Title : OF TOLL ROADS AND AND THE PUBLIC GOOD
link : OF TOLL ROADS AND AND THE PUBLIC GOOD
OF TOLL ROADS AND AND THE PUBLIC GOOD
THE TOLLIFICATION OF AMERICA
Well, I finally ordered a new E-Z Pass transponder the other day after having been notified that I failed to pay a toll on Interstate 66 (unbeknownst to me) on our way out to the Virginia mountains for an extended weekend visit. I'm no stranger to E-Z Pass having used it for decades on my frequent weekends out to our place (used to be "our" place; post divorce, "not mine") on Maryland's Eastern Shore since the Chesapeake Bay Bridge is a toll facility. But I got gob-smacked this time traveling out of town on Route 66 - an interstate I've used for several decades - and suddenly discovered that part of it has become a toll road. During rush hour as the electronic signage informed me. I had no idea that this had happened and was surprised since I use 66 to get out to Dulles Airport quite frequently. Back in the 1970's I commuted using 66 to get to my job out in Manassas, Virginia, where the Interstate then ended, (it now ends at the West Virginia border) since it begins at the end of Constitution Avenue next to the National Mall. I travel out to the suburbs infrequently and no longer out to Maryland's beautiful Eastern Shore so I didn't think I needed a E-ZPass since D.C. has no toll roads.
The $7.50 fine was fairly generous since if you get a parking ticket here in D.C. it's a week's worth of groceries at $50 bucks. Virginia has gone toll crazy in recent years but since I don't travel the Beltway all that often or Interstate 395 out past the Beltway so it didn't concern me. But here's my problem. Once again what we are seeing is the monetization of everyday life in America, a phenom we've been experiencing - and increasingly so - for around three decades now. It's the "nobody gets a free ride" market economics that have infected virtually every single aspect of life in 21st Century America. Used to be that the Interstate Highway System introduced by Ike Eisenhower back in 1956 as a defense measure - trucking tanks and other war vehicles efficiently around the country was the justification - but has actually become one of the greatest boons to interstate commerce ever devised.
In 1956 there was a nationwide ethic that some things - national defense, public education, and the Interstate Highway System - were "public goods" meaning that they benefited not only the users but were a benefit to the nation as a whole. (How much more would towels and toasters and washing machines cost if it weren't for the efficiency of the Interstate Highway System?) Fast forward to 2018 and we no longer speak in terms of "the public good" although we are still willing to fork over $700 billion annually to support our national defense with nary a protesting peep. But this shifting responsibility from the general public financing of public infrastructure with general tax revenues and more and more towards individuals with new fees and tolls and bumped up admission fees to our National Park System, has become so commonplace that we no longer even question the idea that tuition at State University Systems now averages $25,600 across the U.S. for out of state students and just under $10,000 for in-state tuition.
In today's Washington Post is an article about how Maryland residents - not as toll happy as Virginians - are opposed to Republican Governor Larry Hogan's $9 billion project to add four lanes apiece to the Capital Beltway, Interstate 270 and the Baltimore-Washington Parkway — is even opposed by voters in the Washington suburbs, whom the plan is supposed to help. More than half of voters in the D.C. suburbs prefer to invest in public transit rather than building more roads. (The article is here if you're interested: MD RESIDENTS OPPOSE TOLL PLAN) Maryland's suburban residents don't think that building more roads will lead to less congestion. When I first moved to D.C. Interstate 395 from Downtown D.C. through suburban Virginia to the Washington Beltway, was a four lane, divided highway. Today it has four lanes southbound, four lanes northbound, two HOV lanes and most recently the new tolled HOT LANES. So from two lanes to 12 lanes one would think that traffic congestion would have been eliminated. But it hasn't been. Still congested especially during rush hours and now from construction delays.
Here's the breakdown:
But no matter where this proposal winds up, now I'm prepared. Most the of "Hot Lanes" that I know of here in the D.C. Metro are, do not have cash lanes or attended booths. Many are "manned" by overhead electronic cameras that record your passage through and automatically deduct your payment from your transponder. But, hey, no more will I get caught by some camera on some newly instituted toll road that I wasn't aware of. Ah, the joys of life in the 21st Century!
Take Care!
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