Thanks, dear readers, for your engagement in the toll road stories we’ve been cranking out over the past few days. It’s a big story, with implications for state and national policy makers as well as the balance in your checking account.
It’s also a big story because there are so many angles to it, and so much that could be addressed in any given story. To address a few angles I’ve skimmed over, I spent some time over my not-quite-strong-enough morning coffee. If I’ve left out something you think important, let me have it in the comments.
Will the higher prices simply cause more drivers to avoid the tolls? Judging from our comments by readers like you, the answer to that is a resounding yes. But as I noted in an earlier story, NTTA’s expert believe the revenue boost will more than compensate for the folks who opt out of the toll roads. That’s certainly a position the Regional Transportation Council has held for years, which has urged NTTA to raise its rates for years. But there’s other evidence, too. I spoke to Walter Lowe yesterday. He’s the one quoted as in the shorter of today’s stories, saying that he and his wife already pay $160 a month for tolls. “If you raise the tolls, we will be forced to abandon the tollway completely. We just can’t afford it anymore.” But he also told me that driving on Highway 121 saves his wife 30 minutes each way, every day. And his commute would be lengthened by about 20 minutes. For now, he said, they’ll simply have no choice but to suffer the longer commute–a $50 increase in tolls is simply more than their budget can bear in these times.
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