b1argg t1_j9vaqn0 wrote on February 24, 2023 at 8:33 PM

Reply to comment by [deleted] in MTA Pushes Congestion Pricing Back to Second Quarter of 2024 by perspicatic

if it were actually about congestion, the price would be dynamic based on current congestion levels.

TeamMisha t1_j9wcfhv wrote on February 25, 2023 at 12:53 AM

It can be more complex and costly to monitor congestion precisely in real time, though is possible. Time of Day based plans were probably chosen for simplicity in the tolling structure and using averages from existing data. It also means it would be much more difficult to analyze and forecast this, unless you again used an assumed average. To first model average congestion, which itself is a tricky metric given the size of the CBD, and then change the toll, and then study how it reduces congestion in real time, the traffic modeling work to do that... I would shoot my brains out that would be insane to study lol. On the bright side, the toll structure has flexibility, they can tweak peak hours and off peak costs for example, that's gonna be much easier to do versus dynamic monitoring.

b1argg t1_j9wr6t5 wrote on February 25, 2023 at 2:48 AM

There are plenty of highways with tolled Express lanes that dynamically adjust the toll. Every entrance to the tolled area will have gantries anyway so its simple to count entrances and exits.

TeamMisha t1_j9wunyv wrote on February 25, 2023 at 3:17 AM

HOT lanes are simple in nature compared to tolling an entire portion of the city. Volume at entrance and exit is one dataset, what about everything in between? The grid is massive, is just checking toll gantries sufficient? Some may say no, I'd tend to agree. Volume inbound alone doesn't necessarily paint the whole picture of what "congestion" is happening inside the cordon. Might not work out so well, or maybe it would, it's very hard to tell which is probably why it was not considered due to the complexity. Nothing about measuring congestion in the CBD is simple, trust me on that one, the traffic on the street grid is probably one of the most complex systems in the entire city.