**Please note – while this webinar does not have a freight focus, it may be of interest to members of the Freight Planning LISTSERV, as congestion pricing does play a role in reducing freight congestion.

The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) Offices of Operations and Innovative Program Delivery have scheduled a webinar on Congestion Pricing Equity Impacts on May 26, 2011 from 2:00pm to 3:30pm Eastern.  This webinar is the fourth in the FHWA webinar series entitled “Overcoming the Challenges of Congestion Pricing.” These webinars are aimed at state and local agencies that are currently in the process of implementing or would like to implement congestion pricing; decision-makers/political leaders who want to better understand the benefits of congestion pricing; metropolitan planning organizations (MPOs) that may be interested in incorporating pricing into their planning activities; and others who just want to learn more about congestion pricing strategies.

There is no cost to participate in these webinars and they are open to everyone who is interested. Each webinar will last 90 minutes, with 60 minutes allocated for presentations, and 30 minutes for audience Q&As. Through the use of Web conferencing technology, participants can view the speakers’ presentations on their computer and hear the audio portion of the presentations either via the computer or telephone, depending on preference.

WEBINAR ON CONGESTION PRICING EQUITY IMPACTS -- AGENDA

(1)   Brian Taylor, Professor and Chair of Urban Planning, UCLA School of Public Affairs, will provide an overview of equity issues relating to pricing, including types of equity, units of analysis, impacts of concern, measures to assess equity, and case studies of equity concerns. Brian is the author of the recent Bipartisan Policy Center report “How Fair is Pricing: Evaluating Equity in Transportation Pricing and Finance.”

(2)    Carol Zimmerman, Battelle Memorial Institute, will focus of Urban Partnership Agreement/Congestion Reduction Demonstration (UPA/CRD) projects, and what they are doing to evaluate and address equity. Carol is the principal investigator for the USDOT research effort to evaluate UPA/CRD projects.   

(3)    Jamie Strausz-Clark, Director of Public Affairs and Policy at PRR, will report the SR 520 congestion pricing project which will convert and existing free facility to a priced facility.  She will discuss what approaches were used for analysis and evaluation, and what were the alternatives considered and/or selected to mitigate the impacts. As a consultant for the Washington State Department of Transportation, Jamie conducted the environmental justice analysis for the SR 520 Bridge Replacement and the UPA SR 520 Variable Tolling Project Environmental Assessment.   

(4)   Jack Opiola, Senior Partner/Senior VP at D'Artagnan Consulting LLC, will be wrap up with lessons learned from international pricing projects with regard to evaluating and addressing equity issues. Jack has been involved in development, design and evaluation of tolling and congestion pricing projects throughout the world.

You must register in advance for the webinar at

http://www.ops.fhwa.dot.gov/tolling_pricing/index.htm

Registration is now open. Once you register you will receive an email with login instructions.

We look forward to your participation and hope you find these webinars beneficial to your professional needs! Please forward this to anyone else you know who might be interested.

If you have questions, please contact [log in to unmask] or Patrick.[log in to unmask].

Jennifer Symoun | Deputy Program Manager/Analyst
Science Applications International Corporation | 8301 Greensboro Drive, McLean, VA 22102
Office: 703.676.6849 | Fax: 703.676.6823