Analysis of Time-of-Day Pricing Impacts at Port Authority of New York and New Jersey Facilities

Abstract

Time-of-day pricing policies provide lower toll rates during off-peak hours to reduce peak-hour traffic congestion. Time-of-day pricing was introduced at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey (PANYNJ) bridges and tunnels on March 25, 2001, for E-ZPass users only. According to PANYNJ, 2 months after the implementation of the program, preliminary statistics indicated greater use of E-ZPass and some increase in off-peak travel. PANYNJ operates six toll facilities: George Washington Bridge, Lincoln Tunnel, Holland Tunnel, Bayonne Bridge, Goethals Bridge, and Outerbridge Crossing. In this paper, the relationship between toll price and travel demand at PANYNJ facilities was investigated with traffic data before and after the introduction of the time-of-day pricing program. Two main approaches were used. First, short-term elasticities were calculated with monthly traffic data from April through August for 2000 and 2001. Next, medium-term elasticities were calculated with monthly traffic data from May through August for 2000 and 2002. Seasonal variations in the database were also considered by performing related statistical tests.