Politics and Policy Why I Oppose Toll Lanes (June 13, 2006) * It appears that the Washington State Dept. of Transportation is getting ready to impose tolls on the state highways. Presumably this includes interstate highways in urban areas. I just received an e-mail notice to attend one of their "information sessions". The only one in the Seattle/Everett area will be held during the evening on Mercer Island. I think that is an interesting choice of locations, it probably says a lot about which direction they are going on these proposals. Mercer Island is one of the wealthiest zip codes in the Seattle area. My guess, from reading the e-mail notice, is that it won't be an "input" session so much as an "output" session - they are going to demonstrate how "easy" it will be for them to charge tolls based upon some electronic devices that you can install on your car. For those of you who are not from Western Washington, transportation is always a big issue in this state. Seattle is hemmed in with the Puget Sound to the west, Lake Washington to the east, and only Interstate 5 and old Highway 99 going north-south through this corridor. On the Eastside, where Bellevue/Redmond/Kirkland have been booming with the expansion of Microsoft and other techie firms, Interstate 405 wraps around Lake Washington going north/south, with the major east-west arterials being the I-90 and Washington 520 bridges across the lake, connecting the Eastside to the Seattle area. Development has been pushed pretty far east of that, to Issaquah, and North into eastern Snohomish County. I've lived in this area since 1979. When I arrived there were regular commutes of an hour or so each way to get anywhere, and there was lots of talk about the public transit plan which was recently voted down. That may have been the last chance they had to get Federal funding - since then the Federal pot has been rather dry. There have been multiple subsequent plans, the most recent of which created a regional Puget Sound Transit agency for the coordination of buses and light rail. But while just about everyone agrees that their needs to be a fix to the problem, that is all they agree upon. Nobody can agree on the right mix between cars, buses, light rail, heavy rail, or monorail. On top of that, there are some very vocal citizen groups which can effectively stall any project. One consists of residents of the Mountlake neighborhood, where wealthy residents have repeatedly filed lawsuits (or threatened to do so) anytime an expansion of the 520 bridge is proposed. Since many of the residents are lawyers, their threats are taken seriously. In addition, a very vocal anti-tax movement has effectively eliminated much of the highway transportation budget which previously had relied upon annual car-tab renewal fees. Those same people are the ones who insist that the Dept. of Transportation can make do with what they have, that funds should only be used for highway expansion (not public transit systems), and that tolls be used to make only the people using the roads to pay for them. Finally, a lot of voters in rural Eastern Washington believe that their taxes are going to support massive transportation in Western Washington, which they see no need to support (I won't get into that analysis here - just accept that they believe it). So the Dept. of Transportation is left trying to find funds to do something with the problem. It's a pretty big problem, too. Boeing has included transportation delays as one of the drawbacks of keeping manufacturing in the region, and if Boeing isn't happy, then unemployment rates could rise. In the meantime, engineers have pointed out that the roadbed of Interstate 5 has reached the end of its designed life, and it is handling traffic many times greater than it was ever designed to handle. Simply put, it will need to be rebuilt within the decade. Many of the major bridges in Washington State are also nearing the end of their life without a major refurbishment and rebuilding. The biggest wild card to be thrown on the table was the realization that the double-decker highway which carries State Highway 99 through downtwon Seattle will have to be replaced almost immediately, as it will probably collapse in the next earthquake (as did the ones in Kobe, Japan and San Francisco, california). So the State Dept. of Transportation is looking at adding toll lanes to the highway system. The idea is, if they can fund it from people willing to pay extra for the priviledge of driving in the toll lane, then wouldn't everyone be happy? Not me. I've got some fundamental objections to toll roads. The first is that I have seen them in operation in Florida, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Tokyo. They slow down traffic even further for the toll collection process. Residents figure out how they can avoid paying the tolls by taking side streets - sometimes turning residential streets into arterials in the process. They make taking a simple local trip an exercise in budgeting, sometimes sending shoppers to the outer suburbs instead of downtown, just to avoid paying the tolls. In short, they change human behavior in ways which are not always anticipated, and with consequences which may be more expensive than the tolls which they collect. But more importantly, I don't like the idea of turning public highways partially private. While the rest of us are stuck in traffic, those who have more money are allowed to zip buy in the toll lanes. State Highway Patrol vehicles will exand their duties to make sure that none of the untermensch try to buck the system and slip into the toll lanes without the correct toll-collection system or sticker in place. It reminds me a bit of the officers on the Titanic, threatening to shoot the steerage passengers who are trying to save themselves by breaking through the gates to the first-class areas. It also reminds me of Russia, where a recent article said that more than 5,000 vehicles had purchased permission to display blue lights and sirens which effectively excused them from the traffic laws. See Russians resist braking for blue-light big shots. Like the campaigns for charter schools and school tuition waivers, the real danger is that it will create a self-perpetuating dual-segregated system. Those who can afford to pay the tolls will see no need to make other improvements in the public transportation system, and actively campaign against taxes to support them. Why should they - it doesn't effect them! It used to be that Washington drivers would honk and cheer when they saw a Lexis, Mercedes, or BMW pulled over for violating the HOV lanes. In the future they wont' be able to do that - those drivers will be able to drive in those lanes with impunity, without bothering to have another passenger in the car beside them. Posted by RHP6033   Sponsors        Copyright 2006-2007 - Brookridge Associates Inc. All rights reserved.