'Lexus Lanes': 91 Leads the way

At up to $9.25 a ride, the 91 Express Lanes have their critics. But President Bush is apparently a booster of the kind of toll roads pioneered on the 91 Freeway. His budget contains $130 million in grants for road projects that rely on "congestion prices." According to the NYT:

Congestion pricing — the concept of charging higher fees to consumers for a good or a service at times of heavy use — is well established in businesses like hotels, long-distance phone service and air travel. And while London and Stockholm have successfully enacted plans that levy fees on drivers who want to enter traffic-clogged city streets, the United States has been slow to apply the concept on the roads. .... There are a few congestion-pricing experiments in the United States today. On a portion of California Route 91, in Orange County, drivers can choose between the free road and the less-traveled pay-per-drive adjacent lanes, in which tolls vary throughout the day and throughout the week. Driving eastbound in the express lanes at 4 p.m. Thursday costs $9.25, compared with $1.85 at noon the same day.

The new toll roads on the almost completed in San Diego will charge significant less than the 91 Express Lanes. But that could change if they are popular.

The WSJ asked two economists to debate the merits of the so-called "Lexus Lanes"

Comments

[ubrayj02]

Toll roads are not "congestion charging".

Geroge Bush is trying to help a group of Wall Street banks/consulting firms rake in money that should be going into public coffers.

There is a Mother Jones article about this scheme to lease publicly funded highways at incredibly low prices, and rent them out to motorists at what amount to massive markups.

Here is a link to that Mother Jones story:
http://www.motherjones.com/news/feature/2007/01/highwaymen.html

[Pete McFerrin]

toll roads will only exacerbate the congestion

As someone who studies transportation for a living, let me assure you that you're completely wrong. Increased tolling will actually pull people out of single-occupancy cars and put them in carpools, vanpools, buses, and trains.

This "Lexus Lanes" stuff is garbage, BTW. OCTA commissioned a study a couple years back that found that the leading users of the 91 Express Lanes were working women from households with incomes on the order of $60-80k. Makes sense: even $9.25 is a lot cheaper than what the typical day care provider charges when you're a half-hour late because you got stuck in a traffic jam. The "Lexus Lanes" are really the "Mommy Motorway."

[R. Russell]

For what do we pay taxes? Usually the answer is roads and infrasructure. Death, taxes AND tolls! At least, at one time, you get something (other than bombs) for your billions. There is no practical alternative form of transportation available. As usual, the cure is worse than the disease, with dollar signs acting as blinders to common sense. Is this crazy economics a religion to these people?

[dalivision]

Toll roads by the current administration in Washington D.C. continues to use private contractors and to enhances its people who contribute to campaigns. What is needed is to look at all alternatives. Taking people out of their cars will necessitate trains, buses, or other means but toll roads will only exacerbate the congestion.

We do not need more roads, we need buses (lots of them) and trains or trolleys to move people out of their cars and off the roads.