L.A. Considers Charging Drivers to Use Freeways

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Los Angeles County is finalizing plans for a pilot project in congestion pricing that could see drivers charged an additional fee to use certain high-frequency routes on freeways, in a bid to reduce traffic in the congested city.

The Los Angeles Times reports:

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The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority is expected by the summer to release a long-awaited study that will offer a blueprint for a congestion pricing scheme similar to ones in cities such as London, Stockholm and Singapore, where commuters pay to drive in city centers.

The transit agency has zeroed in on three locations for a possible test program: a nearly 16-mile stretch of the 10 Freeway between downtown and Santa Monica, arterial streets and freeways around downtown and the canyon streets and freeways that connect the San Fernando Valley to the L.A. Basin.

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As Breitbart News reported in 2017, Los Angeles is considered to have the worst traffic in the world, though drivers in other cities spend more time in traffic than even L.A. drivers do, according to other studies.

New York is also planning to use congestion pricing to ease traffic into Manhattan, though the launch of the new plan has been delayed until late 2024 — right around the time of the next state legislative elections.

Similar projects in other cities have met with mixed success, and have often been rejected by residents. There are various different types of congestion pricing, including charges for preferred lanes, or to enter an area.

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