Plans underway to ease traffic congestion in Delaware Valley

PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) -- Commuters in the Philadelphia region are well aware of traffic jams on local roads, but there are plans in the works to help ease congestion.

New York City recently implemented a controversial traffic measure called congestion pricing. It requires drivers to pay a toll during peak hours in heavily trafficked areas.

The program is getting pushback from the federal government, with President Trump vowing to put an end to it by March 22 despite New York's governor saying it is generating much-needed funds for the city's aging public transit system.

But here at home, transportation officials are also examining other ways to ease congestion on our roads. Philadelphia city officials wouldn't touch the topic of congestion fees or even discuss the issue of traffic congestion after multiple requests by the Investigative Team.

But other regional players say they are keeping an eye up north to see the impact of those fees.

"Any type of pricing fee is generally very effective, but you have to look at the bigger picture," said Michael Boyer.

Boyer is the Director of Regional Planning at the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission.

He, like others, is taking a wait-and-see approach to congestion fees. He is waiting to see what challenges and issues emerge in New York, the first U.S. city to implement them.

"It has to be weighted against all those factors including economic impacts and equity impacts," said Boyer.

But congestion isn't just a Center City problem. If you drive our highways you quickly realize it is a regional problem.

PennDOT told us it is already taking action to ease traffic.

Traffic engineers are designing what are called "flex lanes."

The plan would create an extra lane in the median of the Blue Route in both directions from West Chester Pike to I-95.

On the Schuylkill Expressway, the flex lanes would be implemented on the shoulder of westbound 76 from City Avenue to Belmont and in the shoulder of both directions from 202 to 476.

I-95 would have a small stretch of flex lanes as well.

"Peak travel time, evening, morning rush, that extra lane is gonna be needed, a real-time incident, perhaps a major event," said Brad Rudolph with PennDOT.

Construction is tentatively scheduled for 2028 with the lanes will likely go live in 2030 or 2031.

"A lot of obstacles on both of these projects you know, there's railroads to consider, there's bridges to consider, there's stormwater matters," he said.

But what you'll see now is dozens of variable speed limit signs being installed on the highways.

Speeds can be adjusted to handle traffic and improve flow, which officials say reduces commute times, and improves safety.

"We've seen about a 20% or plus reduction in overall crashes more than 30% rear-end crashes," he said.

PennDOT said there will be no tolls on the flex lanes.

The agency said it's also working to take control of traffic lights from municipalities on arterial routes parallel to the highways like Ridge Pike and Conshohocken State Road.

"If we have control of the timing of those signals we can move traffic a little better," Rudolph said.

Boyer also called traffic congestion a complex problem and said the solutions are difficult.

Emerging technologies like autonomous vehicles on the horizon will only add more variables.

One solution he doesn't expect here any time soon is congestion fees.

"I don't see Philadelphia as one of the first adopters on this," said Boyer.