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A Future Free From Gridlock, For a Price
Critics of the concept said express toll lanes set up two classes of travelers: those who can afford to pay their way out of congestion and those who can't.
Trip Pollard of the Southern Environmental Law Center, which has studied these types of deals, said it is vital to provide rapid bus service on the highways so everyone can benefit. "We don't want it to be the case where if you can pay you get a decent commute and if you can't you're stuck in traffic," Pollard said.
  Robert L. Flanagan says toll roads are the only way to pay for fixes. (Bill O'leary - The Washington Post) |
Maryland plans to begin construction of its first express toll lanes, on Interstate 95 north of Baltimore, in the next several months, and the state's plan for the intercounty connector linking Montgomery and Prince George's counties follows the express toll model.
These projects will be paid for and operated by the state, but Flanagan said Maryland would seek private investors for future toll lanes, including those being studied on Interstate 270 and the Beltway.
Maryland and Virginia also recently announced plans to jointly study building express toll lanes on parts of the Beltway that include the Woodrow Wilson and American Legion bridges.
Few states are as aggressive as Virginia in wooing the private sector. The state has signed a $900 million deal with a construction consortium to build high-occupancy toll lanes -- a version of express tolls that allows carpoolers to ride free -- on part of the Beltway, and the state is moving rapidly toward a similar $913 million deal with the same developers to build them on a 56-mile stretch of I-95 and I-395. Both could open by 2010.
At the same time, Virginia is one of the first states to consider leasing existing highway assets, such as the Dulles Toll Road, to private investors who would pay the state a lump sum in exchange for 50 years of toll revenue. State officials announced last week that they are considering four proposals valued at more than $1 billion to operate the Dulles Toll Road, some of which include adding express toll lanes. The state would be free to use that money for whatever it chose, although it probably would go toward a Metrorail line to Dulles International Airport and other projects in the corridor.
The result could be a region filled with roads -- and even sections of roads -- controlled and managed by any number of different companies.
"To our eye it will appear queer," said C. Kenneth Orski, editor of the Innovation Briefs transportation newsletter and an early champion of express toll lanes. But in other countries, "you come to a sign saying this segment of the auto route is being operated by such and such company, and 80 miles later you come to a sign that says this toll road is operated by another company, and it's seamless."
There are concerns, though, that companies with competing interests will lead to confusion for drivers and ever-increasing tolls as firms look to maximize profits.
"There are some very real technological and pricing issues," said Virginia Transportation Secretary Pierce R. Homer. "One of the things the region and commonwealth are looking at is some sort of umbrella or oversight group to make sure all the different pricing serves the public good."
Many of the companies that pioneered deals in Europe and Asia, where express highways are common, are targeting the Washington area.
