Posted on 04/26/2017 7:18:45 AM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
Wisconsin’s highways are seriously underfunded. According to the Wisconsin Department of Transportation’s Transportation Fund Solvency report, spending only the $28 billion projected to be available over the next decade will lead to double the number of highway miles in “poor” condition — and will preclude even planning any highway expansions for nearly 40 years. Borrowing enough to spend $31 billion would slightly reduce the amount of “poor” highway miles but still would preclude planning any highway expansions until 2040.
But a second WisDOT report offers a way out. Extensive research done last year for the DOT by the consulting firm HNTB, at the 2015 Legislature’s request, analyzed the feasibility of using toll finance to rebuild and modernize the state’s Interstate highways. Many of these vitally important corridors are nearing the end of their 50-year design life and need to be rebuilt.
A 2011 study that I carried out for the Wisconsin Policy Research Institute estimated that rebuilding and selectively widening all of these urban and rural Interstates would cost $26 billion (in 2010 dollars). If those projects could be financed by toll revenue over the next 20 years, that would free up existing federal and state gas tax dollars to address the shortfall in the rest of the highway system.
The HNTB study did not address the cost of rebuilding the Interstates, but it did make conservative estimates of how much toll revenue could be raised from users of the improved corridors, using all-electronic toll collection (no toll booths or plazas). The study’s mid-range revenue estimate was $29 billion over 30 years at an average passenger car toll of 8 cents per mile. (Tolls might start at 5 cents per mile and be increased annually by the rate of inflation.) Since my $26 billion estimate was in 2010 dollars, the cost might be a bit higher than the projected revenue of $29 billion, due to construction cost inflation since 2010.
Both federal programs have only a few openings. The three-state pilot program has two open slots, because two former slot-holders didn’t make use of them by the deadline that Congress set. Missouri continues to hold its slot, aiming to use toll financing to reconstruct aging I-70 with the addition of dedicated truck lanes.
Both houses of Indiana’s legislature have passed bills that would authorize their governor to apply for one of those two slots. There is serious legislative interest in Connecticut and tolling talk in several other states, including Massachusetts and Rhode Island. If the Wisconsin Legislature fails to act this session, the remaining two slots may be taken this year.
As for the federal Value Pricing Program, it’s a membership program for states that wish to implement variable tolling (having the toll vary with the level of traffic, like a market price, to keep traffic free-flowing). The program also has only two slots available. Only states that are members are eligible to implement variable tolling on a congested urban Interstate. Connecticut and Illinois are both members; Wisconsin is not. That, too, is an opportunity that might not exist by next year’s legislative session.
The Legislature need not decide this session that Interstate tolling is the way to go. But if toll-financed Interstate reconstruction is a serious possibility after further study and debate, Wisconsin’s applying to one or both of these federal programs this spring can be seen as an insurance policy. The HNTB study is more comprehensive and detailed than anything Indiana has done, so an application from Wisconsin is likely to be taken seriously by the Federal Highway Administration.
Tolls are not everyone’s cup of tea, but thanks to its robust tolling program for major highways, Illinois is moving ahead with widening and reconstruction projects comparable to those that are stalled in Wisconsin. High-quality infrastructure is a key factor in business location decisions and economic competitiveness. Wisconsin needs to solve its highway funding shortfall, and toll-financed Interstate modernization is a powerful tool for doing so.
Robert W. Poole Jr. is director of transportation policy at the Reason Foundation, which he co-founded in 1978.
This story was originally published by the Wisconsin Policy Research Institute.
As a relatively new phenomenon VA does have Express Lane tolls. They have “dynamic” pricing, so the 1/2 mile from Point A to Point B could be $0.90 or $3.50, or $4.70, depending on traffic/demand. There’s also a “flex” plan for HOV cars. No toll booths, just electronic recording of entry/exit and somehow (maybe random) passenger counts.
There’s a toll road on I-95 heading towards Richmond, VA and points south (i.e., the Carolinas/GA/FL) and another that is on the VA side of the Capitol Beltway. The I-95 toll, if taken the entire distance (maybe 20-30 miles?), can run $15 or more in prime time.
Given the traffic in this area, sometimes it’s worth paying the high toll. Personally, I stay off the roads as much as I can, especially during rush hour.
“They have “dynamic” pricing, so the 1/2 mile from Point A to Point B could be $0.90 or $3.50, or $4.70, depending on traffic/demand. “
I’ll be darned,I never heard of that———it makes sense.
.
Up until the late 1980s or so, there were tolls on I-95 south of Washington. They existed between Richmond and Petersburg, VA and also in Jacksonville, FL. Furthermore, for many years the section of I-95 between Fort Pierce and Palm Beach Gardens, FL was unbuilt, and the most convenient alternate route was the Florida Turnpike (a toll road).
As for the tolls north of DC, they were grandfathered in, as they pre-date the interstate system.
Personally, I don’t have heartburn over having tolls at major bridges and tunnels, as these facilities are vastly more expensive to build and maintain than are regular surface roads. Thus, I’m OK with the I-95 tolls under the Baltimore Harbor (MD), over the Delaware River (DE-NJ), and over the Hudson River (NJ-NY). The bridge over the Susquehanna River (MD) is a gray area, IMO. But the rest of the tolls ought to go.
Tollroads ... 15 minutes of highway spped, interrupted by 30 minutes in line to toss coins in a bucket, or longer if you did not have the correct change, day or night, good weather or crap.
There goes your gas mileage.
There goes your calculated time of travel to granny’s house
.
First time a snowflake has to open their window in a driving winter snow, or a summer’s not-quite-tropical-storm battering the area, they will freak out like a Southern Californian when the rain comes after washing and waxing the car.
Now, in this day of idiocy on the roads, you get somebody who doesn’t understand the language, holding up the line.
Or .... the automatic toll machine malfunctions, and the gate does not raise?
Gawd, I forgot about the Richmond tolls. Ugh. Could they tie up traffic. Nearly as bad as the Garden State tolls that were placed about every quarter mile. At least today’s tolls are almost all electronic and don’t impede the flow of traffic.
I just tend to stay off the roads during rush hour. I have no business as a retiree being on the roads, congesting them for folks who are still commuting to jobs without alternatives. Of course today a big part of the workforce “telecommutes,” which is great, especially in an area like DC. I also don’t do my shopping on weekends when those same folks have limited time to get their marketing done.
I suspect that if Wisconsin does that, they will use highway-speed electronic tolling with video billing for people without EZ-passes.
The snowflake will get a bill in the mail, open it up and say, “HUH???”
That’s what has been done with the E-470 beltway in Denver. E-470 is the best maintained, best patrolled and best cleared road in snow in the entire metro area. Traffic flow is good and it is being widened before there is a real crunch in rush hour traffic. Costs a little bit but it is a pleasure to drive on. I’m sure the state collects far more in gas tax to maintain the public freeways, but they are in abysmal shape. Maybe we should privatize the whole interstate system, do away with the gas tax and allow free enterprise to take care of our roads. Things would be a lot better.
I wish more retirees were as considerate of working people’s time (or lack thereof) as you are.
Do you really think that a couple cents per mile is enough to pay for the roads?
Since roads are paid for through the general fund then that is where the funds flow through to repair the streets where you are from. Combined with the federal dollars is how your state boot straps its way to the top.
That would be consistent with the boot strap republicans.
But clawing for more public dollars seems fine to them in this situation.
It would be a tradgedy if folks were to pay their fair share of the roads that they use. Where would we send those federal dollars meant for Trasportation waste?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.