Tip Sheets

Experts on New York City congestion pricing

Media Contact

Lindsey Knewstub

In an effort to ease some of the Big Apple’s legendary gridlock – and make the air more breathable – New York City is slated to implement congestion pricing. The following Cornell University researchers are available to weigh in on the tolling system and its impacts.


Oliver Gao

Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering

Oliver Gao, professor of civil and environmental engineering, is the director of Cornell’s Center for Transportation, Environment, and Community Health. Gao developed a Post-Processing Software that the New York Metropolitan Transportation Council uses for its transportation conformity assessment required by the EPA. He has done research specifically on how congestion pricing in NYC would impact traffic congestion, public transit ridership, greenhouse gas emissions along with other environmental and health impacts.

John Foote

Lecturer in the Cornell Institute of Public Affairs

John Footelecturer in the Cornell Institute of Public Affairs, is an expert on infrastructure policy and finance, and was also a co-founder of a transportation engineering company specializing in intelligent transportation systems and services. He is an expert on funding and financing of transportation infrastructure.

Nicholas Klein

Assistant Professor of City & Regional Planning

Nicholas Kleinassistant professor of city and regional planning, is an expert on transportation planning. His research looks at the factors that influence how people travel daily and how these changes play out over the course of their lives, focusing on marginalized populations and neighborhoods. Klein can speak to equity implications of congestion pricing as well as general impacts. 

Karan Girotra

Professor of Operations, Technology and Information Management

Karan Girotra, professor of operations, technology and innovation at Cornell Tech and the Cornell SC Johnson College of Business, is an expert in urban living and smart transportation. He can speak to how careful design and incentives are required to structure congestion pricing to ensure against unintended environmental and social consequences such as inequity in access, increased use of alternate (and more polluting) routes, etc.  

 

Rick Geddes

Professor, Cornell Jeb E. Brooks School of Public Policy

Rick Geddes, professor of policy analysis and management and founding director of Cornell Program in Infrastructure Policy, has conducted extensive research on congestion pricing, with a focus on using real-time, network-wide road prices to eliminate congestion and direct transportation investment.

Cornell University has television, ISDN and dedicated Skype/Google+ Hangout studios available for media interviews.