Area transportation officials are developing a plan to combat the Washington region’s mounting traffic congestion and funding shortfalls with a mammoth new system of toll roads spreading across almost every major local roadway.
The National Capital Region Transportation Planning Board, an organization of dozens of local, state and federal transportation officials and elected leaders, is set to meet Wednesday to discuss a years-in-the-making plan that could guide major changes and additions to the area’s road network for the next 20 years.
“Congestion is a major threat to the economic vitality of the region and the quality of life its residents enjoy,” says a report outlining the toll road plan developed by the planning board and the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments.
The plan would create a 1,650-mile network of “variably priced” lanes on the Capital Beltway, Interstates 295, 395 and 66, the George Washington Parkway and other thoroughfares.
If the plan goes forward, drivers using interstates and highways anywhere around Washington would have to pay, with rates varying depending on the location and time of day. The plan does not suggest actual toll rates.
The pay-to-drive system would provide a new revenue stream for area transportation agencies, and would reduce traffic, according to the planning board’s studies. And, if the network is widespread, usage prices could be kept low.
The new tolls would mimic the collection systems being installed on the Intercounty Connector toll road, linking I-270 and I-95, and high-occupancy toll lanes on the Beltway.
The plan also includes a 500-mile rapid transit bus system, which would share the new toll roads.
The planning board’s vision for a vast network of revenue-generating highways is still far from approved, but local transportation officials say action must be taken to ease traffic congestion and improve the quality of area roads.
“There’s a fundamental problem with the usage of roads, and that is they’re offered as a free good. And if you have a free good you have a shortage,” said Chris Zimmerman, a member of the Transportation Planning Board who also headed a task force to examine the workability of widespread tolling.
Zimmerman said a widespread toll system could be the solution to the area’s congestion problems. But he wasn’t sure if there could ever be enough public and political backing to push the plan forward.
“How bad do things have to get for people to be willing to reach for new solutions? I don’t know,” Zimmerman said.
