How much would you pay to avoid traffic jams on your daily commute? $10? $20? How about $40?
That's how much a tollway in the Virginia suburbs of Washington, D.C., charged for a short time last week. Outraged commuters call it highway robbery.
But transportation officials say the high-priced toll is less about money and more about changing commuter behavior and reducing congestion, and commuters all across the country might soon see more tolls in the future.
The 10-mile stretch of Interstate 66 from the Northern Virginia suburbs into the District of Columbia is like no other road in the country. It was built in the early 1980s for carpools and buses to use during rush hour. Over the years, officials have opened it up to hybrids and a few other exemptions, and in recent years, scofflaw single drivers violating the high-occupancy-vehicle-only law helped choke the road with gridlock.
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When you make 6 figures or more.....
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely ridiculous. I ended up on that road once when I was a younger driver and didn't know what it all meant since I was not from the area. My sister, who I was visiting laughed at me. I got away with it.
ReplyDelete10:02: The road has been there for years but the express toll was installed just a couple years ago, so you weren't too much younger. What did you get away with?
DeleteThe highway trust fun failing to control costs hmmmm sound familiar. It is preposterous to charge tolls. Tax money paid for the highways in the first place. When does it ever end?
ReplyDeleteThat area is insane when it comes to traffic.
ReplyDelete12:30am the answer to your question would be even higher taxes. I would rather the people who are willing to pay more pay it then for me to pay more for something I don't need.
ReplyDeleteThis is about to be how your internet works thanks to you folks
ReplyDelete8:27. Us folks? I think you are referring to the Republican head of the FCC. You have no clue, do you? You blame "us" all the time, but you don't even know what you're blaming "us" for. Figure it out, and stop trolling!
DeleteAnd we complaine about traffic.
ReplyDelete8:27 as it should. Why should I pay extra for a service I don't want or need.
ReplyDeleteYou folks done don't understand purpose for tolling that road. The road was HOV from the day it opened. After more then 30 years of not being able to 100% enforce that restriction, tolling was put in place to allow the HOV violates to pay to use the road.
ReplyDeleteSBJ