$1 a mile: Would you pay?

Another increase for peak tolls on the 91 Express Lanes between Riverside and Orange counties. The Times' David Reyes says the top price is now $9.50 -- or roughly a buck a mile:

Starting today, it will cost drivers as much as $9.50 to use the Express Lanes to get from Orange County to Riverside County — or nearly a buck a mile. The new top fare, up a quarter from the last rate increase in January, places the 10-mile toll road among the most expensive in the country. It has doubled since 2002. Denver-area motorists pay $9.75 on Interstate 470, but that gets them nearly 50 miles. .... Why the increase? Because the toll lanes are too popular, said Kirk Avila, the Express Lanes' general manager. "We have to raise the toll to try to move people to the 'shoulder,' or off-peak hours, where they can save money," he said.

What do you think? Would you pay a $1 a mile? Is it highway robbery? Hit COMMENT and speak out!

Comments

[SteveG]

Both sides have valid points.

The LA DOT, not a private company, should collect the toll road money, and every penny beyond maintenance costs should go to support public transit.

London has done this, and traffic has declined dramatically, while public transit service has improved. The mayor who did it -- "Red Ken"Livingstone -- risked his political career on this scheme, and he's now more popular than ever. He takes from the "I want to drive no matter the cost" rich, supports sustainable, affordable transportation alternatives for the rest of us, AND reduces congestion as well.

Nice, no?

[L Lee]

Here's an ideal, if the toll is too expensive, carpool and share the costs!

[albert]

I like America very much , but I have to admit the level of life around here is dropping drastically over the last few years. The gas prices are to blame partially.
All of the sudden we hear the same response to every question ; State has no money !
Fifth largest economy in the world has no money to fix any of its problems.
This obviosly does not affect parking tickets agency. The number of bloodsuckers has probably tripled in the last few years.

[calwatch]

Except, going by your argument, there would be no bus transit on the roadway, because they inflict the most damage on the roadway with all their passengers and weight. Oops.

[Eichler1]

Allright all you free market true believers, get a clue. Free markets "work" best when the capitalists are able externalize social costs, or pawn off the social costs of their schemes on others.

Allowing the wealthy to pay $1M/mile would definitely affect others. The land used for the highway would be taken away from other uses (i.e. property tax-producing homes or businesses). There also clearly is a cost to the environment with every square foot of extra payment, so more "Lexus lanes" would further harm the environment (through increased polluted runoff, etc).

Before anyone jumps on the bandwagon for toll roads, scrutinize the contracts for toll roads currently in use in Cali. They all (1) have contractual provisions that guarantee profits to the operator, no matter how poor a job the operator does, (2) include non-compete clauses forbidding improvements to "competing" public roads, and (3) eventually give the beat-up road to the state after 30 years, forcing the taxpayers to rebuild what's left. If the so-called free market "works" so well, why do they need such strong protection from competition and guaranteed profits?

The way to pay for maintenance and reduce congestion is to tax gasoline and base the car registration fee not on value but on weight of vehicle. Considering that vehicles damage roadways in GEOMETRIC proportion to their weight, their reg fee should reflect that proportion. To do otherwise is to subsidize the kind of gas gulping, smog spewing behemoths whose very presence on the market relies most heavily on their manufacturers' and sellers' being able to externalize social costs. Hmm, since large/heavy vehicles pollute more than smaller ones, maybe we should tax them on that basis as well. The link between smog and public health problems is easily shown. Let's force the capitalists to internalize these costs and then see how well the so-called free market "works."

[Moses]

Toll roads are elitist and awful right, comrade?

There would be no traffic in a free market. Seriously. Let them charge $1 mile. Great. The profit potential will lead to new roads to finally end the traffic disaster. LA's traffic disaster could not exist if there was a free market.

The only reason its so bad is that we have too many commies who HATE progress, ownership and opportunity. Look at the responses to this article. Why can't someone else pay what they want for use of a private road? If they want to pay $1,000,000 per mile, how does that affect you? Why must you interfere? Is elitism bad? Should we aspire to mediocrity instead?

http://www.stanford.edu/~guptaak/articles/harrison.html

Let the market work.

It costs several MILLION dollars per mile per lane to build roads.

[Tony Ramirez]

I don't believe it! So is this rate increase for needed maintenance? Why do we have the most expensive toll road in the country? Is Mr Avila telling us the truth? Raising prices for CROWD CONTROL? Where does this extra money go? Does the public utility commission have any say? I suspect the Express Lanes need more money to pay the lawyers who are ripping off innocent motorists with bogus thousand dollar penalty fees. I pay lots in highway taxes and should not have to pay more to Mr Avila. Just tell us the truth! California's roads should be free!

[calwatch]

Well, let's be blunt here. The top 10% in this country pay the vast majority of the income taxes and they tend to pay the freight on most of our public and non profit institutions. If they redirect some of the toll road money to free lanes, then I am not going to complain if they have a lane of their own. Or would you prefer they not hire people and make money?

[Mark E. Capron]

Toll road operators need to make all they can now. More and more examples of cheap zero-congestion technology are apparent every day. We won't need tolls to maintain 65 (or even 80) on the 405. The troll will go hungry (if dumb enough to have invested).

Read the story of the Helpful Little Girl at GuardianAngelCars.org to realize how we can spend less and get more.

[Pancho]

Toll Roads: A wonderfully elitist solution. Enjoy!

[Chris]

Yay! Principles of supply and demand at work! Maybe we should try this on other congested highways?! (cough...405.. cough..)

[Richard]

Pay toll to the troll.

If you can't, you're a bum, so get off the road!