Skeptical about 'congestion pricing'

Drivers traveling the tollway system during crowded rush hours often wonder if they'll ever get to work on time or get home at a decent hour.

So, when a regional planning agency says it wants to test a program that is designed to ease the congestion, most drivers would perk up and say, "it's about time."

Unfortunately, everything comes with a price when dealing with the tollways. And this proposal is far from a promise of shorter commutes. In fact, when piecing it all together, you likely could end up paying more and spending more time getting to work or getting home, depending on the time of the rush hour.

Come again?

That's right. The Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning wants to establish "congestion pricing" along parts of the Jane Addams Tollway (formerly the Northwest Tollway) as part of a test project if federal funding becomes available. Though specifics aren't set yet, one estimate would be to charge 50 percent more at the River Road Toll Plaza and 10 to 20 percent more elsewhere on I-90 during peak times in an effort to reduce traffic between 3 percent and 15 percent.

What does that mean in terms of time? It could cut five minutes for those heading eastbound during rush hour and three minutes per trip westbound.

So, say you have an I-Pass and pay the 40 cents to go through the River Road plaza. You'd pay 20 cents more under this plan in hopes of saving five minutes. Hope is the operative word. Without better alternatives than driving the expressway, there's no guarantee enough commuters would opt to get off I-90 to save you that time.

Let's say you did take an alternative. Either you continue driving, which means you are adding to already-congested suburban highways and roads near the tollway, or you take some form of mass transit.

Commuter trains have always been available and they do get people into and out of the city rather well. But for those who need to get to jobs in the suburbs or travel suburb-to-suburb or don't work or live close to a train station, mass transit right now isn't a great option. In fact, to avoid paying less on the tollways you could likely add significantly to your commute time by having to take multiple forms of transportation in place of driving from point-to-point.

What's the harm in testing this, you ask? Five years ago, when this was first discussed, we said studying it was OK. And apparently it has seen some success in London, where there was a 21 percent drop in traffic under different scenarios. But who believes that the tolls once raised would be rolled back if congestion isn't decreased during a test period?

Exactly.

Because of our skepticism, we believe other options need to be implemented first. Many cities, for example, have dedicated carpool lanes. Building the STAR line, a suburb-to-suburb train system, also needs to come to fruition first.

What we don't want to see is forcing people who can't take a different way to work to pay more to get to their destination while still dealing with commute times that can be unbearable.