Lessons of Calif.'s Toll Lanes

Appeal and Hazards Offer Glimpse of Va. Beltway to Come

ANAHEIM, Calif. -- Howard Gottesman jumped onto the Route 91 Express Lanes the day they opened in 1995. For a mere $2.50, the property manager and father of two could veer off one of Southern California's most congested freeways and zip home on the private new toll road that paralleled it. Some days, it nearly cut his evening commute to Corona in half.

Soon, though, the secret was out. More and more drivers filled the Express Lanes, and on some nights the drive wasn't so express. Road operators reacted by jacking up the peak-hour fees -- to $2.95, and later $4.75, then $5.50 and more. Last month, Gottesman was staggered to learn that his evening drive would now cost as much as $7.75 a day.

Too much? Maybe. Enough to send him back to the slow lanes? Never.

"It saves a lot of wear and tear on your car, and wear and tear on your mind," said the 44-year-old California native, who often drives six miles out of his way to enter the 10-mile-long Express Lanes. "It's worth more than eight dollars, my time."

As Virginia transportation officials prepare to build the region's first high-occupancy toll lanes -- known as "HOT lanes" -- on a 14-mile stretch of the Capital Beltway, the 10-year history of this first-of-its-kind highway in the Los Angeles suburbs offers Washington-area drivers a window into both the allure and drawbacks of paying one's way out of gridlock.

Costly clashes between the Express Lanes' original owners and Orange County taught planners elsewhere to limit the amount of authority they cede to private operators. And because of the public furor over the 91's constant toll increases, many new toll lanes -- including those to be built on the Beltway--will offer a more varied pricing system based on the amount of traffic on the road.

Yet the most important lesson of these California roads -- sometimes derided as elitist, double-taxing "Lexus lanes" -- is that commuters will flock to them in large numbers, regardless of the price.

"Old theories of what people are willing to pay for a toll road are out the window," said C. Kenneth Orski, editor of the Innovative Briefs transportation newsletter and a longtime supporter of HOT lanes. "Motorists are willing to pay much higher fees than they were traditionally assumed to be willing to pay."

Transportation planners across the country have studied the 91 Express Lanes and a similar toll lane system on Interstate 15 near San Diego. Their conclusions are informing the designs of dozens of new pay-to-drive lanes now under construction or discussion -- including plans for toll lanes on the Maryland side of the Beltway, on I-270, and on I-95/395 between the District and Spotsylvania.

Virginia officials this spring signed deals with two private firms to construct the Beltway toll lanes, which could open in 2010. The plan calls for two new lanes in each direction, separated from other traffic, between Springfield and Georgetown Pike. Peak tolls would be about $5, according to preliminary estimates, and carpools of at least three people would be allowed to travel the fast lanes free.

But planners acknowledge that those terms could change. Though estimates for the proposed I-95/395 HOT lanes include $13 tolls for the entire 56-mile trip, it is projected they could eventually rise to about $17 in 2015 and $27 in 2030. And if the lanes get too crowded, the carpooling requirement might be reset to four people per car, said Gary Groat, director of project development for Fluor Virginia, which is behind both the Beltway plan and one of the I-95 proposals.

A HOT lane system opened just last month in Minneapolis; new ones are under construction in Denver and Houston; and other metropolitan areas across the country have in recent months begun discussing such projects in earnest. Maryland planners are now also talking about adding toll lanes to the Baltimore Beltway and I-95 north of Baltimore.