{"id":150920,"date":"2024-04-12T13:01:32","date_gmt":"2024-04-12T17:01:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bu.edu\/eng\/?p=150920"},"modified":"2024-04-12T13:01:32","modified_gmt":"2024-04-12T17:01:32","slug":"could-boston-be-the-next-city-to-impose-congestion-pricing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/eng\/2024\/04\/12\/could-boston-be-the-next-city-to-impose-congestion-pricing\/","title":{"rendered":"Could Boston Be the Next City to Impose Congestion Pricing?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Now that NYC has voted to roll out the pricing measure, a BU ENG alum talks traffic control measures here and elsewhere<\/strong><\/h3>\n

By Alene Bouranova<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

You\u2019re not imagining it: Boston traffic is worse than almost anywhere else.<\/p>\n

Our city consistently ranks<\/a> among the top three most congested US cities, with some reports<\/a> estimating that Boston drivers lose anywhere from 130 to 150 hours a year to sitting in traffic. When you add the fact that reckless driving is on the rise<\/a> across the country and that Boston drivers seem to find limitless <\/strong>ways to be aggressive\u2014the word \u201cMasshole\u201d exists for a reason\u2014it\u2019s clear that our roads are in crisis.<\/p>\n

The question is, how do we meaningfully reduce traffic?<\/p>\n

New York City just took the final step<\/a> to implement congestion pricing, or the practice of charging drivers extra on busy roads or during peak travel times. Most cars will be charged $15 a day to enter Lower Manhattan and Midtown.<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Salom\u00f3n
Salom\u00f3n Wollenstein-Betech (ENG\u201922,\u201922)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Salom\u00f3n Wollenstein-Betech<\/a> (ENG\u201922,\u201922), who studied transportation infrastructure and traffic patterns at the Boston University Center for Information & Systems Engineering<\/a>, says the initiative could<\/em> work here.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think there would be a little hesitation,\u201d says Wollenstein-Betech, now a postdoc at Stanford University. Boston\u2019s public transportation system isn\u2019t as extensive as New York\u2019s. \u201cStill, I think Boston is one of the best cities to be next in line for this trend.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read the full Q&A in<\/em> Bostonia<\/a>.<\/strong><\/h3>\n

 <\/p>\n

Traffic photo by Leon Bredella<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An ENG-trained traffic expert says the Hub might benefit from congestion pricing, among other measures.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2662,"featured_media":150922,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[236,982,910],"tags":[574],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150920"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2662"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=150920"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150920\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":150925,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150920\/revisions\/150925"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/150922"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=150920"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=150920"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=150920"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}