Congestion-Reduction Benefits Adding 1,653 lane-miles to freeways (plus 960 lane-miles of arterial and local roads) does the following, per ARC’s modeling: • 27% decrease in vehicle hours of travel • 0.6% decrease in vehicle miles of travel • $98.6B savings in time and cost over 20 years, thru 2030 (for a $25B investment)

  25. Economic Benefits • Greater regional productivity due to better matching of skilled employees to job openings; • Per US DOT chief economist, overall economic benefits 2.6X the direct time savings; hence more like $254B savings over 20 years (from $25B investment).

  26. Transit benefits • 1,258 lane-miles of “Virtual Exclusive Busway” capacity, at no cost to the transit providers. • This facilitates regionwide, high-speed express bus service. • Bus-based transit is more flexible and cost-effective than rail transit—better fit for low-density Atlanta.

  27. Recommendations • Revise the long-range transportation plan along the lines proposed here. • Build public support for value-pricing. • For the large toll projects, use the long-term concession approach, to enlist private capital and to shift major risks to the private partners.

  28. Closing Thought: “Congestion is not a scientific mystery, nor is it an uncontrollable force. Congestion results from poor policy choices and a failure to separate solutions that are effective from those that are not.” Norman Mineta, Secretary of Transportation, 2001-2006

  29. Reducing Atlanta’s Congestion through Value-Priced Capacity by Robert W. Poole, Jr. Director of Transportation Studies, Reason Foundation www.reason.org/transportation

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