Toll Roads: The Slippery Slope

Tolls/Congestion Fees

Conservative and Libertarian organizations have been on a campaign to convince the public that the solution to America's traffic problems, primarily congestion, is toll roads.

The arguments for toll roads are laced with references to "free market principles," "proper pricing," "supply and demand," and "economic incentives." Most of these discussions have become so obfuscated with nonsensical ruminations that important realities are ignored.

A real market-based system has willing sellers, willing buyers, and reasonably unfettered competition among sellers and among buyers. The limited role of government in this system is to make sure everyone operates under the same rules and that the rules don't give unfair advantage to any one entity.

Ultimately, sellers base their prices on their costs and the demand of buyers who want to buy their products or services. Competing sellers can drive the price down. Competing buyers can drive the price up. It is at once very simple and very complex.

Any highway of any consequence falls flat from the get-go when it comes to market principles. First, highway corridors are not assembled by willing buyers in competition with other willing buyers who must negotiate with willing (and unwilling) sellers who are also in competition with one another. The "state" identifies the corridor it wants, establishes what it considers to be a politically and judicially acceptable price, and condemns the land of those sellers who disagree. This is "market principles" figuratively at the end of a gun barrel.

In the case of so-called "private" toll roads, the state exclusivity grants its eminent domain (power to condemn) authority to the toll road owner. Does this seem like an unfettered private market-based system to you? Let's set aside little glitches like the use of government police power, sole source contractors, and politically determined pricing, and move on to the selling of highway capacity to the end users, you and me.

Toll road advocates argue that those who use the system the most will pay the most. Fair enough, but who determines what the buyers should pay? Is it competing sellers of similar services? Do the buyers really have viable alternatives to buy highway services from other sources?

For all practical purposes, there are no other sellers competing for the buyers' business and the buyers often do not have realistic alternatives if the principal highway corridor is controlled by a toll road. Any resemblance to free market principles is more illusion than fact. What about the aspect of making the users pay for the services (use of the highway) that they receive? The toll road proponents argue that with a system of electronic monitoring devices, charge card systems, smart cards, roadside "readers" and video cameras, they can properly assess charges and "the motorists don't even have to stop at the toll booth."

Compare that to our archaic gas tax system that indirectly charges users of the highway system based on weight (wear and tear on the pavement) and mileage of use, which are reflected in fuel consumption. No charge cards, no electronic surveillance, no cameras, no roadside monitoring (no automated enforcement!), not even any toll booths! This is way too user friendly.

"Not so fast," say the toll minions. With tolls, we can build new roads with new money that wouldn't otherwise be available for highway projects. And, with variable tolls we can ration highway capacity during periods of congestion, thereby reducing the congestion.

First, new highways are not being delayed for lack of money. There are billions of gas tax dollars being siphoned off for non-highway purposes, or covering the federal deficit. New highways aren't being built because there is significant political opposition to new highways. Most new toll roads aren't going to be "new" roads at all. They are going to be existing Interstates or Interstate corridors converted to toll roads.

Using tolls to ration highway use is the same as taxing tobacco to reduce smoking or fining drivers for exceeding speed limits. It is the imposition of a financial penalty to deter a specific activity. Those who can afford to pay, can play. Those who can't, can't. There isn't any semblance of willing sellers competing against one another, buyers with viable alternatives, or a benign state simply keeping the playing field level.

Instead, we have monopoly, arbitrary pricing, social engineering, and the government rigging the rules for political purposes - usually to the disadvantage of those least able to suffer the consequences!

The next obvious question is, "OK, even if toll roads are just another way to extract money from motorists, or implement government priorities, what's wrong with that?"

Anyone who has used the Illinois toll road system knows how badly a toll system can be operated. Traffic jams, toll booth collisions of epidemic proportions, and continual delays as motorists are forced to stop and deposit forty cents every few miles down the road. I marvel that Illinois motorists don't demand this system be legislated out of existence. The Illinois tollway serves as a towering example of just how much abuse motorists will endure, without demanding rational change. But, like other toll roads, the more obvious shortcomings may not be the most important. State transportation agencies will universally deny this, but the evidence is there for everyone to see. Toll roads retard the development and increase the deterioration of the rest of the highway system. Upgrades and improvement to any highway viewed as "competing" with the toll road are postponed or ignored. Unnecessary congestion, underposted speed limits and arbitrary enforcement on alternative roads are silently condoned by transportation officials and elected officials. Think about it, toll roads can't compete without the presence of congestion and motorist inconvenience on the existing highway system. Are these problems going to be effectively addressed if that hurts the income potential of the toll road? Not in our lifetimes!

A major retardant to the expansion of toll roads, besides arbitrary tolls, has been the inconvenience of the toll-paying systems. The advent of new technologies is addressing this bottleneck to toll road acceptance. However, in exchange for removing toll booth inconvenience, accidents, and waste, motorists are being asked to accept incredibly intrusive measures with tremendous potential for governmental and commercial abuse. Adding to the invasiveness of the billing systems is the installation of surveillance equipment that can monitor individual vehicles (or drivers) in terms of their travel patterns, vehicle speed and location, and even emissions component condition. Ultimately, these systems will make photo radar look like child's play. While this type of surveillance will not be confined to toll roads, it is on toll roads where its use will be most easily rationalized.

Toll roads are an inefficient, counterproductive component of our highway system. They foster corruption, political patronage, and detract from needed improvements on the rest of the highway system.

Just because new technology might make toll roads more palatable, doesn't mean toll roads are good public policy.

Toll Roads: The Slippery Slope

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