Want to move through traffic?

In the articles I've read, what I haven't seen mentioned is what I believe was the first such effort at this in the U.S. It opened about 1994 and runs parallel to California State Route 91, one of the most horrendously congested highways in the nation, running west from the Riverside County line about 10 miles in to Orange County.

When the lanes opened, tolls during off-peak hours started at about 25 cents and during peak times was about $1.75. By the time I moved away in 2005, the peak was over $5 for that 10-mile trip. And as near as I could see, rising tolls made almost no impact on congestion: Tolls would go up one week and a couple of weeks later, traffic flow was only marginally better than on the free lanes.

Of course this made for a financial windfall for the private owners who were eventually bought out by the county government, who of course raised the tolls.

As bad as this sounds, there are a couple of good lessons to learn from this:

1) Never let private owners control and operate roads. When they do, the road is no longer operated for the public good, but for the financial benefit of owners. The difference in approach is startling.

2) It costs big money to build big roads. If people expect to get on an expressway at 5 p.m. in a major metropolitan area and be able to drive 55 mph, they need to accept the fact that they are going to need to pay for the privilege. And the best way to pay for this is through increased tolls and/or gasoline taxes.

Until the cost of driving starts to reflect the true cost, our roads will continue to fall further and further below our expectations.

Paul Bruno

Gurnee