TRB Special Report 303: Equity of Evolving Transportation Finance Mechanisms (2011) / Chapter Skim
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5 Equity and DecisionMaking
5 Equity and DecisionMaking
Pages 118-144
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From page 118... ...
The measurement of public opinion about evolving transportation finance mechanisms is discussed, and the results of an analysis of public opinion surveys on the acceptability of road pricing are presented. The final section of the chapter discusses lessons learned about the role of equity in efforts to implement road pricing in the United States and overseas and identifies four strategies that decision makers may find useful when addressing equity concerns with their constituents and other stakeholders.
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From page 119... ...
For politicians and other decision makers, one of the first hurdles to overcome in embarking on a new transportation program or project is to gain public support, and voters care primarily about what affects them, be it their neighborhood, their travel corridor, or their region. In addition, because states are the major funders of many transportation projects, decision makers go to considerable lengths when preparing their transportation capital programs and budgets to ensure that resources are distributed around the state in a way that is widely perceived as fair.
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From page 120... ...
. According to the commission, a VMT pricing system implemented so as to increase total transportation revenues would likely have a greater impact on those with lower incomes (i.e., would be regressive)
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From page 121... ...
cite the response of Staten Island motorists to changes in bridge and tunnel tolls introduced by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey in 2001. These motorists protested the revised tolls, arguing that their island geography and limited transit service made them more car-dependent than peer communities in the region.
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From page 122... ...
observes that supporters of New York City's congestion pricing proposal generally emphasized the anticipated societal benefits, with related individuallevel benefits being of secondary importance, whereas opponents of the proposal focused primarily on individual-level impacts on drivers. Differences in Popular and Expert Perspectives In early 2009, Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick proposed raising the state gas tax by 19 cents, to 42.5 cents per gallon, to raise approximately $500 million a year in transportation revenue that would otherwise have to come from raising highway tolls; however, this proposal was defeated by the state legislature, which instead raised the sales tax by 1.25 percentage points.
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From page 123... ...
Sales taxes are administered at the state, regional, and sometimes local levels where, by definition, the funds stay with local projects. When it comes to fairness, however, many analysts agree that the use of sales taxes to fund transportation is less equitable than the gas tax or other user fees on the basis of several equity criteria, including benefits received and costs imposed (see, for example, Weinstein et al.
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From page 124... ...
concludes that direct charges, levied at the time and place roads are used by means of electronic collection systems, are fairer than sales taxes and also offer the greatest promise in the longer term for both congestion management and revenue generation. THE ROLE OF PUBLIC OPINION Public support for or opposition to transportation proposals can have an important influence on policy makers' priorities and actions, as the example of the proposed Massachusetts gas tax increase illustrates.
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From page 125... ...
Such surveys can also identify the conditions under which a novel finance mechanism will find more or less public acceptance; and they can test whether opinions are changing over time and give meaningful clues about the likely level of public acceptance of a proposed plan, program, or process. Discussion of the many factors affecting the quality and associated reliability of public opinion surveys is provided in a number of expert texts (see, for example, Babbie 2010; Converse and Presser 1993; Dillman 2000; Groves et al.
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From page 126... ...
As this brief discussion illustrates, it is important to know what questions were asked and how they were stated when interpreting results of public opinion surveys. In the case of surveys to assess public opinion about evolving transportation finance mechanisms, the proposed funding approach may well be new to the respondent, thereby placing a special burden on the researcher conducting the survey to communicate effectively how the mechanism will work, what it will accomplish, and how it will be paid for.
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From page 127... ...
Public Opinion About Transportation Finance Equity: Evidence and Experience To date, scientific public opinion research has not played a prominent role in identifying public concerns about the fairness of evolving transportation finance mechanisms. Occasionally, however, survey respondents have been asked whether a certain finance mechanism is "fair," either in general
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From page 128... ...
reviewed published studies with samples of at least 200 respondents that used (a) public opinion surveys to measure the acceptability of one or more evolving finance mechanisms, and (b)
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From page 129... ...
2001 • VMT with tax rebates • VMT with coupon rebates • HOT lanes Higher fuel price with decrease in public Reutlingen, Germany Bamberg and transportation prices (residents) Rolle 2003 Cordon pricing packages with detailed Athens, Greece; Como, Italy; Schade and mitigation strategies Dresden, Germany; Oslo, Schlag 2003 Norway (drivers)
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From page 130... ...
In fact, lower income respondents were slightly more, rather than less, in favor of congestion fees and HOT lanes, as were Hispanics and Asians. Additional support for Mitchell's findings comes from a study of 3,520 California residents using two related telephone surveys (Dill and Weinstein 2007)
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From page 131... ...
Paul, Minnesota, a 2006 attitudinal survey found support for the HOT lanes to be comparable across income groups, although usage was lower for members of low-income groups than for members of other income groups. In San Francisco, California, a 2007 survey of residents indicated that support for congestion pricing was slightly higher among very-low-income and low-income residents than among other residents.
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From page 132... ...
1996, 36) This comment, made in a report on lessons learned in attempting to implement a congestion pricing strategy for the San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge in the early 1990s, illustrates how difficult it can be for politicians and other decision makers to assess the likely equity implications of a proposed transportation program or project and its financing.
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From page 133... ...
The following highlights from the reports by Schaller and Taylor illustrate some of the ways in which equity entered into the debate over the New York City proposal. • Support for the proposal was strongest in Manhattan, the least auto-dependent of the five boroughs and the one that would benefit from reduced traffic and expanded bus service.
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From page 134... ...
Opponents claimed that some of the city's poorest neighborhoods bordering the priced zone would be transformed into parking lots for those driving in from outlying areas, as a result of which the promised improvement in local air quality would not materialize. In contrast, proponents thought reduced traffic from outlying suburbs en route to the central business district would result in improved air quality and public health for lower income residents.
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From page 135... ...
From the analyses of road-pricing proposals and projects, four tactics emerge as particularly useful for addressing equity concerns: • Determining where and how revenues are used, • Incorporating equity analysis into project planning, • Demonstrating benefits through experimental programs and pilot strategies, and • Using a variety of public outreach and educational tools. The following discussion of these four approaches is intended to help decision makers assess and address equity issues arising in debates over road pricing.
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From page 136... ...
In the context of Minnesota's I-394 MnPass system, for example, Weinstein and Sciara (2004, 13) quote a policy advisor's observation that "when you tell people that the money goes back into the corridor, people are satisfied." Greater London Mayor Ken Livingstone, advocating in favor of his congestion pricing proposal, emphasized that his plan would improve bus operations by reducing congestion and also generate substantial net revenue for other transportation improvements in central London (Altshuler 2010)
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From page 137... ...
emphasize the value of addressing equity explicitly at the outset of a project and of conducting analyses and forecasts that can provide information needed to answer specific questions about who will pay and who will benefit. Considering equity early in the project planning process increases transparency, encourages planners to address equity concerns, and also allows time to modify project designs in response to equity concerns raised during public debate over the proposals.
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From page 138... ...
, the pilot test allowed the residents of Stockholm "to see first-hand the dramatic congestion reductions of the pricing program and allow[ed] planners to adjust the program to address equity concerns that arose during the test." Similarly, in the case of the central London congestion charging strategy, both press coverage and the balance of local opinion shifted in favor of the strategy after its implementation in February 2003.
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From page 139... ...
Second, in the case of the I-15 HOT lanes, Taylor (2010) observes that the San Diego Association of Governments incorporated public opinion surveys into the planning process and was thus able to modify the project design to address equity concerns as the project evolved.
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From page 140... ...
• High-quality public opinion surveys have shown that members of low-income groups do not oppose congestion fees and HOT lanes any more strongly than other groups, and may even be slightly more in favor of these finance mechanisms. This evidence contradicts the assumption that lower income people, having less disposable income, would be more likely to oppose road tolls, cordon charges, and other usage fees than those in higher income brackets.
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From page 141... ...
2001. Overcoming Public Aversion to Congestion Pricing.
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From page 142... ...
1997. Congestion Pricing: Public Polling Perspective.
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From page 143... ...
Presentation to the Committee on Equity Implications of Alternative Transportation Finance Mechanisms, Washington, D.C., September 2. Schaller, B
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From page 144... ...
2008. NCHRP Synthesis 377: Compilation of Public Opinion Data on Tolls and Road Pricing.
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