Spatio-temporal Road Charge: A Potential Remedy for Increasing Local Streets Congestion

US population. Additionally, the emergence of large ridesourcing or transportation network companies (TNCs) totaling up to tens of thousands of registered drivers in single cities (all using the same routing app), there is further consolidation. Across the US, this has led to new or increased congestion patterns that are progressively asphyxiating local streets due to so-called “cut-through traffic.” As neighborhoods have started to realize this, private citizens have begun to resist, by trying to sabotage or trick the apps, or shaming the through traffic through opinion articles, and news stories, and other methods. Municipal agencies/planners are pursuing more institutionalized ways to handle the situation, adding stop signs, speed bumps, and turning restrictions to make local traffic slower in the hope that the apps will “learn” not to send through-traffic to their neighborhoods (since apps systematically provide the route most beneficial to the user, not necessarily to the community). In other countries, cities have sued app providers, potentially forecasting similar approaches in the US and ultimately class actions against them.