Thinking on Tolls Turns a Corner

Toll roads have traveled a good distance in the public’s imagination since the days in the late 1980s that they were portrayed in legislative debate as a symbol of Eastern decadence. California, with its sprawling infrastructure and ambitious system of higher public education, was growing on the fuel of egalitarian sentiments.

Times have changed. Today, Orange County has set the pace for the state in new thinking about how to get roads built in tight times. Already in this decade, the San Joaquin Hills Transportation Corridor and a portion of the Foothill Transportation Corridor, both overseen by quasi-public agencies, and the privately financed 91 Express Lanes, have demonstrated a range of alternatives to the traditional freeway.

The recent assessments of key legislative leaders in Sacramento, Larry Bowler (R-Elk Grove), a member of the state Assembly Transportation Committee, and state Sen. Quentin L. Kopp (I-San Francisco), chairman of the Transportation Committee, suggest that the toll road is the way to go. These sentiments are fueled by the success of the early Orange County ventures and by such economic factors as the increased price of road construction and the decrease in gas tax revenue. While the new roads have relieved traffic, some, like state Senate President Pro Tem Bill Lockyer (D-Hayward) see in the demise of the free road a sign of division between haves and have-nots. As this debate plays out, the Orange County experience offers some lessons in process.

First, environmental concerns are likely to arise and must be dealt with in a forthright manner. During the debate over the San Joaquin Hills toll road, federal officials raised significant concerns. These existed alongside protests registered by an increasingly vocal local population. The latter group joined the debate late, in part because some of the roads were approved before many of the people who were destined to live with them moved in.

Second, concerns about overdevelopment need to be taken seriously. A 1995 report by a consortium of public and private agencies raised important warnings about the environmental and economic ramifications of excessive sprawl, to which new roads contribute.

Third, oversight of the supervising agencies is needed. The Transportation Corridor Agencies’ controversies over excessive bonuses, perks and salaries was one warning; another was the need to look out for the taxpayers in such things as toll collection contracts.

In general, those proposing new roads must demonstrate that the need for them will outweigh the drawbacks. They must enlist the public in the planning. And they must attend fully and quickly to environmental concerns.