University of Tennessee, Knoxville associate professor Candace Brakewood and collaborators recently received an Arnold Ventures grant for a new research project that aims to evaluate the impact of congestion pricing programs on public transit systems.
Brakewood’s project will study the recent implementation of congestion pricing in New York City that was designed to reduce vehicular traffic and raise revenue for the local transportation system. Similar pricing programs have been successfully implemented internationally, and NYC’s program provides a unique opportunity to study a city in the United States. The goal of the project is to quantify how congestion pricing increased transit ridership across the subway, bus, and regional rail systems in NYC.
Brakewood, the principal investigator for the project, is leading a team that includes Luiz Lima, a professor of economics at the University of Tennessee; Matthew Davis, a graduate research assistant in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at UT; and Jonathan Peters, a professor at College of Staten Island, City University of New York.
“I’m very excited for the opportunity to study New York City’s new congestion pricing program” Brakewood said. “We have assembled an excellent interdisciplinary team, including Professor Lima from the economics department at UT, as well as local expertise from the College of Staten Island. UT civil engineering PhD student Matthew Davis is leading the data analysis.”
Founded in 2008 by Laura and John Arnold with the launch of a foundation, Arnold Ventures is a philanthropy dedicated to improving the lives of Americans through evidence-based policy solutions that maximize opportunity and minimize injustice. Arnold Ventures supports projects in health, criminal justice, higher education & career pathways, public finance, evidence & evaluation, and infrastructure, including public transportation. Brakewood’s project is funded through the “Building Evidence” program, which supports use of quasi-experimental research designs to evaluate social program and policies.
More information about Brakewood’s research plan for this project is available through Open Science Foundation .