MassDOT secretary opposes expanded tolls
Photo | Grant Welker
Traffic passing through I-290 in Worcester
Transportation advocates on Tuesday touted the benefits of adjusting road tolls to minimize traffic impacts, even as Transportation Secretary Stephanie Pollack renewed the administration's skepticism about the strategy.
Panelists at an event exploring the statewide congestion nightmare pointed to so-called congestion pricing already in place in other cities, such as London and Stockholm, as a success that could be adopted in Massachusetts.
Michael Manville, an associate professor of urban planning at the University of California, Los Angeles, said roadway pricing is "the only thing we've ever found that reliably makes a dent" in traffic.
Supporters have highlighted the strategy since a Baker administration study concluded that congestion, particularly around greater Boston, has reached a "tipping point" and as the House prepares to debate raising transportation revenue.
Gov. Charlie Baker and members of his cabinet have instead pushed a range of other options to reduce congestion, such as a tax credit to promote working from home and increased capacity on public transit. The administration opposes congestion pricing that would affect all drivers and is studying the feasibility of having tolled lanes alongside free ones.
Pollack, who gave the keynote address ahead of Tuesday's panel, said the INRIX report that named Boston as having the worst traffic in America placed London — which has congestion pricing — two places higher in its ranking of most gridlocked cities across the globe.
"You can be doing really important, cutting-edge, best-practice work to be tackling congestion and you can still be really congested," Pollack said.
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