Drivers Stuck in a Catch-91

The 91 Express Lanes connecting Orange and Riverside counties through Santa Ana Canyon is fast becoming a roadway for “high rollers.”

It’s already one of the most expensive tollways in the country. But next month the price of a rush-hour ride to Riverside in the fast lane will rise again. The 50-cent boost will take the toll to $4.75. There will be smaller increases for off-hour and weekend travelers (and prepaid monthly subscribers pay much less), but this is the seventh increase in tolls in the last five years.

Unlike a business that is loath to increase prices lest it drive customers away, the more successful the toll lanes, the more cars they attract, and the greater the incentive to raise tolls. That’s because the increased traffic clogs the lanes, reducing speeds and making the tollway less attractive.

So, the road operators contend, to keep traffic free-flowing, tolls must rise (which doesn’t explain why off-peak and late-night rates are rising too). Higher tolls dump more cars back onto the clogged public lanes, slowing them even more.

The maddening part for motorists caught in this congestion cycle is that the state and counties can’t do much to ease the growing congestion because of the “no competition” clause built into the original agreement. That clause, designed to attract private operators for toll roads, prohibits the state from making improvements, such as more free lanes, near the toll lanes if they will draw customers away from the tollway.

The Legislature passed a bill that would have made it harder to use the noncompetition approach, but unfortunately Gov. Gray Davis vetoed it this month, saying it would eliminate opportunities for public-private partnerships to meet future growth needs.

On the local level, the city of Corona and Riverside County have separate legal actions challenging the agreement between the state and 91 tollway operators. The Orange County Transportation Authority is considering buying out the private Express lanes, or at least the controversial noncompetition clause.

In the meantime, commuters on the Riverside Freeway suffer the consequences of the state’s folly each day when they face the poor choice left to them. It’s either pay the increasingly high toll or steer onto the state-sponsored congestion of the creep-and-crawl, bumper-to-bumper public lanes that can’t be improved. Commuters shouldn’t be in this bind.