by Otis White

Governing.com

Posted Jan. 4, 2005

Mark this in your diary: The great American free ride is fast coming to an end. In the years ahead, the solution to traffic congestion will be toll roads. From San Francisco to Houston, Washington, D.C., to Atlanta, transportation officials have decided that the next great wave of highway construction will come with an explicit price - and sometimes not a cheap one. In Atlanta, some see rush-hour travelers forking over as much as $4.65 to get to work in the future. What's going on here? Part of it is philosophical: Many state legislators, particularly Republicans, have a problem with the free part of freeways. They think people ought to pay in proportion to the public benefits they receive, just as they do for water or electricity. But they recognize that Americans have grown up with the idea that roads are more like air than water, so most of the toll road ideas being pitched these days are for new lanes that people can purchase passage on for a quicker ride to work. But there's economics at play here, too. Road construction is dauntingly expensive and urban construction even more so because the land for adding lanes isn't available. Hence, many of the urban expansions will be elevated - toll lanes stacked atop existing highways - and, not surprisingly, these elevated lanes are more expensive than grade-level ones. Result, said one Atlanta-area official: "There's simply not enough money" to pay for road expansion out of existing gasoline taxes. There's yet another factor: Some states, such as Georgia, have opened the door for private companies to build and manage toll roads, including new lanes on existing highways, and these companies are busy building legislative and bureaucratic support for these projects. And what do commuters say? Many are appalled by the idea of paying to drive, but advocates say they'll get used to it. They point to how Americans warmed to cable television, which charges for programming people once expected for free. And that's not the only example, said one Texas legislator who's pushing toll roads. People, he said, "are not mad someone is charging two bucks for bottled water."

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