California toll tax ( Route 91) : 77.5 cents per mile
OPINION: Getting there
Fort Worth Star-Telegram
Copyright 2005
Getting around Texas was once pretty simple. Not anymore.
Not with more than 22 million people in the state -- double the number in 1970 -- and most of the population clustered in several teeming metropolitan areas.
Not with the average North Central Texas motorist stuck in traffic for 60 hours a year as a result of gridlock created by 6 million humans living in a 16-county region that is gaining 150,000 people a year.
In simpler times, as Texas' population grew gradually, the state routinely added new highways and farm-to-market roads.
Motorists were far more likely to encounter a wayward armadillo than gridlock, a term unknown to Texans during the glory days of the American automobile and state highway expansion in the mid-20th century.
But to those attending the Aug. 9-12 Texas Transportation Summit at the Omni Mandalay Hotel in Irving, it was obvious that getting around isn't so simple anymore.
For increasingly crowded North Central Texas, it seems clear that our transportation system in coming years will include more toll roads, commuter rail and light rail lines, and express buses.
There also could be high-speed intercity trains sprinting between Texas' major metropolitan areas at 200 or more miles per hour -- either "bullet trains" such as those in France and Japan or magnetic levitation ("maglev") trains such as one in China that can top 265 mph.
Already, many Fort Worth-Dallas motorists regularly decide between taking a clogged "free" road or opting for a faster toll road that could lighten their wallets a buck or two.
They also might, on parts of a few freeways, have a choice of using a less congested high-occupancy vehicle (HOV) lane if they have a passenger.
In the future, they'll have a more complex array of options, as noted by transportation experts at the summit.
More "managed lanes" are clearly in the works, both on major Metroplex highways and in other highly urbanized areas of the state. These are designated lanes where the traffic is "managed" in specific ways -- for example, by creating express toll lanes in which a motorist can pay to avoid bogged regular traffic lanes.
A managed lane also can be one dedicated exclusively to a certain type of traffic, such as express buses hauling commuters or 18-wheeler freight trucks segregated from passenger vehicles on interstate highways.
You also can expect to see "congestion pricing" in the future -- higher tolls for driving on busy roads during peak traffic hours. But you might enjoy a lower toll, or no toll at all, if you travel in a car with one or two additional people.
At one summit session, an official with the Orange County Transportation Authority in car-choked Southern California shocked some listeners by explaining that a motorist on state Route 91, a road serving Orange and Riverside counties, could pay a toll up to $7.75 for only 10 miles of driving during peak traffic hours.
That's 77.5 cents per mile! Yikes!
But we might see such tolls in the Fort Worth-Dallas area someday if we don't improve our road system, expand use of mass transit and develop our communities intelligently to encourage less vehicular traffic.
Traffic on Route 91 has been increased by skyrocketing home prices in California, said Orange authority official Paul Taylor.
"One thing that's going on in Orange County is that people can't afford to live there anymore," he said. "In Orange County, the median home price is about $600,000 . . . in Riverside County, to the east, the median home price is about $400,000, which is relatively affordable."
More people are commuting from homes in Riverside County to jobs in Orange County via Route 91.
At another session, featuring heads of Metroplex public transit agencies, it was obvious that Fort Worth and Tarrant County are far behind Dallas and surrounding cities when it comes to providing bus and rail transit that will help reduce future traffic congestion and air pollution resulting from continued population growth.
The Fort Worth Transportation Authority, or "the T," has an annual operating budget of $44.8 million -- one-seventh the size of the $306.5 million operating budget for Dallas Area Rapid Transit.
Moreover, the T's capital budget of $45.4 million is about one-sixth of DART's $272.4 million capital budget.
The T, funded predominantly by Fort Worth through a half-cent sales tax, logs an average of about 21,500 passenger trips each weekday on buses and the Trinity Railway Express commuter rail.
DART, funded with a penny sales tax from Dallas and 12 other cities, registers nearly 200,000 passenger trips daily.
Officials in the western half of the Metroplex need to redouble their efforts to work together -- as well as with leaders in the eastern half of the region -- to establish the stronger public transit services and road systems that will be crucial to coping with future congestion.
Individuals can contribute by making decisions that will help thwart gridlock and air pollution -- driving more fuel-efficient cars, using public transit and living closer to their jobs.
If all drivers do their part, we're much more likely to avoid those $7.75 tolls that some California residents are paying to travel a mere 10 miles.
Fort Worth Star-Telegram: www.dfw.com
Fort Worth Star-Telegram
Copyright 2005
Getting around Texas was once pretty simple. Not anymore.
Not with more than 22 million people in the state -- double the number in 1970 -- and most of the population clustered in several teeming metropolitan areas.
Not with the average North Central Texas motorist stuck in traffic for 60 hours a year as a result of gridlock created by 6 million humans living in a 16-county region that is gaining 150,000 people a year.
In simpler times, as Texas' population grew gradually, the state routinely added new highways and farm-to-market roads.
Motorists were far more likely to encounter a wayward armadillo than gridlock, a term unknown to Texans during the glory days of the American automobile and state highway expansion in the mid-20th century.
But to those attending the Aug. 9-12 Texas Transportation Summit at the Omni Mandalay Hotel in Irving, it was obvious that getting around isn't so simple anymore.
For increasingly crowded North Central Texas, it seems clear that our transportation system in coming years will include more toll roads, commuter rail and light rail lines, and express buses.
There also could be high-speed intercity trains sprinting between Texas' major metropolitan areas at 200 or more miles per hour -- either "bullet trains" such as those in France and Japan or magnetic levitation ("maglev") trains such as one in China that can top 265 mph.
Already, many Fort Worth-Dallas motorists regularly decide between taking a clogged "free" road or opting for a faster toll road that could lighten their wallets a buck or two.
They also might, on parts of a few freeways, have a choice of using a less congested high-occupancy vehicle (HOV) lane if they have a passenger.
In the future, they'll have a more complex array of options, as noted by transportation experts at the summit.
More "managed lanes" are clearly in the works, both on major Metroplex highways and in other highly urbanized areas of the state. These are designated lanes where the traffic is "managed" in specific ways -- for example, by creating express toll lanes in which a motorist can pay to avoid bogged regular traffic lanes.
A managed lane also can be one dedicated exclusively to a certain type of traffic, such as express buses hauling commuters or 18-wheeler freight trucks segregated from passenger vehicles on interstate highways.
You also can expect to see "congestion pricing" in the future -- higher tolls for driving on busy roads during peak traffic hours. But you might enjoy a lower toll, or no toll at all, if you travel in a car with one or two additional people.
At one summit session, an official with the Orange County Transportation Authority in car-choked Southern California shocked some listeners by explaining that a motorist on state Route 91, a road serving Orange and Riverside counties, could pay a toll up to $7.75 for only 10 miles of driving during peak traffic hours.
That's 77.5 cents per mile! Yikes!
But we might see such tolls in the Fort Worth-Dallas area someday if we don't improve our road system, expand use of mass transit and develop our communities intelligently to encourage less vehicular traffic.
Traffic on Route 91 has been increased by skyrocketing home prices in California, said Orange authority official Paul Taylor.
"One thing that's going on in Orange County is that people can't afford to live there anymore," he said. "In Orange County, the median home price is about $600,000 . . . in Riverside County, to the east, the median home price is about $400,000, which is relatively affordable."
More people are commuting from homes in Riverside County to jobs in Orange County via Route 91.
At another session, featuring heads of Metroplex public transit agencies, it was obvious that Fort Worth and Tarrant County are far behind Dallas and surrounding cities when it comes to providing bus and rail transit that will help reduce future traffic congestion and air pollution resulting from continued population growth.
The Fort Worth Transportation Authority, or "the T," has an annual operating budget of $44.8 million -- one-seventh the size of the $306.5 million operating budget for Dallas Area Rapid Transit.
Moreover, the T's capital budget of $45.4 million is about one-sixth of DART's $272.4 million capital budget.
The T, funded predominantly by Fort Worth through a half-cent sales tax, logs an average of about 21,500 passenger trips each weekday on buses and the Trinity Railway Express commuter rail.
DART, funded with a penny sales tax from Dallas and 12 other cities, registers nearly 200,000 passenger trips daily.
Officials in the western half of the Metroplex need to redouble their efforts to work together -- as well as with leaders in the eastern half of the region -- to establish the stronger public transit services and road systems that will be crucial to coping with future congestion.
Individuals can contribute by making decisions that will help thwart gridlock and air pollution -- driving more fuel-efficient cars, using public transit and living closer to their jobs.
If all drivers do their part, we're much more likely to avoid those $7.75 tolls that some California residents are paying to travel a mere 10 miles.
Fort Worth Star-Telegram:
posted by Porkus Maximus Tex: at Sunday, August 21, 2005
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