Credit-Based Congestion Pricing: A Dallas-Fort Worth Application

Previous credit-based congestion pricing (CBCP) studies have surveyed public and expert opinion and examined the traffic and travel-welfare impacts of an Austin, Texas application. This work develops the policy further, predicting traffic impacts, air-quality changes, welfare changes, and system costs for the Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW) region. Joint destination-mode choice models were estimated and applied. The status quo and two marginal cost pricing (MCP) scenarios were simulated for the short-term and long-term, with full feedback of trip costs and times, using the method of successive averages for equilibration. Though significant mode shifts were not predicted total regional vehicle miles traveled and emissions were predicted to fall by roughly 7 % and peak-period freeway speeds were predicted to increase by about 20%. Total travel benefits were quantified as the change in travel demand model logsum terms between the MCP scenarios and the status quo. On average, most of the DFW population (about 95 % of the “credit-eligible ” travelers) was predicted to gain from the CBCP policy even after implementation costs were covered for CBCP application on highways. When compared to the case when only freeways are priced, no significant added benefits came from pricing all roads