Toronto is thinking of doing a "big dig" similar to Boston's. They say it will only cost about $1.4 billon. I believe Boston's cost about $15 Bn. I think the cost will run right up and they will try to get it back with tolls.
Is road pricing about to take off?
By: Drivers.com staff
Date: Sunday, 10. December 2006
In many parts of the North American continent, roads are in a state of decay. Governments at all levels are having a tough time figuring out what to do about it. Some of the emerging solutions are political hot potatoes.
Traditional methods of raising funds - such as gasoline taxes, licensing fees - can't keep up these days. The trend to fuel efficient vehicles such as hydrogen fuel cell and hybrids adds to the problem since they curtail growth in tax revenues.
Some solutions?
Road tolls are high on every government's list. They range from simple tolls on road sections to High Occupancy Tolls (HOT lanes), which allow single occupant vehicles to use lanes designated for high occupancy vehicles if they pay for the privilege. A recent innovation - electronic tolling - makes exacting payment for travel on roadways an even more attractive prospect for highway administrations.
Another solution, and a very controversial one, is the public-private partnership, which allows private corporations to take over some of the functions which were formerly the exclusive domain of government. A prime example is highway 407 north of Toronto in Ontario, Canada.
Billed as 'the world's first all-electronic, open access toll highway," it was built by the province of Ontario to take pressure off highway 401. The 401 highway runs about 500 miles (800 km) from Windsor, Ontario (just across the river from Detroit) all the way to Montreal, Quebec, and the some 50 km stretch that passes just north of metro Toronto is reckoned to be one of the busiest highways in the world.
Highway 407 opened to traffic in June 1997, and tolling commenced in October 1997. In 1999, the Ontario Government privatized the highway, giving a 99-year lease to 407 International, a consortium 61% owned by the Spanish Grupo Ferrovial, a corporation that specializes in the financing, maintenance and management of transport, urban and services infrastructure. The consortium paid about US $2 billion for the deal.
In 2003, 407 International reported a loss of about C$75 million on earnings of about C$240 million (about US$ 170m). Since 2001, kilometers traveled on the highway are up by about 25%. In June, 2005, the highway had a one-day record of 413,687 trips.
A good deal?
Many transportation experts consider the highway 407 privatization as a very bad deal for the people of Ontario. Critics have described it as a ploy by the government in power to balance the books prior to an election. One critic reckoned the deal was so bad it would poison the public will for the adoption of tolling technology and road pricing.
The latter point could be an important one. Public authorities everywhere are looking to tolls and road pricing for salvation. They may have a tough job convincing a public soured on the idea by bad deals and rates they consider exorbitant. After all, North America has a grand tradition of free road use.
However, increasingly, there is public recognition that those who use roads most should pay more. Now, technology offers the promise of making that possible and fair to a degree that was unimagined until recently.
Fuel taxes served the nation well for many years, wrote US Federal Highway Administration Executive Director F. G. Wright in a recent editorial for Public Roads magazine, but, he pointed out, a new course for financing highway infrastructure will have to be charted in the very near future.
Fortunately, Wright says, there is surprising public acceptance of road pricing, especially when electronic tolling is used and drivers don't have to stop to pay. However, electronic tolling has its problems, especially when allied to privatization.
Vehicle license denied
Some users of Ontario's Highway 407 were enraged recently when the provincial government agreed to deny annual vehicle license plate registration to drivers who had defaulted on payments of electronic tolls billed through the mail.
The idea of a government acting as a collection agency for a private corporation has major question marks attached to it, particularly when the system doesn't work well. A number of defaulters of highway 407 billing claimed that they were being invoiced for bills they had already paid, and this is a problem that is not exclusive to highway 407 users.
E-Zpass, an electronic toll collection system used in many northeastern states, has had similar complaints. One Virginia motorist complained that the Maryland Transportation Authority (MTA) threatened to suspend his auto registration if he didn't pay a $7 bill for tolls on Interstate 95. The motorist said he noticed that the electronic tolling had not acknowledged his transponder. He paid the bill he later received in the mail, but the MTA didn't acknowledge the payment.
The motorist says he received a second letter threatening to suspend his automobile registration and levy an additional $100 if he didn't send another check - this despite the fact that his bank records showed that his original $7 check had been cashed by the MTA.
An Ontario motorist with a similar complaint about a highway 407 toll bill is angry that she may not be able to renew her license plate, even though her complaint against the tolling authority is still unresolved.
All these difficulties notwithstanding, road pricing is on the way, and it's a brave new world. Global Positioning System (GPS) tracking, Radio tags (RFIDs) that send info about you and your vehicle to local radio networks, video camera surveillance, electronic scanning of license plates - all these technologies are being used today and they point to a future in which vehicles can be charged very precisely for their road usage.
Every road may eventually be priced according to factors such as time of day, type of vehicle and maybe even the user's track record.
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Mack,
Dan,
You're right about 407. They charge admin fees that bring the cost of a trip way up. However, they now have a lease on the roadway for 99 years and exclusive right to toll all that traffic. By the way, it's the same company that got the concession on the Chicago Skyway - A Spanish-Australian consortium.They say their costs are in line with other similar toll roads.
ed shuman,
This is about the 407 I am from Boston I travel up to toronto to visit family about 1 time per year. In each of the last 2 years i have made the mistake of getting on that 407 electronic highway. There are no toll booths! there is nobody to talk to! But they are very effient at sending out outragious bills. I would love to pay them for use of the road that they have invested but not @ $8-10 for a 5? KM. use of road. I'm thinking of staying out of ontario so i don't get arrested. What a stupid system!!!!!!!!!!
