Congestion Pricing Works

I have been back in the US  for over a week now and miss the fresh, cooler air of Sweden.

Massachusetts has been sweltering but I refuse to install air conditioners in our home and we use the trees around our property for cooling (natural) along with some fans. I do not want to add to global warming.

Policies can also make a big impact on our environment and I have written two books that focus entirely on the subject: Environmental Networks (with K. K. Dhanda and P. Ramanujam, two former doctoral students of mine) and Sustainable Transportation Networks. Several other of my books also provide math models, analyses, and algorithms for environmental decision-making.

It is important to study policies analytically before implementation and my collaborators and I have written many papers on topics ranging from pollution permits, carbon taxes, to sustainable supply chains. In fact, we are presently finishing up a paper on competitive sustainable supply chains with examples from around the world. I am working with Professor Jonas Floden from Sweden and Professor Min Yu, who is a Professor at the University of Portland, but is spending part of the summer in China.

My passion is a clean, healthy environment, and that is one of the reasons that this year and last year I have been spending a lot of time in Sweden as a Visiting Professor at the School of Business, Economics and Law at the University of Gothenburg. My host there has been Professor Jonas Floden and a few weeks ago we were interviewed by a journalist, May Catherine O'Connor, who had traveled from San Francisco to Gothenburg to observe the imposed congestion pricing scheme in practice.

Mary Catherine, Jonas, and I had fabulous discussions on transportation and congestion pricing and the experiences in both Gothenburg and Stoickholm, capped with a lunch in Haga. Jonas and I had to indulge in the Swedish neatballs with ligonberries but Mary Catherine is a vegetarian so had a really nice fritatta.

Congestion pricing was instituted in the city of Gothenburg in January 2013 and I can personally see the difference in road traffic. The city was very proactive and instituted more frequent bus service, provided public transport passes to commuters for several weeks, and offered free parking in downtown on weekends. There are separate bus lanes to improve the flow of busses and, of course, numerous pedestrian lanes and bicycle lanes. I continue to marvel at how extremely fit the Swedes are and miss the hours of walking that I would do every day as just part of life -- even bringing groceries home by foot and walking to and from work.

Ms. O'Connor has now written a piece, Congestion pricing: Does it make cities more car-free?,   for SmartPlanet, which appeared yesterday, July 4th.


You can read her article here. 

I am very much looking forward to teaching my Transportation & Logistics class this fall at the Isenberg School of Management in which we discuss how tolls can be quantitatively formulated and then applied. Some of this classical work goes back to Stella Dafermos, who was my doctoral dissertation advisor at Brown University and the second female in the work to receive a PhD in Operations Research!

It is exciting to see analytics being put into practice to make a better planet for all of us!

And, for a set of lectures on transportation and logistics, including toll setting, please feel free to see my lectures on these topics.

Public Transit and Climate Change

A few days ago I was interviewed by a student journalist for the UMass Amherst student newspaper, the Daily Collegian. I agreed to the interview, since the topic was on transportation and the environment, a theme that I have written a lot about and am very passionate about. The interview focused specifically on public transit and its role in reducing emissions (and congestion, I might add).

As someone, who did not get her license until she became a Full Professor and mother, I have always enjoyed using different modes of transportation, including public transportation. Growing up in Yonkers, New York, we would walk for miles, ride busses, and sometimes take the train to NYC along the Hudson River. I would ride the subway from the Bronx into Manhattan and back regularly.

During my international travels, I always pay attention to the transportation infrastructure in different countries and make a point of taking public transit.

Frankly, I enjoy the social aspects of public transit -- seeing different people from all walks of life. Last Friday and Saturday, I was in Cambridge and Boston and taking the Red Line from Harvard Square to Park Street always takes my breath away as we approach the Charles MGH station with the gorgeous water views. I also got a chance to ride the Green Line.

The article in the Daily Collegian, entitled: UMass Transit encourages students, residents, to hop on for climate change, by Tim Jones was published today. Jones did an excellent job of capturing the major issues and the importance of having more transit alternatives available that reduce carbon emissions. You can read the article here.

So do take a more environmentally-friendly mode of transportation, whenever you can, and do it not just for yourself but for future generations. You may even meet some really nice people en route.