When the express lanes on Interstate 66 near DC opened up to solo travelers, the tolling price (known as congestion pricing, based on demand and distance being traveled) hit $40 for those drivers.
Forty bucks is a lot for a toll, but it just might be the fair price for the right to drive by yourself down a majorly busy highway. Congestion charges make drivers pay for their role in creating traffic and spewing greenhouse gases.
“Transportation pricing usually takes several months or even years to achieve its full effects, so the current maximum prices are probably two or three times what will occur once everybody becomes familiar with the system,” says Todd Litman, executive director of the Victoria Transport Policy Institute in British Columbia. “Over the next few months, many travelers will probably change when and how they travel, so the maximum price will probably decline to a few dollars per trip.”
Read the original article at Wired.