Posted on 06/19/2018 11:09:49 AM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
Use of the MoPac toll lanes has been steadily growing in the seven months since the lanes opened throughout their entire 11-mile lengths, but it is falling slightly short of a first-year estimate made before construction began.
Revenue from the added lanes on each side of North MoPac Boulevard, due to variable toll rates that on average have been higher than expected, has at least met expectations this spring and could exceed them when the agency begins in earnest to pursue unpaid tolls.
“I wouldn’t be surprised to see the numbers bump up a bit” as collections efforts step up, said Mike Heiligenstein, executive director of the Central Texas Regional Mobility Authority, the MoPac toll lane operator.
The toll lanes averaged about 39,700 toll transactions each weekday in May — a driver might incur one or two transactions on a single trip — a figure that has steadily climbed from about 29,200 per weekday in January. That is about 5 percent below the 41,600 transactions predicted in a “traffic and revenue” study done by a mobility authority consultant in 2011.
But weekday transactions exceeded that predicted figure six times in May. And, after an expected summertime slump, assuming continued growth similar to what happened in recent months, toll lane traffic could move above the target this fall.
As for what drivers are experiencing on the road, the authority’s figure indicates that those willing to pay at rush hour are saving up to 25 minutes on a single trip. As drivers who had been using alternative routes during construction have returned to MoPac, though, the free lanes are now seeing little noticeable improvement from what they were experiencing before and during the road’s expansion.
(Excerpt) Read more at mystatesman.com ...
You can’t pay me to go to that lib hell hole of Austin much less contribute to their tolls.
Tolls never go down. They go up and that money goes to sh*t that it was never intended for. All one has to do is see what a stinking racket tolls are in Pa,NJ and NY. I would say privatize them but then the a-hole Chicoms or a Mideast Billionaire buys them just like our ports. This country is pretty messed up.
What excuse was used to FORCE putting a Toll on a road that was already built ?
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.