Letter to the Editor: Congestion pricing is necessary

To the Editor:

 

Mass transit alone will never make the impact needed to mitigate traffic congestion on the state's major thoroughfares. To listen to most of our elected officials, though, you would think all that is needed to eliminate stop-and-go driving on your morning and evening commute is to get you a parking space at the train station and a seat on a train car. For many people, mass transit simply is not a viable alternative; the numbers just aren't there.

 

My numbers on mass transit use are a little old here but, nevertheless, close enough for government work. Statewide, 5 percent to 7 percent of trips taken daily are via public mass transit. Down here in Fairfield County -- and parts of New Haven County -- the daily percentage use of mass transit doubles, which is not unexpected since Fairfield County is one of the most densely populated areas in the fourth most densely populated state in the nation. With new train and bus stations on the way, new trains and better buses on order, and better scheduling all around, the state is hoping for more mass transit use but it will never be enough to unclog the highways at times of peak travel. The folks who understand traffic, who do not necessarily include our elected leaders or the managers at the state Department of Transportation, know that unless peak travel is reduced by 10 to 15 percent, the traffic congestion problem on our highways will just persist. More mass transit alone can't make the needed dent in highway use to mitigate peak travel congestion. But the impelementation of congestion pricing on CT's major thoroughfares will.

 

Unfortunately, here in Connecticut, when most officials -- and many newspaper editorial boards -- talk about congestion pricing, they talk about in it terms of raising revenues. Instead, they should be recognizing congestion pricing as the key technical tool to getting enough folks off of the highways at rush hour to get traffic in the state moving again. We have the technology, and the U.S. Department of Transportation stands ready to help if only the state of Connecticut would make a committment to implementing this proven technology. We just need the poltical will to get traffic moving again.

 

Jim Brown
Fairfield, CT 06824