Toll Control
Brent Finnegan -- March 17th, 2008
Last week, Gov. Kaine signed a bill sponsored by Sen. Mark Obenshain and Del. Todd Gilbert, which requires any private entity from imposing tolls or user fees on “any existing rural Interstate highway” [Interstate 81] without the prior approval of the General Assembly. In other words, legislators voted to give themselves more authority.
But there wasn’t much vocal opposition. rockbridgeweekly.com explains why:
Representatives from diverse interest groups supported the I-81 toll measure. These included the Virginia Poultry Federation, the truckers and manufacturers associations, Shenandoah County, the Greater Augusta Regional Chamber of Commerce and state and local conservation groups, including the Shenandoah Valley Network, Rockingham Community Alliance for Preservation (CAP), Shenandoah Forum and Southern Environmental Law Center.
“The General Assembly’s oversight on I-81 tolls provides an opportunity for our local communities to work with our state legislators to make sure that plans for I-81 aren’t in conflict with local land use plans,” said Kim Sandum of Harrisonburg, CAP executive director. Ms. Sandum pointed to VDOT plans to build an I-81 bypass around Harrisonburg that could pass through the agricultural reserve and the Cross Keys and Port Republic battlefields, all areas earmarked for conservation in the Rockingham County land use plan.
I-81 TOLLS would be terrible.
1.) Pollution.
ALL highway traffic slowed to a near- or total stop in one location all day –creates a pool of stale hazy exhaust air. Some town near toll plazas in NJ and PA have noxious sooty air.
2.) Noise.
Think you can hear the faint drone of I-81 traffic almost everywhere in the Valley already? Wait ’til all truck traffic is loudly engine-braking to a halt before a toll plaza –and then accelerating back up to highway speed moments later. Rather than some trucks snorting sometimes, it will be ALL of them.
3) Safety.
Two things that are dangerous on highways: merge areas and differential speed (mingling of the slow and the fast). One toll plaza puts ALL traffic through two high-volume merge areas across a short distance and also exposes slowing and idling vehicles to incoming traffic moving at highway speed.
Now that we’re used to gas over two bucks a gallon –in fact $3 gas is “cheap” these days, I’d rather pay an extra nickel or dime per gallon to keep I-81 toll-plaza-free. A gas and diesel user fee all along the I-81 corridor (like maybe 40 miles wide) would pay for the needed third lane. The extra money would be worth it to keep the noise and exhaust away. When gas eventually drops down a bit from the current peak, the few extra cents per gallon won’t be much of a hassle. We pay 3.20 now. When gas drops to 3.05 and there’s a no-toll-plazas nickel tacked on, 3.10 is survivable –not fun but we can do it, as current times show.
It’s a shame reporters can’t take the time to call someone knowledgeable at VDOT or elsewhere every time someone from CAP refers to “VDOT plans to build an I-81 bypass around Harrisonburg that could pass through the agricultural reserve and the Cross Keys and Port Republic battlefields.”
Only the word “could” makes it true, and too many readers probably miss that detail. It “could” also not get built, most likely, or, medium likelihood, get built somewhere close to the city on a serpentine path specifically designed to keep it away from open land.
CAP can hardly be blamed for exaggerating the potential negatives of a road they don’t want to see built. That’s how advocacy groups work. But you’d think reporters would have sense enough to take statements like this with a grain of salt.