Highway bill could pave way toward more tolls on interstates

Boston Globe |  April 10, 2005
By Alan Wirzbicki

WASHINGTON -- A provision in the $284 billion highway bill under consideration on Capitol Hill could open the way for more tolls on the nation's congested interstates, marking a departure from long-standing federal highway policy that has traditionally frowned on collecting tolls to pay for roads built with federal tax dollars.

Under the transportation bill passed by the House of Representatives last month, states would be allowed to convert overall up to 25 segments of the interstate highway system into toll roads over the next six years. The Senate is expected to vote on similar legislation this month.

The proposals, backed by the Bush administration, would ''greatly expand state tolling authority" over roads that were constructed with federal dollars, said Darrin Roth, the director of highway operations for the American Trucking Association, which opposes the changes.

Currently, only highways such as the Massachusetts Turnpike that were begun before the establishment of the free interstate system in 1956 can collect tolls.

The proposal marks a response to the growing clamor among state highway officials that the federal government's gas tax of 18.4 cents per gallon is no longer enough to fund the nation's transportation needs. Congress has little appetite to raise the tax, leaving tolls as one of the few remaining funding options for road builders.

''Gas taxes are deemed something we can't touch. It's political suicide to add a gas tax," said Neil Gray, a spokesman for the International Bridge, Tunnel, and Turnpike Association in Washington. ''In that bind, what are your options? You can't do nothing."

Backers of the proposed legislation envision states adding toll lanes with less traffic next to existing free highways, giving motorists a choice, but opponents say the bill could also allow states to simply turn existing interstates into toll-only roads.

While only one state, Virginia, has specifically requested permission to charge tolls on a stretch of Interstate 81 in the Shenandoah Valley, the spread of technology for Fast Lane and EZ-Pass has eased concerns about safety and congestion around toll plazas and made tolls more attractive to highway officials.

Both the House and Senate legislation mandate that any new tolls would have to use Fast Lane or a similar device.

In New England, Connecticut lawmakers are considering charging tolls on I-95 for the first time since 1985, and other congested Northeastern states could be tempted to take advantage of the tolling proposal if it clears Congress.

A Boston city councilor recently proposed charging commuters for entering the downtown area, and state Representative Joseph F. Wagner, chairman of Massachusetts' Joint Committee on Transportation, has said that the Commonwealth needed to consider tolls as a way of meeting its highway needs.

Some states have also expressed interest in using electronic tolls to adopt ''congestion pricing," a practice already in use in some parts of Europe that aims to encourage motorists to drive during off-peak hours by lowering tolls during off-peak hours.

On one stretch of highway near San Diego that uses congestion pricing, tolls vary from as low as 50 cents in the middle of the night to $8 when the highway gets particularly congested.

By providing an incentive to drive outside of rush hour, Gray said, ''you're spreading the peak."

''It doesn't even matter if you make money," he said. ''If you can make the roadway operate more rationally, that's what you're looking for."

In March, the US House of Representatives defeated an amendment that would have required such lanes to become free once their costs had been recouped in tolls. Instead, under the House bill, states that adopt congestion pricing would be allowed to keep it as a mechanism to fight congestion and fund other transportation projects.

<< HOME