The ride was never free: It’s time to price our roads for health and climate

America is a car-centric country. Cars have long symbolized freedom and remain central to the classic, domineering image of the American dream. Though this dream has become harder and harder—if not impossible—to achieve, cars are still a gateway to, and gatekeeper of, opportunity.

For many, access to a car is access to a job, to school, grocery stores, healthcare, libraries, parks, recreation, art, and friends and family, especially where local public transit systems are nonexistent, underfunded, or unreliable. But the more cars we pack into our roads’ limited space, the more traffic congestion collectively impacts our day-to-day lives, as well as our long-term health and the health of our planet.

Traffic congestion in the United States has risen over the past decade, in urban areas in particular. Not everyone owns a car or drives regularly, but we all pay for those who exercise that privilege. Our country’s transportation systems have long prioritized the movement of cars rather than the safety and mobility of people around them, particularly that of people of color. For our safety, our health, and our planet, our cities’ leaders need to reallocate their space and resources toward people, instead of cars.

One way cities and other jurisdictions have tackled this problem is through road pricing policy. Road pricing, also called congestion pricing or decongestion pricing, is the practice of charging drivers directly for their use of roads. New York City will soon become the first U.S. city to implement congestion pricing, and similar policies in Singapore, London, Stockholm, and Milan have derived numerous climate, health, and mobility gains.

In 2019, the District Department of Transportation (DDOT) conducted a study evaluating the potential benefits of road pricing for the District of Columbia. (Editor’s note: DC Sustainable Transportation Coalition, which is managed by Greater Greater Washington, was contracted to perform the study and submitted a draft for DDOT’s review in 2021). Conducting a study on road pricing aligned, and aligns, with recommendations made by the District in its 2014 moveDC plan, 2021 moveDC plan, and Resilient DC plan. The District failed to release the study, as legally required, by July 2020, so the DC Council, in the July 2023 FY24 Budget Support Act, mandated that DDOT update and transmit the study by Jan. 1, 2024. There is nothing to indicate that DDOT will release the study by Jan. 1, 2024.

Our team at the Redstone Global Center for Prevention and Wellness at the George Washington University School of Public Health recently published a white paper outlining the benefits of road pricing as climate and health policy. Our findings challenge the traditional car-centric transportation planning values that have contributed to traffic violence, local air and noise pollution, and climate change acceleration, and show that the consequences of car-centric planning disproportionately impact already marginalized communities. The health benefits of road pricing are proven, and existing road pricing programs continue to further transportation equity by expanding mobility and connectivity for all.

Road pricing reduces pollution

In the District, on-road vehicle emissions are the largest contributor to air pollution-related health burdens, accounting for over 50% of NO2-attributable asthma cases and 23% of air pollution-attributable premature deaths. Children, the elderly, residents of Black and Brown neighborhoods, and low-income residents are at increased risk from air pollution. Road traffic is also a leading source of noise pollution, the health impacts of which include hearing loss, sleep disruption, high blood pressure, and stress-related illnesses. Unsurprisingly, socioeconomic and racial disparities in air and noise exposure pervade across the US, likely increasing risk of adverse educational and health outcomes for people of color. A 2021 study examining intra-urban inequities of air pollution in DC found that PM2.5-attributable morbidity and mortality in Ward 7 and Ward 8, which are most impacted by air pollution, were five times higher than in lower-impacted areas like Wards 2 and 3.

Road pricing policies reduce the number of cars on the road in areas prone to traffic congestion, reducing pollutant emissions from traffic and the adverse health effects of those emissions. A recent study estimates London’s road pricing model has saved 1,888 more years of life among city residents, who are now breathing cleaner air. One study found that after Stockholm expanded congestion pricing in its densely populated inner city, air pollutants PM10 and NO2 decreased by 15% and 20%, respectively. This was followed by a significant reduction in visits for acute asthma attacks among children, aged 0-5, as well as an overall decline in asthma rates by 15.2% among children. Because health changes happen more gradually than pollution reduction, these short-run estimates likely understate long-term health benefits.

Road pricing reduces traffic violence

Traffic safety, often relegated to transportation discussions, is a pressing public health concern. Traffic fatalities have risen over the last decade, both in DC and nationally - and people of color, children, and the elderly, regardless of the mode by which they travel, are especially affected. Pedestrians are also more vulnerable to harm by drivers, and face higher risks in the US than in other developed nations.

One analysis found that local census tracts with higher proportions of Black residents, such as Congress Heights and Benning Ridge, have over two times the number of fatal or serious crashes as those with lower proportions of Black residents. The unsafe road conditions that contribute to traffic crashes also limit safe access to public spaces, resulting in additional health inequities. When highways are built through neighborhoods, such as the I-295 in Southeast DC, this reverberates for generations, limiting residents’ pedestrian safety and access to nearby amenities even decades later. Unsafe streets also limit related opportunities for physical activity, including walking, cycling, and the use of public transit, leading to physical inactivity, which is linked to chronic disease risk.

In the cities where it has been implemented, road pricing has reduced crashes and made roads safer for all users. When Singapore first pioneered a congestion pricing scheme in 1975, vehicle crashes there fell by 25%. In the year following Milan’s implementation of road pricing, all road casualties were reduced by 24%. In London, one study estimates that traffic crashes decreased by an estimated 35% per month in the zone-based charge area following congestion pricing implementation. Importantly, these cities have prioritized investing road pricing revenue back into street safety improvements like more comprehensive mobility networks of bike lanes and pedestrian zones, building safer environments for active transport and physical activity.

Road pricing supports transportation equity

The DC Department of Health has identified access to transportation as a key driver of health outcomes, due to its essential links to employment, physical activity, and access to vital services. In DC, neighborhoods with low-wage workers have less access to bus and rail infrastructure and face higher commuting times.

Because road pricing charges drivers for the harmful externalities of driving that would otherwise fall on everyone, such programs are inherently more equitable than the status quo we describe at the beginning of this post. But road pricing also has the potential to achieve health-equity goals, such as increased connectivity to jobs, schools, and other essential needs, if it is designed to not penalize low-income families increasingly priced out of walkable neighborhoods near public transit and who are already spending a much higher percentage of their income on transportation, and time on commuting. To maximize the health benefits of road pricing, we must employ thoughtful pricing structures, narrowly targeted exemptions, and strategic revenue investment to ensure that the policy most benefits those whose needs are poorly met by our current transportation system.

The cities that have implemented such schemes have maximized transportation equity gains by redistributing the revenue from road pricing to expand and improve public transit infrastructure, with enviable results. Singapore has increased bus and rail ridership by 15% by expanding service and constructing new intermodal transit hubs, thereby reducing vehicle traffic despite significant population growth. Stockholm began its initial road pricing pilot with the addition of 197 new buses and 16 new bus routes and has since expanded road pricing to fund new metro lines that service affordable housing developments. London has devoted much of its road pricing revenue to improving its bus network, adding 300 new buses, adding new and enhancing existing bus routes, and building more bus lanes, resulting in a 38% increase in bus ridership as well as a 60% decrease in congestion-related traffic delay. Moreover, people took fewer trips by private car while taking more trips by public transportation, walking, and cycling. Road pricing provides a reliable revenue source to support more equitable public transportation systems, with health benefits from increased physical activity and connectivity.

Road pricing reduces carbon emissions

In the Washington metropolitan area, the transportation sector is a major driver of climate change, contributing 38% of total greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Climate change, left unabated, will contribute to increased respiratory and cardiovascular disease, premature deaths related to extreme weather and heat, and other adverse health effects. These effects disproportionately threaten people already affected by environmental injustices; the Climate Ready DC Plan has found that Wards 7 and 8 are most vulnerable to the effects of climate change.

Road pricing has not only addressed underlying health inequities, many of which are linked to poor air quality from congested vehicle corridors and poor connectivity to essential services, but has also meaningfully curbed carbon emissions and harmful health effects of global warming. Urban road pricing policies have significantly reduced GHG emissions—including a 10-15% reduction in CO2 emissions in Singapore’s inner city, a 16% decline in London’s CO2 emissions, and a 14% reduction in CO2 in Stockholm. Road pricing would bolster DC’s efforts to achieve carbon neutrality by 2045, and, if adopted by cities around the world, help address the global health emergency posed by climate change.

So, where’s the District’s road pricing program?

Despite the potential of road pricing to achieve DC’s goals for health, climate, and mobility, the District’s own study on the matter has been withheld from the public by the executive branch, in violation of laws passed by the DC Council. The longer the District avoids considering road pricing, the longer we miss out on proven gains in climate, health, and revenue generation to support public transportation.

It is long past time to acknowledge that “free” roads are not actually free, but instead come with immeasurable harm to the health of the District’s most marginalized residents, and that road pricing is a solution within our reach.