Ken Orski, a Washington, DC-based student of transportation issues, reports some encouraging developments in the July/August edition of his Innovation Briefs. (Subscription required.)
Congestion pricing has become mainstream. Ken writes,
Six years ago, when the House and Senate conferees were negotiating the final version of TEA-21 [the US transportation funding law], the subject of tolling and transportation pricing hardly ever came up. That this time around, tolls have become an object of lobbying by so many different interests, speaks volumes about the sea change that has occurred in thinking about transportation financing. While there are some powerful voices opposing tolls on existing Interstates, there is a growing consensus within the transportation community, including public officials, that tolling represents a valuable-some would say, indispensable-supplementary source of future highway revenue.
