Report Suggests New Tolls For Region

According to the report, the most comprehensive tolling network would raise $2.75 billion a year, increase transit use by 6 percent, boost carpool rates by 4 percent and result in a relatively small -- 1.2 percent -- increase in vehicle miles traveled, which is how traffic planners measure the amount of driving.

Arlington County Board member Chris Zimmerman (D), who leads the Northern Virginia Transportation Authority and is chairman of the Metro board, agreed that a tolling system would work best if it was comprehensive.

Underscoring the difficulty of securing funds for Washington area transportation projects, Zimmerman is currently wrangling with state lawmakers over $300 million in local taxing authority that was ruled unconstitutional by the Virginia Supreme Court.

Toll proponents say users should pay for the true cost of highways. Unlike traveling by Metro or airplane, users can take roads for free, and there is no financial incentive to reduce unnecessary trips, adjust timing, carpool or use transit. Roads in the region are so overused that they no longer operate dependably.

Under a toll system, "You would get a bill every month, depending on how much you use the highway system, just like any other utility," said Zimmerman, a member of the committee that issued the report. "It would operate like a regular market with market efficiencies," he said.

"My worry is that we would do something piecemeal, which I think the study shows would not be effective," Zimmerman said.

On that point, Zimmerman is not optimistic. Unlike London, Stockholm or Manhattan, which have or are considering congestion tolling, the Washington area is covered by three jurisdictions -- two states and the District -- plus the federal government.

The National Park Service is already on record as opposing the tolling of parkways, saying such action might be illegal and is impractical; the parkways already have problems handling large sport-utility vehicles, let alone a heavy increase in transit buses.

And it doesn't take much imagination to envision local elected officials trying to exempt their local roadways from the tolling network.

"It's worth talking about all of it," said D.C. Council member Phil Mendelson (D-At Large), who is also chairman of the National Capital Region Transportation Planning Board. "But I think it will be a decade before we get there."

Said Virginia Secretary of Transportation Pierce R. Homer: "We can't leave any funding options off the table, but we have to be realistic. These are not easy problems to solve."

Jack Cahalan, spokesman for the Maryland Department of Transportation, described the report as a "visionary exercise" that doesn't take into account cost, regional politics or citizen solutions.