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Set road charges in real time to ease traffic

Track vehicles to link tolls with demand and cut congestion, urge Peter Cramton, R. Richard Geddes and Axel Ockenfels.
  1. Peter Cramton

    1. Peter Cramton is professor in the Department of Economics, University of Cologne, Germany.

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  2. R. Richard Geddes

    1. R. Richard Geddes is professor in the Department of Policy Analysis and Management, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, USA.

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  3. Axel Ockenfels

    1. Axel Ockenfels is professor in the Department of Economics, University of Cologne.

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Aerial view of crowded traffic at night, Beijing

Late-night gridlock on Beijing’s roads. Credit: Wenjie Dong/Getty

Traffic jams cost us time, money and health. In 2016, the average US driver spent 42 hours in congestion during peak hours, and those in Los Angeles, California, spent 104 hours1. New Yorkers can walk almost as fast as vehicles crawl along streets in central Manhattan2. Being stuck is frustrating and stressful. Jammed cars can burn up to 80% more fuel than those in free traffic3–5. This leads to more air pollution and greater carbon dioxide emissions, increases the incidence of heart attacks, strokes and asthma and contributes to poor infant health6,7, especially among city dwellers.

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Nature 560, 23-25 (2018)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-018-05836-0

References

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  11. Fulton, L., Mason, J. & Meroux, D. Three Revolutions in Urban Transportation (UC Davis Institute of Transportation Studies, 2017); available at go.nature.com/2upbcxc

  12. Federal Highway Administration. Congestion Pricing — A Primer: Overview (US Department of Transportation, 2008); available at go.nature.com/2jkku2v

  13. Martin, L. A. & Thornton, S. Can Road Charges Alleviate Congestion? Working Paper (Univ. Melbourne, 2017); available at go.nature.com/2ma65ep

  14. Cramton, P., Geddes, R. R. & Ockenfels, A. Markets for Road Use: Eliminating Congestion through Scheduling, Routing, and Real-time Road Pricing Working Paper (Univ. Cologne, 2018); available at go.nature.com/2zwe2qc

  15. Eliasson, J. The Stockholm Congestion Charges: An Overview Working Paper 2014, 7 (Centre for Transport Studies Stockholm, 2014); available at go.nature.com/2obp4mg

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