Mineta Transportation Institute releases study showing carpooling for cash could help clear congestion

The Mineta Transportation Institute has released new case study research finding $15 a day would incentivize commuters to accept the minor inconveniences of carpooling.

This was also documented in the report Congestion-clearing Payments to Passengers (CCPTP) which showed incentivizing carpooling could reduce traffic congestion by as much as half.

Traffic congestion is clearly linked to negative environmental impacts, economic drawbacks and a reduced quality of life; yet many commuters are reluctant to alter their traditional driving habits in favor of carpooling. However, this case study, based on a long-standing bottleneck location on Highway 92 in Half Moon Bay, California, found that at $15 a day, half of people driving on a busy road would be willing to travel as passengers and another 23 percent would be willing to serve as drivers.

Additional findings from this case study revealed that:

• The removal of peak-hour congestion could create a new preferred travel time for single occupancy vehicles (SOV).
• Traffic reduction efforts are potentially limited by commuters’ willingness to serve in different carpool roles (e.g. driver, passenger or both).
• There is a need for a combination of incentives—first to shift drivers to passengers, and second, to encourage passengers to travel earlier (or later) than their preferred travel time to match that of the potential driver.
• There is a potential need for meeting-place-based parking near bottlenecks to simplify higher occupancy vehicle formation whether in bus, van or car.

This case study also provides a method for estimating the cost and benefits of a permanent program, removing congestion by paying people to travel as passengers. Furthermore, the project team proposes a pilot project on the case study route at a cost of $40 million over five years with a potential savings in years three to five after an initial learning curve.

Principal investigator on the project Paul Minett said, “The potential value of this solution, if it works as well with real commuters on congested roads as it does in the planning spreadsheets of this project, is many multiples of this investment both nationwide and worldwide.”

While the long-term impacts of COVID-19 are still being assessed, the project team foresees two trends that may impact traffic congestion--reduced use of public and shared transport due to virus transmission concerns and a reduction in commuter traffic as employees continue to work from home.

“The net effect is difficult to predict because there might be lasting damage to economies depending on how long the disruption of COVID-19 continues,” said report co-author John Niles. “Either way, the aftermath will be an ideal time to test CCPTP and could offset financial losses from the disruption caused by COVID-19 by redistributing funds to people; and encourage, as soon as is appropriate, a return to shared transport as a mechanism for managing congestion.”