>Here’s how it works: From 5:30 to 9:30 a.m. eastbound and from 3 to 7 p.m. westbound, Monday through Friday, tolls will fluctuate to maintain a minimum average speed of 45 mph; there is no cap on tolls. Put simply, as traffic increases the toll rises to help manage the vehicles entering the roadway. The tolls change every six minutes.
Seems similar to the "surge pricing" that Uber uses. This actually sounds like a pretty good system for addressing insufficient supply (capacity of the express lanes) -- what's the point of using an express lane if it doesn't actually move traffic along more quickly?
I don't doubt that it's unfortunate to get stuck with a high bill, but that seems like something that will shake out quickly as awareness of how the system works increases.
You may not be from the area but I used to live there and moved about 3 years ago.
The bigger issue is that these people have paid taxes for years to pay for these roads which already exist and are now being told they can't use the road without paying 10x more money. A road they paid for in the first place. This isn't a toll road built which was funded privately and is trying to make a profit.
Minneapolis has a similar system for demand-based pricing on some of our HOV lanes. It usually works pretty well, but the max price is $8 so the model breaks down a bit during extreme traffic conditions.
The difference is that Uber doesn't need a whole bunch of infrastructure to run the surge pricing program; they already have an app, surge is just another algorithm.
But toll lanes need infrastructure that needs to be constantly maintained. Your toll is paying for the times that the toll is not active. And now that the toll gates and whatnot are all setup, it will be much easier for a politician to expand their usage after a few years.
Aside from all that, we have a similar setup in Ontario, Canada. One of our major highways has a "hot" lane, which can be used for cars with 2+ people or by cars with a special sticker you pay monthly for. The problem is, all of the traffic we experience is around the interchanges and off ramps. All of the lanes move very well until you hit an interchange, where there is a flurry of lane changes and everything grinds to a halt. So you'll shave 5 minutes off your commute using the Hot lane, only to waste it all at the interchanges. Then, when you want to get off the highway, you have to sit in a line at the off ramp, and a line at the next few stop lights right after.
Toll lanes are just such a huge farce. It would be much more effective to tax companies that require in-office staff. You want people to drive to work just to sit at a desk and use a computer? Pay up. Use corporate tax to change the commute behaviour.
It would make good economic sense to switch to a utilization tariff for basically all road usage, instead of the current gas tax. The technology is there, with license plate readers and/or RFID toll meters. In practice this would probably look like a $5-50 monthly bill that every registered vehicle owner would get in the mail based on the roads they had travelled on and how congested they were. If we set aside the dystopian concern about tracking, this would definitely lead to a more efficient use of the public roadways and more equitable distribution of the maintenance burden.
Just kidding. This is a brilliant solution, but government doesn't like brilliant solutions. The more you can hide the cost of things, the easier it is to embezzle and/or fund pork barrel projects. I say this being an elected official in a small town. It's embarrassing how much everyone is just looking out for themselves.
My first lesson when I joined the local government was that the situation is just as bad as you thought it was, maybe even worse. Small, vindictive, selfish minds.
Or we can have those that cause damage to the roads actually pay for it, instead of regressively taxing the poor. A semi causes 1,400x more wear on the same stretch of road than a car! [1]
> In practice this would probably look like a $5-50 monthly bill
I divided my state's total transportation expenditures(including fed dollars)[1] by estimated miles driven in 2016[0] and I got 31.5 cents per mile[2]. Is that about the order of magnitude you were thinking? If you drove 5000mi/year that would be about $130/month.
In practice the tax would probably be more successful if setup as a refund, like income taxes. So gas would have a huge tax and you'd get a monthly refund based on your actual miles driven.
> If we set aside the dystopian concern about tracking,
If you carry a cell phone you're already tracked by at least three parties: google/apple, your mobile provider, the nsa.
I think we'd be better off discussing as a society how law enforcement should use this information and passing strong privacy laws to regulate its use than avoiding more efficient taxation.
I think a fuel tax is superior while electric vehicles are still in the minority. Not only are the privacy implications much less severe, but bigger, more damaging and more polluting vehicles pay more per mile. Congestion charging should be zone based rather than road based, because of the perverse incentives that would create for rat runs on otherwise quiet streets. And doing it using concentric zones again decreases the privacy damage.
Why? IMO it would be way better to follow the model used for sales tax and require charging devices to collect a tax for vehicle charging. Historically, it's much easier to tax and police dispensers vs. end users.
Wide-scale road systems are super expensive. Systems like EZ-Pass are only cheap compared to toll operators; the transaction costs are ridiculous and the vendors who operate the systems make a obscene amount of money for a guaranteed slice of a huge cash flow.
This would probably only work in urban areas where you can justify the infrastructure cost. In low-traffic rural areas the gas tax is much more efficient.
>this would definitely lead to a more efficient use of the public roadways and more equitable distribution of the maintenance burden.
Efficient use of public roadways is a sideshow to a well running society which is the big goal which is why all mass transit (like highways) are publicly subsidized to some extent whether profitable or not. Raising the cost of any method of transportation across the board does not further that.
A tax that only poor people are hit strongly by (many here spend more than $50/mo on buying alcohol at bars and other luxuries) hurts far more than it helps. Congestion provides its own congestion charge anyway. Nobody wants to be in a traffic jam or packed into a subway car. Those who can avoid it at a cost (money, time or otherwise) they can justify do so.
I would rather live in a society that has traffic jams (regardless of the medium of said traffic) than one where people get stuck with a reduced quality of life because the cost of getting from A to B is artificially increased so that getting from A to B is more convenient for those who can afford to do so.
Would you support a congestion charge for subways, buses and bike rentals?
Why does all coverage and outrage about this seem to ignore the fact that it used to be HOV ONLY before, and now HOV is still free? A $35 toll is still less than the $125 ticket you used to get if driving alone.
It wasn't always HOV only. It is a road, paid for by taxes which used to be open for all. Then it became one lane HOV, then all lanes at certain hours and now the fees are through the roof.
I agree mostly, but they also increased the time frame that is HOV only. People would use the road very early or very late when traffic isn't bad. Now there is a toll. Since it's demand based, I'd imagine it's not anywhere near 35 bucks, but its probably 2 bucks for a road that is wide open.
As a long time slugline commuter (on 395), I'm not really a fan of the express lanes.
I-66 is already bottlenecked in the morning (267 merge 66, and before crossing the river). Not sure how can they justify charging even $100 to add more cars to that bottleneck during the peak hours.
Problem with the way express lanes are built, even on 495 (northbound), is that the point where the express lanes end, and merge with regular lanes, often are not equipped to handle the onslaught of the express lane traffic into existing lanes.
So all the rosy theories that convince the express lanes supporters are true until the last mile of the express lane, and then it is quite the opposite. The express lanes have a small backup of about half a mile, and the regular lanes often backup a mile or two.
I'm hoping that, with the proposed conversion of I-66 from HOV-2 to HOV-3 due some time on 2019 or 2020, sluglines form along 66 and 267, giving rise to the real rideshare transport system that has benefited those along I-395 for more than 30 years!
This two stage conversion of a HOV-2 in peak directions, to express lanes with HOV-3 is a great tactic to ensure commuters dont get super angry at once! (and surprising that WaPost missed it, unless they didn't ;)
The point is that they set the toll price to eliminate the bottleneck, i.e. to get the traffic flowing at 45 MPH or more. The previous bottleneck was caused by solo drivers who just ignored the HOV2+ restriction.
So you have a new choice, to pay and get a much more efficient and predictable commute.
I suspect that their dynamic tolling algorithm is broken.
I drove I-66 eastbound this morning and the road was nearly empty until about half a mile before the river. Then it turned into stop-and-go traffic. No surprise, since the HOT portion ends and everyone wants to get across the bridge into DC, which dumps everyone out into slow local streets.
It seems like they're trying desperately to limit congestion at this very last part, when it's completely beyond their power anyway. They'll probably have to give up trying to maintain their speed guarantees for the last little bit.
Thats true irrespective of 66 having the express lanes feature/bug. Without fixing the traffic crossing the bridge, everything else feels like a waste of opportunity/money.
"Solo drivers, who before were barred from I-66 during rush hour, can use the lanes if they pay. That includes drivers of hybrid vehicles, which are no longer exempt. Motorcycles and vehicles carrying two or more people have free use of the lanes."
This is a new toll for allowing non-HOV drivers to use the HOV express lane.
This roadway is known as "I-66 Inside the Beltway". It was built in 1982 [1], and runs from I-495 in Dunn Loring/Merrifield in the west to the Theodore Roosevelt Memorial Bridge in the east, and except for short stretches, is generally two normal lanes wide in both directions.
Prior to this most recent announcement, at directional peak times, only HOV-2 vehicles (and special exceptions) were allowed [2]. Similarly, for a few additional hours on either side of the peak time, the corresponding shoulder lane is open for some sections as an additional travel lane.
Now, during peak times, all cars need an E-ZPass-compatible transponder of some sort to enter [3][4]. Outside of peak times, anyone can enter.
If you're HOV-2 and wish to avoid paying a toll, you need a switchable 'E-ZPass Flex', which has a physical switch on it to assert that you're currently HOV. It's largely enforced by the honor system and vigorous police presence. When it gets scanned and asserts that you're HOV, there is no assessed toll and the road is free. If your Flex is set to non-HOV, you get charged the current toll.
If you have a regular, non-switchable E-ZPass transponder, you get assessed the toll, regardless of your vehicle's actual HOV status.
At $690 every four weeks for just one way, I simply don't see how this isn't a land grab of infrastructure for the exclusive use of the rich. At those rates even well paid engineers can't afford the trip. If the round trip cost is the same, we're talking $1380 every four weeks. That's more than rent in most places. At those prices, you could literally hire someone to sit in the car with you for minimum wage and get by cheaper. Hell, for $70 a day, you can have this person wait outside your work for 8 hours a day and you'd still be better off than paying the toll ($60 for 8 hours at $7.50). DC already has a long tradition of "slugs" so maybe this could be the next evolution: slugs for hire. In the desperate society that infrastructure like this creates, that could be a highly sought after job.
"For the rich" is simplistic thinking. $34.50 is the marginal cost (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marginal_cost); in other words, the price paid at the time the decision to use the lane is made. Consider the situation of person who has an early meeting he needs to get to, or a job interview on some particular day that he wants to arrive at on-time. Or a person who needs to get their kid to a tournament on a particular day. Studies show that people of all incomes prefer this sort of thing for these situations (in particular, and perhaps surprising to some, lower income people with multiple jobs who need to get from one to the other on-time), because sometimes you'd rather pay and get something of a guaranteed travel time that risk arriving late. Also, you may choose to only use the lane in the mornings or afternoons, or certain days of the week, etc.
It's a way to fund new infrastructure construction by only charging rich people instead of charging all users (e.g. by raising the gas tax) or everyone (income tax). It removes no options for existing users.
The thing that frustrates me the most about what they're doing in the area is that their public transportation is still terrible.
Try taking the Metro from Vienna to Springfield. You have to get almost entirely into DC, then change lines and come back out. Compare to other systems which are much more efficient.
I believe there would be significant less backlash if the Metro wasn't awful and more people were able to use it reliably without ridiculous wait times.
FWIW, I lived there and hated the metro and seldom used it. The tube in London on the other hand - I wouldn't buy a car if I lived there.
DC's problem, as always, is one of congestion and access. If we sidestep the tax burden ('we paid for it therefore we should be able to use it without charge') issue, there's a fairly typical large-city congestion problem, which is exacerbated by the lack of affordable housing in the immediate area.
The DMV area as a whole, especially the immediately DC-adjacent regions of Maryland and Virginia, is one of the wealthiest areas in the country. There are people commuting into DC from West Virginia(!). There's a fair argument for a congestion charge, as has been implemented in major cities (London and Singapore to name a couple), but the question then is one of access - the Metro (subway) system is good for America, but absolutely abysmal for the population density that it needs to serve. It doesn't help that the population is fairly spread out once you get further out as well.
As a bus rider, I love the toll lanes. They can set it to $1000 for all I care at this point. It makes my ride to work so much faster. It's just too bad that public transit is so fragmented and damaged in California. Anything that allows me not to drive makes the state 10x more livable.
The article mentions price gouging. Usually in that debate, the advantage is it makes efficient use of resources but the disadvantage is it strongly favors rich people.
So I have a partially serious idea: make the toll a function of how expensive your car is. The government is going to record your license plate anyway for electronic tolling purposes, so it can look up the car year, make, and model and from there estimate its value.
The idea being that this probably gives a better signal of who needs to use the toll lane. To a person driving an $80,000 car, a $5 toll is not nearly as big of a sacrifice as it is for someone driving a beater.
Of course, this would be pretty difficult politically, but in principle it's just a progressive tax.
Tedious comment, I know, but with the real title being
"I-66 express lanes debut with $34.50 toll, among the highest in U.S."
And it not being DC's I-66, this title is misleading. If the idea of DC being in the title is that important, use DC Area I-66, but really, it is a Virginia thing happening here, not DC.
[+] [-] dgritsko|8 years ago|reply
Seems similar to the "surge pricing" that Uber uses. This actually sounds like a pretty good system for addressing insufficient supply (capacity of the express lanes) -- what's the point of using an express lane if it doesn't actually move traffic along more quickly?
I don't doubt that it's unfortunate to get stuck with a high bill, but that seems like something that will shake out quickly as awareness of how the system works increases.
[+] [-] sbjustin|8 years ago|reply
The bigger issue is that these people have paid taxes for years to pay for these roads which already exist and are now being told they can't use the road without paying 10x more money. A road they paid for in the first place. This isn't a toll road built which was funded privately and is trying to make a profit.
[+] [-] kevan|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jbob2000|8 years ago|reply
But toll lanes need infrastructure that needs to be constantly maintained. Your toll is paying for the times that the toll is not active. And now that the toll gates and whatnot are all setup, it will be much easier for a politician to expand their usage after a few years.
Aside from all that, we have a similar setup in Ontario, Canada. One of our major highways has a "hot" lane, which can be used for cars with 2+ people or by cars with a special sticker you pay monthly for. The problem is, all of the traffic we experience is around the interchanges and off ramps. All of the lanes move very well until you hit an interchange, where there is a flurry of lane changes and everything grinds to a halt. So you'll shave 5 minutes off your commute using the Hot lane, only to waste it all at the interchanges. Then, when you want to get off the highway, you have to sit in a line at the off ramp, and a line at the next few stop lights right after.
Toll lanes are just such a huge farce. It would be much more effective to tax companies that require in-office staff. You want people to drive to work just to sit at a desk and use a computer? Pay up. Use corporate tax to change the commute behaviour.
[+] [-] kcorbitt|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] secstate|8 years ago|reply
Just kidding. This is a brilliant solution, but government doesn't like brilliant solutions. The more you can hide the cost of things, the easier it is to embezzle and/or fund pork barrel projects. I say this being an elected official in a small town. It's embarrassing how much everyone is just looking out for themselves.
My first lesson when I joined the local government was that the situation is just as bad as you thought it was, maybe even worse. Small, vindictive, selfish minds.
[+] [-] ProfessorLayton|8 years ago|reply
[1] https://www.lrrb.org/pdf/201432.pdf
[+] [-] dmm|8 years ago|reply
I divided my state's total transportation expenditures(including fed dollars)[1] by estimated miles driven in 2016[0] and I got 31.5 cents per mile[2]. Is that about the order of magnitude you were thinking? If you drove 5000mi/year that would be about $130/month.
In practice the tax would probably be more successful if setup as a refund, like income taxes. So gas would have a huge tax and you'd get a monthly refund based on your actual miles driven.
> If we set aside the dystopian concern about tracking,
If you carry a cell phone you're already tracked by at least three parties: google/apple, your mobile provider, the nsa.
I think we'd be better off discussing as a society how law enforcement should use this information and passing strong privacy laws to regulate its use than avoiding more efficient taxation.
[0] https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/policyinformation/travel_monitoring...
[1] http://www.modot.org/about/documents/FinancialSnapshot.pdf
[2] $2,154,365,000 / 6839000000 mi
[+] [-] barrkel|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] NickBusey|8 years ago|reply
Sorry, but that's a pretty large thing to 'set aside'.
[+] [-] ProAm|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Spooky23|8 years ago|reply
Wide-scale road systems are super expensive. Systems like EZ-Pass are only cheap compared to toll operators; the transaction costs are ridiculous and the vendors who operate the systems make a obscene amount of money for a guaranteed slice of a huge cash flow.
[+] [-] dizzant|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] dsfyu404ed|8 years ago|reply
Efficient use of public roadways is a sideshow to a well running society which is the big goal which is why all mass transit (like highways) are publicly subsidized to some extent whether profitable or not. Raising the cost of any method of transportation across the board does not further that.
A tax that only poor people are hit strongly by (many here spend more than $50/mo on buying alcohol at bars and other luxuries) hurts far more than it helps. Congestion provides its own congestion charge anyway. Nobody wants to be in a traffic jam or packed into a subway car. Those who can avoid it at a cost (money, time or otherwise) they can justify do so.
I would rather live in a society that has traffic jams (regardless of the medium of said traffic) than one where people get stuck with a reduced quality of life because the cost of getting from A to B is artificially increased so that getting from A to B is more convenient for those who can afford to do so.
Would you support a congestion charge for subways, buses and bike rentals?
[+] [-] redblacktree|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] dschep|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] sbjustin|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] unknown|8 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] foobarer|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] rhino369|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] calvinbhai|8 years ago|reply
I-66 is already bottlenecked in the morning (267 merge 66, and before crossing the river). Not sure how can they justify charging even $100 to add more cars to that bottleneck during the peak hours.
Problem with the way express lanes are built, even on 495 (northbound), is that the point where the express lanes end, and merge with regular lanes, often are not equipped to handle the onslaught of the express lane traffic into existing lanes.
So all the rosy theories that convince the express lanes supporters are true until the last mile of the express lane, and then it is quite the opposite. The express lanes have a small backup of about half a mile, and the regular lanes often backup a mile or two.
I'm hoping that, with the proposed conversion of I-66 from HOV-2 to HOV-3 due some time on 2019 or 2020, sluglines form along 66 and 267, giving rise to the real rideshare transport system that has benefited those along I-395 for more than 30 years!
This two stage conversion of a HOV-2 in peak directions, to express lanes with HOV-3 is a great tactic to ensure commuters dont get super angry at once! (and surprising that WaPost missed it, unless they didn't ;)
[+] [-] nealmcb2|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] mikeash|8 years ago|reply
I drove I-66 eastbound this morning and the road was nearly empty until about half a mile before the river. Then it turned into stop-and-go traffic. No surprise, since the HOT portion ends and everyone wants to get across the bridge into DC, which dumps everyone out into slow local streets.
It seems like they're trying desperately to limit congestion at this very last part, when it's completely beyond their power anyway. They'll probably have to give up trying to maintain their speed guarantees for the last little bit.
[+] [-] calvinbhai|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] dsp1234|8 years ago|reply
"Solo drivers, who before were barred from I-66 during rush hour, can use the lanes if they pay. That includes drivers of hybrid vehicles, which are no longer exempt. Motorcycles and vehicles carrying two or more people have free use of the lanes."
This is a new toll for allowing non-HOV drivers to use the HOV express lane.
[+] [-] niftich|8 years ago|reply
Prior to this most recent announcement, at directional peak times, only HOV-2 vehicles (and special exceptions) were allowed [2]. Similarly, for a few additional hours on either side of the peak time, the corresponding shoulder lane is open for some sections as an additional travel lane.
Now, during peak times, all cars need an E-ZPass-compatible transponder of some sort to enter [3][4]. Outside of peak times, anyone can enter.
If you're HOV-2 and wish to avoid paying a toll, you need a switchable 'E-ZPass Flex', which has a physical switch on it to assert that you're currently HOV. It's largely enforced by the honor system and vigorous police presence. When it gets scanned and asserts that you're HOV, there is no assessed toll and the road is free. If your Flex is set to non-HOV, you get charged the current toll.
If you have a regular, non-switchable E-ZPass transponder, you get assessed the toll, regardless of your vehicle's actual HOV status.
[1] http://www.dcroads.net/roads/I-66_VA/ [2] https://web.archive.org/web/20171018010139/http://www.virgin... [3] http://www.virginiadot.org/travel/hov-novasched.asp#I-66HOV-...
[+] [-] mnm1|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] l1ambda|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] mikeash|8 years ago|reply
Note that previously it was only the latter.
[+] [-] apendleton|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] sbjustin|8 years ago|reply
Try taking the Metro from Vienna to Springfield. You have to get almost entirely into DC, then change lines and come back out. Compare to other systems which are much more efficient.
I believe there would be significant less backlash if the Metro wasn't awful and more people were able to use it reliably without ridiculous wait times.
FWIW, I lived there and hated the metro and seldom used it. The tube in London on the other hand - I wouldn't buy a car if I lived there.
[+] [-] TulliusCicero|8 years ago|reply
Transportation and housing authorities should be at the metro area level. Lower than that just results in dysfunction.
[+] [-] Tyrek|8 years ago|reply
The DMV area as a whole, especially the immediately DC-adjacent regions of Maryland and Virginia, is one of the wealthiest areas in the country. There are people commuting into DC from West Virginia(!). There's a fair argument for a congestion charge, as has been implemented in major cities (London and Singapore to name a couple), but the question then is one of access - the Metro (subway) system is good for America, but absolutely abysmal for the population density that it needs to serve. It doesn't help that the population is fairly spread out once you get further out as well.
[+] [-] foxyv|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] adrianmonk|8 years ago|reply
So I have a partially serious idea: make the toll a function of how expensive your car is. The government is going to record your license plate anyway for electronic tolling purposes, so it can look up the car year, make, and model and from there estimate its value.
The idea being that this probably gives a better signal of who needs to use the toll lane. To a person driving an $80,000 car, a $5 toll is not nearly as big of a sacrifice as it is for someone driving a beater.
Of course, this would be pretty difficult politically, but in principle it's just a progressive tax.
[+] [-] m-watson|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] harmlessposter|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] distantsounds|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] mikeash|8 years ago|reply