A New Approach to Finance Metropolitan Transportation and Ensure System Performance

This article presents a new approach to ensure the performance of highway systems in metropolitan areas while providing a new funding source that will allow a reduction or elimination of existing taxes dedicated for transportation use. The approach involves conversion of existing freeways in metropolitan areas into premium-service free-flowing highways that provide fast, frequent, and inexpensive express bus service, while charging all private vehicles a variable toll, except for authorized buses and certified vanpool vehicles. The article provides estimates of the potential economic and financial impacts from such an approach applied in the five most congested U.S. metropolitan areas. The estimates suggest that the concept could provide sufficient revenue to replace the fuel tax and perhaps other transportation taxes, while providing huge reductions in congestion delay and fuel consumption