Impacts of Time-of-Day Pricing on Travel Behavior: General Findings from Port Authority of New York and New Jersey Initiative

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey implemented a time of day pricing initiative in March 2001. This initiative provided a discount on off-peak tolls on its facilities. Peak toll rates are effective on weekdays from 6-9 AM and 4-7 PM, as well as on weekends from Noon to 8 PM. These crossings carry average daily eastbound traffic of 352,000 vehicles, or more than 126 million eastbound vehicles in 2004. This is, by far, the largest application of road pricing in the United States. Following the implementation of the new pricing structure, the Federal Highway Administration decided to sponsor a multi-year research project aimed at studying the behavioral impacts produced by the time of day pricing initiative. The research project focuses on three main areas: user impacts, traffic impacts, and institutional analyses. This paper discusses the key findings pertaining to the impacts produced by the time of day pricing initiative on the behavior of both passenger and commercial vehicle traffic. It was found that 7.4% of passenger trips and 19.3% of truck trips (20.2% if increasing shipping charges are included) changed behavior due to the time of day pricing initiative.

• Corporate Authors:

  Transportation Research Board

  500 Fifth Street, NW
  Washington, DC  United States  20001
• Authors:
  • Holguin-Veras, Jose
  • Wang, Qian
  • Xu, Ning
  • Ozbay, Kaan
  • Zorrilla, Juan Carlos
• Conference:
  • Transportation Research Board 86th Annual Meeting
  • Location: Washington DC, United States
  • Date: 2007-1-21 to 2007-1-25
• Date: 2007

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: CD-ROM
• Features: Figures; References; Tables;
• Pagination: 20p
• Monograph Title: TRB 86th Annual Meeting Compendium of Papers CD-ROM

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Discount fares; Elasticity (Economics); Passes (Transportation); Periods of the day; Public transit; Road pricing; Socioeconomic factors; Travel behavior; Urban transportation policy; Value of service pricing
• Identifier Terms: Port Authority of New York and New Jersey
• Subject Areas: Economics; Highways; Operations and Traffic Management; Public Transportation; Society; I71: Traffic Theory;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01054457
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: 07-0269
• Files: BTRIS, TRIS, TRB
• Created Date: Feb 8 2007 4:49PM