Steep Increases Set for Toll Roads, Bridges and Tunnels

April 12, 2005
Steep Increases Set for Toll Roads
Moves Affect More Than a Third of Highways, Bridges and Tunnels That
Currently Charge Fees
By DANIEL MACHALABA
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

There is a new bump in the road for commuters already stressed out by
sky-high gasoline prices and gridlocked drives to work. Tolls on more
than a third of the 5,000 miles of highways, bridges and tunnels that
make drivers pay to use them have either been raised during the past
year or are set to increase by the end of next month.

The toll increases are steep and affect millions of commuters on some
of the busiest traffic arteries in the U.S. It now costs $3 -- up from
$2 last summer -- to cross the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge and six
other state-owned bridges in the Bay Area. Pennsylvania socked drivers
with an average price rise of 43% on the Pennsylvania Turnpike, the
fastest route between Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. The New York State
Thruway Authority plans an average increase of 25% for cars and 35% for
trucks starting in mid-May on the 641-mile highway system, the
country's longest toll road. Tolls there will rise as high as $18.50,
from the current $14.70.

Road and bridge officials say the increases are desperately needed to
repair or rebuild thoroughfares crumbling after decades of surging
traffic. Pennsylvania's toll increase last August was its first since
1991. Tolls on the New York State Thruway haven't changed since 1988.

At the same time, the number of vehicles on U.S. roads, including
trucks and buses, has far outstripped the increase in the number of
miles of new roads added. And fuel taxes traditionally used to pay for
highways aren't bringing in enough money to fix existing roads.
Proceeds from toll roads also help subsidize subways, buses, commuter
trains and even the Erie Canal in upstate New York.

"It's a new dawn for toll roads," says Jack Hartman, executive director
of the Illinois Tollway. Proceeds from a 56% toll increase in January
are being plowed into a 10-year project that will replace stretches of
the 274-mile highway network with more-durable pavement, new lanes and
an extension into fast-growing areas southwest of Chicago.

The higher tolls add up to more misery for commuters already battered
by rising gas prices. Average prices for regular unleaded gasoline are
now at about $2.22 a gallon, up 44 cents from a year ago, according to
the Department of Energy.

As a result of the toll increases, Garen Tchopourian expects to spend
an extra $200 over the next year to cross the Throgs Neck Bridge during
his 65-mile round-trip commute to his job as technical director of a
hedge-fund company in White Plains, N.Y. The bridge is one of nine
bridges and tunnels in the New York City area where tolls rose 13% last
month.

"When you put the gas price together with the increase in tolls, it
makes you think twice if you want to get that extra cup of coffee
during the day," says Mr. Tchopourian, who is 36 years old and has a
newborn baby.

The rising toll prices are leading drivers like Betsy Mercogliano, a
childbirth educator in Albany, N.Y., to take other forms of
transportation. Instead of paying about $20 in tolls during the
375-mile drive to visit her parents in Washington, D.C., she and her
husband try to fly. One-way airfares on Southwest Airlines from Albany
to Baltimore/Washington International Airport are as low as $39.

Tolls on the New York State Thruway were supposed to disappear nearly a
decade ago, when the bonds that financed construction of the highway,
which opened in 1954, were paid off. But those plans were abandoned
when state officials decided that they wanted the Thruway, which
carries 230 million vehicles a year, to fund another highway that is
toll-free. Continuing to levy the tolls shifts the burden of
road-maintenance costs to Thruway users rather than to all taxpayers.

Similar cross-subsidy arrangements are common in other states, too.
"It's not fair to make commuters who have to use their cars pay higher
tolls for something they won't use," says Ken Reid of Leesburg, Va., a
leader of a group urging drivers to boycott the Dulles Toll Road in
northern Virginia. The 14-mile road's maximum toll doubles to $3 next
month, with the increase helping to fund a new rail line.

While toll roads represent less than 1% of the 3.9 million miles of
roadways in the U.S., toll roads, bridges and tunnels collect about $6
billion a year, according to the International Bridge, Tunnel and
Turnpike Association. Almost a dozen states are either building new
toll roads, putting tollbooths on existing highways -- or seriously
considering one of those two steps. Legislation that would accelerate
the use of tolls on interstate roads is making its way through
Congress.

For people who want to avoid the toll roads altogether, the costs
aren't insignificant. Typically that can mean a detour onto less-direct
routes that can strand drivers in snail-paced traffic through densely
packed downtowns or sprawling suburbs. The number of cars using the
Pennsylvania Turnpike is down by less than 1% since last summer's toll
increase.

Road officials say they are sympathetic to consumers faced with the
double whammy of rising tolls and gas prices. But they insist there is
no other way to fix problems like the stretch of rough road that forced
Mike Glesk, a strategic-planning consultant from Buffalo, N.Y., to hit
the brakes during a drive on the Thruway with his family last fall.
"I'd expect that on a two-lane back country road but not on a
superhighway," he says.

Michael Fleischer, executive director of the New York State Thruway
Authority, says "simple fixes and Band-Aid solutions are no longer the
right, cost-effective solutions." The impending toll increases will pay
to rebuild entire sections of the highway, he says.

Some toll-road operators are trying to soften the impact of higher
tolls with smaller increases for drivers who pay electronically, using
a transponder mounted on a car windshield that automatically deducts
tolls from a customer's prepaid account. The Illinois Tollway plans to
install overhead devices so that electronic-pay drivers wouldn't have
to use tollbooths.

With no end in sight to the higher tolls spreading across the country,
Michael Lapolla, executive director of the New Jersey Turnpike
Authority, is trying at least to get frazzled commuters to their
destinations a bit quicker. Several toll barriers along the 173-mile
Garden State Parkway, where drivers now pay 35 cents apiece, are being
removed. (To compensate for that, the cost of the remaining tolls will
be doubled.)

Drivers are expected to save as much as five minutes from each stop
that is eliminated. "It's just common sense," Mr. Lapolla says.

TAKING A TOLL

Some of the rate increases on major toll roads around the country

Toll Roads, Bridges and Tunnels Length Toll Hike
New York State Thruway 641 miles 25%*
Dulles Toll Road (northern Virginia) 14 miles 100
MTA Bridges and Tunnels (New York) 13 miles 13
Maine Turnpike 106 miles 22
Illinois Tollway (Chicago) 274 miles 56
Pennsylvania Turnpike 531 miles 43
Kansas Turnpike 236 miles 5
Metropolitan Transportation Commission (San Francisco Bay Area) 32
miles 50

*For cars; truck tolls will rise 35%

In article .com>,
"MrPepper11" > wrote:

> April 12, 2005
> Steep Increases Set for Toll Roads
> Moves Affect More Than a Third of Highways, Bridges and Tunnels That
> Currently Charge Fees
> By DANIEL MACHALABA
> Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
>
> There is a new bump in the road for commuters already stressed out by
> sky-high gasoline prices and gridlocked drives to work. Tolls on more
> than a third of the 5,000 miles of highways, bridges and tunnels that
> make drivers pay to use them have either been raised during the past
> year or are set to increase by the end of next month.
>
> The toll increases are steep and affect millions of commuters on some
> of the busiest traffic arteries in the U.S. It now costs $3 -- up from
> $2 last summer -- to cross the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge and six
> other state-owned bridges in the Bay Area. Pennsylvania socked drivers
> with an average price rise of 43% on the Pennsylvania Turnpike, the
> fastest route between Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. The New York State
> Thruway Authority plans an average increase of 25% for cars and 35% for
> trucks starting in mid-May on the 641-mile highway system, the
> country's longest toll road. Tolls there will rise as high as $18.50,
> from the current $14.70.
>
> Road and bridge officials say the increases are desperately needed to
> repair or rebuild thoroughfares crumbling after decades of surging
> traffic. Pennsylvania's toll increase last August was its first since
> 1991. Tolls on the New York State Thruway haven't changed since 1988.
>
> At the same time, the number of vehicles on U.S. roads, including
> trucks and buses, has far outstripped the increase in the number of
> miles of new roads added. And fuel taxes traditionally used to pay for
> highways aren't bringing in enough money to fix existing roads.
> Proceeds from toll roads also help subsidize subways, buses, commuter
> trains and even the Erie Canal in upstate New York.
>
> "It's a new dawn for toll roads," says Jack Hartman, executive director
> of the Illinois Tollway. Proceeds from a 56% toll increase in January
> are being plowed into a 10-year project that will replace stretches of
> the 274-mile highway network with more-durable pavement, new lanes and
> an extension into fast-growing areas southwest of Chicago.
>
> The higher tolls add up to more misery for commuters already battered
> by rising gas prices. Average prices for regular unleaded gasoline are
> now at about $2.22 a gallon, up 44 cents from a year ago, according to
> the Department of Energy.
>
> As a result of the toll increases, Garen Tchopourian expects to spend
> an extra $200 over the next year to cross the Throgs Neck Bridge during
> his 65-mile round-trip commute to his job as technical director of a
> hedge-fund company in White Plains, N.Y. The bridge is one of nine
> bridges and tunnels in the New York City area where tolls rose 13% last
> month.
>
> "When you put the gas price together with the increase in tolls, it
> makes you think twice if you want to get that extra cup of coffee
> during the day," says Mr. Tchopourian, who is 36 years old and has a
> newborn baby.
>
> The rising toll prices are leading drivers like Betsy Mercogliano, a
> childbirth educator in Albany, N.Y., to take other forms of
> transportation. Instead of paying about $20 in tolls during the
> 375-mile drive to visit her parents in Washington, D.C., she and her
> husband try to fly. One-way airfares on Southwest Airlines from Albany
> to Baltimore/Washington International Airport are as low as $39.
>
> Tolls on the New York State Thruway were supposed to disappear nearly a
> decade ago, when the bonds that financed construction of the highway,
> which opened in 1954, were paid off. But those plans were abandoned
> when state officials decided that they wanted the Thruway, which
> carries 230 million vehicles a year, to fund another highway that is
> toll-free. Continuing to levy the tolls shifts the burden of
> road-maintenance costs to Thruway users rather than to all taxpayers.
>
> Similar cross-subsidy arrangements are common in other states, too.
> "It's not fair to make commuters who have to use their cars pay higher
> tolls for something they won't use," says Ken Reid of Leesburg, Va., a
> leader of a group urging drivers to boycott the Dulles Toll Road in
> northern Virginia. The 14-mile road's maximum toll doubles to $3 next
> month, with the increase helping to fund a new rail line.
>
> While toll roads represent less than 1% of the 3.9 million miles of
> roadways in the U.S., toll roads, bridges and tunnels collect about $6
> billion a year, according to the International Bridge, Tunnel and
> Turnpike Association. Almost a dozen states are either building new
> toll roads, putting tollbooths on existing highways -- or seriously
> considering one of those two steps. Legislation that would accelerate
> the use of tolls on interstate roads is making its way through
> Congress.
>
> For people who want to avoid the toll roads altogether, the costs
> aren't insignificant. Typically that can mean a detour onto less-direct
> routes that can strand drivers in snail-paced traffic through densely
> packed downtowns or sprawling suburbs. The number of cars using the
> Pennsylvania Turnpike is down by less than 1% since last summer's toll
> increase.
>
> Road officials say they are sympathetic to consumers faced with the
> double whammy of rising tolls and gas prices. But they insist there is
> no other way to fix problems like the stretch of rough road that forced
> Mike Glesk, a strategic-planning consultant from Buffalo, N.Y., to hit
> the brakes during a drive on the Thruway with his family last fall.
> "I'd expect that on a two-lane back country road but not on a
> superhighway," he says.
>
> Michael Fleischer, executive director of the New York State Thruway
> Authority, says "simple fixes and Band-Aid solutions are no longer the
> right, cost-effective solutions." The impending toll increases will pay
> to rebuild entire sections of the highway, he says.
>
> Some toll-road operators are trying to soften the impact of higher
> tolls with smaller increases for drivers who pay electronically, using
> a transponder mounted on a car windshield that automatically deducts
> tolls from a customer's prepaid account. The Illinois Tollway plans to
> install overhead devices so that electronic-pay drivers wouldn't have
> to use tollbooths.
>
> With no end in sight to the higher tolls spreading across the country,
> Michael Lapolla, executive director of the New Jersey Turnpike
> Authority, is trying at least to get frazzled commuters to their
> destinations a bit quicker. Several toll barriers along the 173-mile
> Garden State Parkway, where drivers now pay 35 cents apiece, are being
> removed. (To compensate for that, the cost of the remaining tolls will
> be doubled.)
>
> Drivers are expected to save as much as five minutes from each stop
> that is eliminated. "It's just common sense," Mr. Lapolla says.
>
> TAKING A TOLL
>
> Some of the rate increases on major toll roads around the country
>
> Toll Roads, Bridges and Tunnels Length Toll Hike
> New York State Thruway 641 miles 25%*
> Dulles Toll Road (northern Virginia) 14 miles 100
> MTA Bridges and Tunnels (New York) 13 miles 13
> Maine Turnpike 106 miles 22
> Illinois Tollway (Chicago) 274 miles 56
> Pennsylvania Turnpike 531 miles 43
> Kansas Turnpike 236 miles 5
> Metropolitan Transportation Commission (San Francisco Bay Area) 32
> miles 50
>
> *For cars; truck tolls will rise 35%

45 degrees

Am I still the only one that thinks toll booths are the most idiotic thing
mankind has ever devised, and morons have permitted to congest and endanger
our "free"ways?

What the hell is wrong with everyone?

In article says...
> Am I still the only one that thinks toll booths are the most idiotic thing
> mankind has ever devised, and morons have permitted to congest and endanger
> our "free"ways?
>
> What the hell is wrong with everyone?

Tolls are the fairest form of taxation. You use you pay. How can that
not be fair? You don't expect to walk into a store and expect everyone
else to pay for your candy bar. Why should roads and bridges be any
different?

>> Am I still the only one that thinks toll booths are the most idiotic thing
>> mankind has ever devised, and morons have permitted to congest and endanger
>> our "free"ways?
>>
>> What the hell is wrong with everyone?
>
>Tolls are the fairest form of taxation. You use you pay. How can that
>not be fair? You don't expect to walk into a store and expect everyone
>else to pay for your candy bar. Why should roads and bridges be any
>different?

Tolls are an *INEFFICIENT* form of taxation. A large portion of
the tax is needed to pay for collecting the tax (if, in fact, the
tolls collected cover the cost of collecting the tolls: I don't
think that is always the case). How much do you think your electric
bill would be monthly if electricity was (a) billed daily, and (b)
you had to have a separate meter on each individual appliance?

The design of a toll road apparently also uses quite a bit more
land and costs more to build than a non-toll road, according to a
guy with friends at the highway department. Not only are the exits
and entrances larger (and with the toll booths), but you have to
keep the toll road well away from any other roads (like access
roads) to avoid cheaters deciding to make their own exits.
Then there's the cost of people to collect the tolls, and police
to catch cheaters.

Gordon L. Burditt

Mark Anderson wrote:
> In article says...
>
>>Am I still the only one that thinks toll booths are the most idiotic thing
>>mankind has ever devised, and morons have permitted to congest and endanger
>>our "free"ways?
>>
>>What the hell is wrong with everyone?
>
>
> Tolls are the fairest form of taxation. You use you pay. How can that
> not be fair? You don't expect to walk into a store and expect everyone
> else to pay for your candy bar. Why should roads and bridges be any
> different?
>
>
>


Don't the road use taxes we pay when buying fuel accomplish the same
thing? They are an efficient "pay as you go" model. The main problem I
have with turnpikes is that they seem to grow into giant overdone
bureaucracies where a lot of the funds are lost just to keep the
bureaucracies alive.

Gordon Burditt > wrote in
message ...

>>> Am I still the only one that thinks toll booths are the most
>>> idiotic thing mankind has ever devised, and morons have
>>> permitted to congest and endanger our "free"ways?

>>> What the hell is wrong with everyone?

>> Tolls are the fairest form of taxation. You use you pay.
>> How can that not be fair? You don't expect to walk into
>> a store and expect everyone else to pay for your candy
>> bar. Why should roads and bridges be any different?

> Tolls are an *INEFFICIENT* form of taxation.

Only superficially.

> A large portion of the tax is needed to pay for collecting the tax

Its not that large if done properly and that cost should be
included in the toll anyway, particularly with electronic tolls.

> (if, in fact, the tolls collected cover the cost of collecting
> the tolls: I don't think that is always the case).

If they arent, the toll should be increased.

> How much do you think your electric bill would
> be monthly if electricity was (a) billed daily,

You do in fact mostly pay for what
you use. No need to bill for it daily.

> and (b) you had to have a separate
> meter on each individual appliance?

Mindless stuff.

> The design of a toll road apparently also uses quite a bit
> more land and costs more to build than a non-toll road,
> according to a guy with friends at the highway department.

Thats mindlessly superficial. It doesnt add
that much to the total cost of the toll road.

> Not only are the exits and entrances larger (and with the toll booths),

A tiny part of the space occupied by a toll road.

> but you have to keep the toll road well away from any other roads
> (like access roads) to avoid cheaters deciding to make their own exits.

Just use fences/barriers, stupid.

> Then there's the cost of people to collect the tolls,

Only if you use dinosaur tolls.

> and police to catch cheaters.

Should be included in the toll charge.

On Tue, 12 Apr 2005 21:46:36 -0000, (Gordon
Burditt) wrote:

>>> Am I still the only one that thinks toll booths are the most idiotic thing
>>> mankind has ever devised, and morons have permitted to congest and endanger
>>> our "free"ways?
>>>
>>> What the hell is wrong with everyone?
>>
>>Tolls are the fairest form of taxation. You use you pay. How can that
>>not be fair? You don't expect to walk into a store and expect everyone
>>else to pay for your candy bar. Why should roads and bridges be any
>>different?
>
>Tolls are an *INEFFICIENT* form of taxation. A large portion of
>the tax is needed to pay for collecting the tax (if, in fact, the
>tolls collected cover the cost of collecting the tolls: I don't
>think that is always the case). How much do you think your electric
>bill would be monthly if electricity was (a) billed daily, and (b)
>you had to have a separate meter on each individual appliance?
>
>The design of a toll road apparently also uses quite a bit more
>land and costs more to build than a non-toll road, according to a
>guy with friends at the highway department. Not only are the exits
>and entrances larger (and with the toll booths), but you have to
>keep the toll road well away from any other roads (like access
>roads) to avoid cheaters deciding to make their own exits.
>Then there's the cost of people to collect the tolls, and police
>to catch cheaters.

And the costs associated with 5 to 10 mile backups which are there
solely because of the tollbooths.

>> Am I still the only one that thinks toll booths are the most idiotic
>> thing mankind has ever devised, and morons have permitted to congest
>> and endanger our "free"ways?
>>
>> What the hell is wrong with everyone?
>
> Tolls are the fairest form of taxation. You use you pay. How can
> that not be fair? You don't expect to walk into a store and expect
> everyone else to pay for your candy bar. Why should roads and
> bridges be any different?

Sure, only those who use something should pay for it, but EVERY taxpayer
benefits from the highways, whether they drive on them or not. Toll booths
are a horribly inefficient and beauricratic mechanism to collect this tax.
I am simply stunned enough people think this moronic idea is good to permit
them to exist. They are great at creating government jobs; I can see why
governments like them.

If America was REALLY interested in reducing oil consumption, outlaw toll
booths. 10% drop in one day!

Using your logic, ALL roads ought to have a toll booth to be "fair". After
all, why should others pay to have the road maintained in front of YOUR
house?

>> A large portion of the tax is needed to pay for collecting the tax
>
> Its not that large if done properly and that cost should be
> included in the toll anyway, particularly with electronic tolls.

How much do you think that system costs?

They had to DOUBLE the tolls here - and I quote the Metropolitan Authority -
"to pay for the new high tech collection system". And they have the GALL to
call it "SMART TAG".