SACRAMENTO, CA – STV today announced it has been selected by the California Association of Councils of Governments (CALCOG) to lead a new statewide initiative evaluating how road pricing strategies can reduce congestion and improve travel reliability. The project is funded by a grant awarded to Caltrans, in partnership with CALCOG, through the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Regional Infrastructure Accelerator program.
As California faces rising congestion alongside new mobility and sustainability targets, the effort will establish the California Transportation Choices Partnership, a statewide coalition focused on communicating the costs and benefits of road pricing and accelerating the planning, development and delivery of projects that improve travel conditions. The initiative will examine how tools such as tolled and express lanes, cordon pricing and congestion pricing can be advanced using fair‑pricing, user‑pays approaches to better manage demand and improve the movement of people and goods.
“Road pricing succeeds based on decisions, not just technical analysis,” said Heather Wills, national tolling director at STV. “This effort is designed to help California’s transportation leaders understand where governance, political acceptance, operations readiness and delivery sequencing intersect, so boards and executives can make informed, durable decisions about if, when and how pricing strategies move forward.”
STV will lead an interview‑driven assessment to better understand why road pricing efforts move forward in some regions and stall in others, and to identify the political, institutional, operational and financial factors that shape those outcomes. The firm will deliver a report outlining key success factors that agencies can use to evaluate their own conditions.
In addition to the report, STV will develop communication-ready materials for boards, legislators and community stakeholders, as well as a lessons‑learned summary to support future pricing efforts. All deliverables will be completed by August 2026, enabling participating agencies to incorporate the findings into long‑range planning, corridor evaluations and ongoing policy discussions across the state.
STV is a national leader in tolling, managed lanes and transit delivery, providing policy, planning and design services for complex mobility programs across the U.S. Notable projects include the U.S. 101 Express Lanes in San Francisco, California; the Section 100 of Interstate 95 in Baltimore County, Maryland and the all-electronic interchange on Route 29 in Malvern, Pennsylvania.
For more than 30 years, STV has delivered major infrastructure projects across the West with deep expertise in light rail, bus rapid transit, zero-emission vehicles, project delivery and program and construction management. Most recently, the firm celebrated the opening of the Sound Transit Crosslake Connection in Seattle. Other signature projects include the Anaheim Regional Transportation Intermodal Center in Anaheim, the LA Metro Zero-Emissions Bus Program in Los Angeles and the BART Canopy and Escalator Enhancements in San Francisco.
