CATC: "If you toll more lanes, you get more money."
Study no boon for toll opponents
Analysis of Phase 2 toll plan offers mixed review.
November 14, 2006
By Ben Wear
Austin American-Statesman
Copyright 2006
A long-awaited analysis of proposed Austin toll roads offers little comfort to turnpike opponents — or to politicians looking for a justification to oppose an unpopular second wave of pay-to-drive highways in Central Texas.
The final draft of the report, unveiled Monday to the Capital Area Metropolitan Planning Organization board, says that because of the revenue that tolls provide, making full-fledged toll roads of five Austin roads would ensure that construction could start five to 10 years earlier than the alternatives.
And given those delays, the report by Boston-based CRA International says, the financial value to the community would be greatest with the toll roads.
But Austin City Council Brewster McCracken, a CAMPO board member who requested the study after developing doubts about the tollway plan, saw an opening in the study's findings for his preferred alternative to the Phase 2 toll roads: managed lanes.
Managed lanes, roughly speaking, are lanes built alongside regular expressway lanes that might charge tolls for those driving alone but be free for carpoolers. On the other hand, the $1.9 billion Phase 2 toll road plan (distinct from the first wave of roads now opening) contemplates having tolls on all highway lanes, with free frontage roads alongside.
The five- to 10-year construction difference noted in the study, McCracken said, is irrelevant for at least two of the roads in the plan that are either already completed or nearly complete: sections of U.S. 183 (Ed Bluestein Boulevard) and Texas 71 east of Interstate 35.
The plan also includes a section of U.S. 290 East, short stretches in Oak Hill of Texas 71 and U.S. 290 West, and Texas 45 Southwest, a proposed road.
"All other things being equal, the roads move faster with less congestion under the managed approach," McCracken said, referring to the study's findings that drivers would spend just over 1 percent less time in their cars with managed lanes than toll lanes.
U.S. 183, Texas 71 and any other road with funding already secured, he said, "would be better with managed lanes."
However, the study also says that under the Phase 2 plan, by 2030 the roads would be producing about $46.5 million in excess toll revenue each year that could be used for other transportation projects. With managed lanes, the annual surplus would be at most $8.1 million, the study says.
"I think the study is a roundabout way of stating the obvious, which is that if you toll more lanes, you get more money," said Bruce Byron, executive director of theCapital Area Transportation Coalition. With managed lanes, he said, "you soften the blow on the initial roads, but you make it harder" to pay for additional projects.
McCracken voted for the Phase 2 toll road plan in July 2004, when it came before the 23-member CAMPO board, which is made up primarily of local elected officials and must approve highway projects using federal funds. But McCracken later developed doubts about the information provided to the board by Texas Department of Transportation officials and called for an independent study.
After the Austin City Council was unwilling to provide enough money for the full $300,000 study, other governments (and the toll-road-building Central Texas Regional Mobility Authority) kicked in the balance, and the study commenced about a year ago.
After briefly reviewing the bleak funding situation statewide and nationally, the CRA study attempts to compare the Phase 2 plan to other options, principally that of adding managed lanes.
After a public comment period in December and January and a public hearing at its Jan. 17 meeting, the CAMPO board plans to take up the Phase 2 question at its Feb. 12 meeting.
McCracken predicted Monday that the board will support having tolls on the five roads. But he said the board should seek further information from the state Transportation Department about just how much money is already set aside for specific projects, and when, before deciding whether to go with managed toll lanes or full-fledged toll roads.
© 2006 Austin American-Statesman: www. statesman.com
Analysis of Phase 2 toll plan offers mixed review.
November 14, 2006
By Ben Wear
Austin American-Statesman
Copyright 2006
A long-awaited analysis of proposed Austin toll roads offers little comfort to turnpike opponents — or to politicians looking for a justification to oppose an unpopular second wave of pay-to-drive highways in Central Texas.
The final draft of the report, unveiled Monday to the Capital Area Metropolitan Planning Organization board, says that because of the revenue that tolls provide, making full-fledged toll roads of five Austin roads would ensure that construction could start five to 10 years earlier than the alternatives.
And given those delays, the report by Boston-based CRA International says, the financial value to the community would be greatest with the toll roads.
But Austin City Council Brewster McCracken, a CAMPO board member who requested the study after developing doubts about the tollway plan, saw an opening in the study's findings for his preferred alternative to the Phase 2 toll roads: managed lanes.
Managed lanes, roughly speaking, are lanes built alongside regular expressway lanes that might charge tolls for those driving alone but be free for carpoolers. On the other hand, the $1.9 billion Phase 2 toll road plan (distinct from the first wave of roads now opening) contemplates having tolls on all highway lanes, with free frontage roads alongside.
The five- to 10-year construction difference noted in the study, McCracken said, is irrelevant for at least two of the roads in the plan that are either already completed or nearly complete: sections of U.S. 183 (Ed Bluestein Boulevard) and Texas 71 east of Interstate 35.
The plan also includes a section of U.S. 290 East, short stretches in Oak Hill of Texas 71 and U.S. 290 West, and Texas 45 Southwest, a proposed road.
"All other things being equal, the roads move faster with less congestion under the managed approach," McCracken said, referring to the study's findings that drivers would spend just over 1 percent less time in their cars with managed lanes than toll lanes.
U.S. 183, Texas 71 and any other road with funding already secured, he said, "would be better with managed lanes."
However, the study also says that under the Phase 2 plan, by 2030 the roads would be producing about $46.5 million in excess toll revenue each year that could be used for other transportation projects. With managed lanes, the annual surplus would be at most $8.1 million, the study says.
"I think the study is a roundabout way of stating the obvious, which is that if you toll more lanes, you get more money," said Bruce Byron, executive director of the
McCracken voted for the Phase 2 toll road plan in July 2004, when it came before the 23-member CAMPO board, which is made up primarily of local elected officials and must approve highway projects using federal funds. But McCracken later developed doubts about the information provided to the board by Texas Department of Transportation officials and called for an independent study.
After the Austin City Council was unwilling to provide enough money for the full $300,000 study, other governments (and the toll-road-building Central Texas Regional Mobility Authority) kicked in the balance, and the study commenced about a year ago.
After briefly reviewing the bleak funding situation statewide and nationally, the CRA study attempts to compare the Phase 2 plan to other options, principally that of adding managed lanes.
After a public comment period in December and January and a public hearing at its Jan. 17 meeting, the CAMPO board plans to take up the Phase 2 question at its Feb. 12 meeting.
McCracken predicted Monday that the board will support having tolls on the five roads. But he said the board should seek further information from the state Transportation Department about just how much money is already set aside for specific projects, and when, before deciding whether to go with managed toll lanes or full-fledged toll roads.
© 2006 Austin American-Statesman:
posted by Porkus Maximus Tex: at Tuesday, November 14, 2006
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