The North Central Texas Council of Governments is pursuing an innovative way of combating congestion on area roadways.
The NCTCOG is applying for a $20 million federal grant through the Congestion Relief Grant Program.
The goal is to change drivers' behavior.
"We're looking at giving people incentives to change their behavior rather than charging them to do so," says Senior Program Manager Natalie Bettger.
The pilot program would initially focus on five congested roadways:
• U.S. 75
• I-635
• I-35E
• I-35W
• I-30
"These corridors have other modes like light rail, they have guaranteed transit bus service on them, (and) they have managed lanes on them," Bettger pointed out. "Using these corridors gives us the opportunity to get people to shift out of driving by themselves in their vehicle, or possibly shift the time of day in which they're traveling on those facilities."
The program would involve having people download a smartphone app.
"We can verify if people change their mode, we can verify if they change their time of day of travel, and then we can also provide them with incentives through that smartphone application," Bettger says.
The app would be set up in a way that respects users' privacy.
"We don't want their whole entire trip," says Bettger. "We would just geofence around the specific corridors; and when they travel through that corridor, we know when they're traveling through that corridor."
Another component in this pilot program is to provide incentives for commercial drivers to change their driving habits.
Transportation Director Michael Morris says one way to do that is to encourage trucks to use the more sparsely-traveled managed toll lanes.
"You're on this freeway every day at 7:30, and you're taking up half of a football field. You're next to a managed lane. You're not traveling on the managed lane. But if we paid your toll to travel at 5:00 on the managed lane, would you come out of the free lane at 8:30 in the afternoon?"
Another idea Morris laid out is to provide cash incentives for trucks to stay off the roadways during peak hours.
"Hey truck, you traveled during the peak. Would you travel at 11:00 when there's plenty of capacity? And instead of not charging you to be on the toll road, we paid you 10 cents a mile, or we paid for your gas."
Under the grant program, a 20% local match is required; the NCTCOG would use transportation development credits to meet that requirement.
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