Journal Article
This article discusses the rationale for pricing strategies as an option for reducing traffic congestion in Los Angeles. Only pricing resist the effects of triple convergence. By increasing the cost of driving or parking in the busiest areas or corridors during the busiest times of day, pricing measures manage the demand for peak-hour travel, in turn reducing congestion. Once traffic flow improves, the prices remain in place, thus deterring excessive convergence on the newly freed capacity. Pricing strategies offer two additional benefits: it generates revenue to support needed transportation investments, and it enables more efficient use of existing road capacity, because roads on which traffic flows smoothly can carry far more vehicles per lane per hour than roads snarled in stop-and-go congestion. It is useful to think of pricing as a means of managing peak-hour travel demand rather than reducing it.
