A Lukewarm Report Card for High-Occupancy Toll Lanes

American cities are years away, at best, from adopting congestion pricing programs on downtown streets, like those used in Stockholm and London. But road pricing has been in effect on various metropolitan area highways since the mid-1990s. These take the form of high-occupancy toll lanes, which are usually free to carpools or buses but can be used by single-occupancy vehicles for a fee, or peak-pricing lanes, which carry a greater cost during rush hour to encourage travelers to drive at off-peak times. These projects seem to be gaining popularity; there are about 400 miles of priced highway lanes in operation, with 11 HOT lanes under construction.

The nonpartisan Government Accountability Office recently completed an audit of 14 highway pricing projects (5 HOT lanes, 9 priced lanes) in U.S. metro areas. The resulting report [PDF] found evidence that highway pricing programs can reduce congestion, but it also found some reasons for concern.