The Washington, D.C. council is seeking ways to help relieve traffic congestion in the nation's capital. In doing so, they are proposing to spend $500K to study the possibility of adding tolls and charging a congestion fee to drive in parts of the city.
The study would look at certain areas and roads in D.C. and weigh the pros and cons of adding fees for driving on those roads. The study hopes to reveal if imposing the fee and tolls has any effect on surrounding traffic in other parts of the District as well as in Maryland and Virginia.
A similar study was approved in April to take place in New York City. Preliminary logistics with their plan include a network of license plate readers. Tolls there would expected to be at least $10 for drivers in Manhattan south of Central Park.
International cities like London, Stockholm and Singapore all have "congestion pricing" systems actively in place now. Those three cities reported a reduction in overall traffic, an improvement in air quality, and a significant stream of income that is being used in part to improve public transportation.
D.C. commuters waste around 63 hours in traffic per year according to a recent study, placing them in 6th place in terms of US cities with the worst traffic.
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