Tolls Seen as Road to Expansion

For generations, California drivers have taken for granted that state government would guarantee their seeming birthright to free use of a vast highway system.

But Orange County’s experiment with toll roads, where drivers are paying from 25 cents to $2.75 for the privilege of driving to and from work more quickly, is fueling a new vision of the future.

With hundreds of millions of dollars in highway projects still unfunded, an increasing chorus of state transportation officials and elected leaders are viewing toll roads as a major part of the next era of highway expansion in the ever-growing state.

“It portends the way things are going to go,” Assemblyman Larry Bowler (R-Elk Grove), a member of the state Assembly Transportation Committee, said of Orange County’s two newest toll roads, the San Joaquin Hills Transportation Corridor and the California 91 Express Lanes. (A third toll road, the Foothill Transportation Corridor, is partially open and expected to be completed in 2003.) “People’s minds are being changed by the experience of people in Orange County.”

State Sen. Quentin L. Kopp (I-San Francisco), chairman of the state Senate Transportation Committee, agrees.

“I think there will be more toll roads,” Kopp said, “because toll roads are a solution.”

The problem they solve stems from recent changes in the state’s economy. Historically, highway construction was financed by state and federal gasoline taxes, which drivers pay at the pump. In recent years, however, two developments have drastically altered the funding picture: The price of road construction has skyrocketed, and gas tax revenues have decreased significantly.

The dip in revenues began in the 1970s, according to Mehdi Morshed, a consultant for the state Senate Transportation Committee, when severe gas shortages sparked a major national effort to increase fuel efficiency. The effort succeeded; cars used to average 10 miles per gallon, now many get at least 22.

“All of a sudden,” Morshed said, “for the same number of miles that people were driving, we were getting half the amount of revenue, while the cost of construction kept rising 8 to 9% a year. Revenues went down and expenditures went up. That’s why we’re in the soup.”

So transportation officials began thinking about paying for new roads by charging people to drive on them. On the national level, the discussion gained new impetus this month with President Clinton’s unveiling of a $175-billion plan for funding the nation’s highways over the next six years. Included in his plan is a proposal that states be permitted to charge tolls on interstate highways and use the money to improve their transportation systems.

Although no one in California is proposing tolls on existing freeways, they are talking seriously about building toll roads--encouraged by the numbers they see.

About 45,000 cars a day now traverse the San Joaquin Hills Transportation Corridor, a number that is increasing by about 3% per week. Carol Kelly, a spokeswoman for the California Highway Patrol, said the San Joaquin “has tremendously relieved” traffic problems on the Santa Ana and San Diego freeways.

On the 91 Express Lanes, about 26,000 drivers a day are paying between 50 cents and $2.75 to shave 20 minutes off the 10-mile commute along the Riverside Freeway between the northern tip of the Costa Mesa Freeway and the Riverside County line. California Private Transportation Co., which operates the fully automated toll road, has declined to release growth or revenue figures until next month. Late last year, however, the company increased tolls to reduce crowds that were slowing the rush-hour commutes.

“We’re very pleased that it’s caught on as fast as it has,” said Greg Hulsizer, the company’s general manager. “We’re very pleased at the way the motorists have embraced the concept of choice, of being able to choose whether they want to save time by using the toll road or use the general freeway.”

The road’s success has spawned at least two studies of its “congestion pricing,” a system charging higher rates during peak hours to encourage drivers to either carpool (and pay nothing) or drive at different times.

One of the studies, being conducted by the Orange County Transportation Authority, is designed to help officials decide whether to build high-occupancy toll lanes along existing freeways--lanes that are free to car-poolers but cost everyone else a toll.

The other study is being underwritten by Daimler Benz, the German car company that makes Mercedes-Benz.

“We’d like to totally understand whether it works, how it works and what is the public response,” spokesman Holger Spielberg said. “If this concept proves to be working, I would think it’s very likely that it would spread throughout the world.”

The toll road concept has spread to San Diego County, where a private consortium is developing plans for an 11-mile toll road connecting Otay Mesa near the Mexican border to Route 54 farther north. Transportation officials in nearby Imperial County also are eyeing tolls as one way of funding a new road near Calexico. And transportation officials throughout the state are stirring interest in Sacramento by discussing the feasibility of toll roads.

Assemblyman Bill Morrow (R-Oceanside) said toll roads “have certainly gotten the attention of people down here. I think it’s an innovative thing that ought to be considered. I think what’s occurred in Orange County has been as a positive success, and it’s only natural that this may be the wave of the future.”

Not everyone is enamored of the idea, however.

State Sen. Bill Lockyer (D-Hayward), one of the state’s most outspoken critics of toll roads, says that he opposes anything that chips away at the concept of free roads, one of the last things shared equally by the rich and the poor.

“I think they are a polite form of highway robbery,” Lockyer said. “I don’t like special roads being developed for richer people, while ordinary people put up with potholes and congestion.”

Some drivers agree.

“It’s a little pricey,” Patricia Forsgren of San Juan Capistrano said. “If everything is going tollway, I’d like to see a reduction in my taxes.”

Most, however, seem to be gamely accepting the idea of paying tolls as a necessary aspect of their California lifestyles.

“I love it,” Joanna Davitt, a legal secretary from Monarch Beach, said of the toll road she uses almost daily. “It’s expensive, but when you measure that against the frustration of being stuck on the freeway, it’s worth it. It’s cheaper than therapy.”

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The Road Ahead

During the past 15 months, Orange County has opened three toll roads. Both the 91 Express Lanes and the San Joaquin Hills Transportation Corridor have both been deemed successes. In fact, the 91 Expressway has raised fees in hopes of leveling demand. The Foothill Transportation Corridor is open, but some construction continues. Where the roads are and how much it costs to drive on them:

California 91 express lanes toll: 50 cents to $2.75

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Foothill Transportation Corridor toll: 75 cents

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San Joaquin Hills Transportation Corridor toll: 25 cents to $2

Source: Times reports