I spent Earth Day with Chicago region transportation leaders at a summit hosted by the Illinois Tollway exploring solutions to traffic congestion and finance multimodal projects in the region. The Metropolitan Planning Council (MPC) was excited to partner with Metropolis Strategies in co-sponsoring Jonas Eliasson from the Centre for Transport Studies in Stockholm to speak at the event. Eliasson’s theory suggests that providing people with simple incentives can tackle huge problems like congestion. He brought this theory to life in Stockholm by designing a congestion charge plan, which was piloted in 2006 and, by public demand, made permanent in 2007.
Stockholm’s congestion charge system (called cordon pricing) has been immensely successful and popular. Drivers entering or exiting the city are charged a fee that fluctuates based on the current level of congestion. The goals of this pricing system were three-fold: 1) to reduce traffic flowing in and out of the inner city by 10 to 15 percent; 2) to increase accessibility; and 3) to decrease vehicle emissions. After just two years, Stockholm had accomplished or surpassed each of these goals, achieving 20 to 25 percent less traffic, a 30 to 50 percent reduction in travel times, and a 10 to 14 percent reduction in vehicle emissions.
Polls conducted before and after the pilot program showed residents responded to its results: People were more receptive to cordon pricing after seeing how effectively it alleviated congestion. One of the key factors in the success of the program was that Stockholm residents were able to alter their routes almost instantly, thanks to expanded public transit service put in place before cordon pricing was implemented. Many of the 100,000 users who left the roads headed to transit, which boasted an increase of 40,000 passengers per day after 2006.
The most significant piece of information I learned from Eliasson was that Stockholm commuters had more certainty in their commute times because of the congestion charge, saving each person from wasting countless hours every year sitting in traffic.
A 2008 MPC report found the Chicago region loses $7.3 billion every year on idling time, fuel and environmental damages; drivers waste an average of 2.5 days stuck in traffic per year. Wanting to explore options to fixing traffic headaches, in 2010 MPC partnered with the Tollway to explore congestion pricing in Chicagoland. The results showed that implementing congestion pricing on the Jane Addams would shave almost 50 minutes from morning commutes. Because a lane would be added to accommodate the congestion-priced lane, drivers in the regularly tolled lanes would also benefit with a reduced commute time. Last May, the I-90 Corridor Planning Council, of which MPC is a member, recommended that the Illinois Tollway Board of Directors implement congestion-priced, managed lanes on the Jane Addams Tollway and add transit to these lanes. The Illinois Tollway is considering this option.
During the Earth Day summit we also explored financing multimodal projects in Chicagoland. Opportunities include increasing and indexing the motor fuel tax, following the recent steps taken in Maryland, Virginia, and Wyoming; using innovative financing mechanisms such as value capture to connect the benefit of infrastructure investment with the cost to provide it; and expanding the Illinois sales tax base to include personal services like lawn care and dry cleaning, while at the same time reducing the sales tax rate to generate revenue, create a fairer tax structure and put Illinois more in line with other states.
The lessons from this Earth Day show that we know the answers to solving Chicagoland’s congestion and transportation funding problem. It’s a matter of taking the next steps toward making them reality.