Is tolling and pricing unfair to low-income drivers?
The impact of tolling and pricing on people with low incomes must be compared with the impact of traditional transportation funding policies on people with low incomes, which is often regressive. For example, low income drivers pay just as much tax on a gallon of gas as high income drivers do even though this tax has a significantly more detrimental effect on the mobility of low income drivers. Another example of current transportation policies that have an adverse effect on people with low incomes are transit policies that are increasingly targeted at developing rail transit options for suburban, middle and upper class commuters. These rail systems may be built at the expense of bus services for lower income neighborhoods. In addition, people with lower incomes often support tolling and pricing. A recent Federal Highway Administration primer on congestion pricing reports that while low income drivers do not use toll facilities every day, they support having the option to avoid traffic
