Relieving Congestion by Adding Road Capacity and Tolling

Abstract

ABSTRACT Congestion is already severe and projected to worsen in U.S. metro areas. Few current long-range transportation plans call for reducing congestion. Yet the costs congestion imposes make reducing it imperative. Capacity additions are a key part of reducing congestion. We estimate nationwide capacity needs to keep volume/capacity below 1.0 and thus avoid severe congestion over the next 25 years and the costs of building the new capacity. We then examine a set of specific capacity additions in Atlanta and establish how tolling parts of the system can help pay for much of its costs.