HOT lanes across the country?
In addition, to the I-85 Express Lanes, High Occupancy Toll (HOT) lanes are operating or being planned in a number of cities across the country:
- Denver, Colorado (I-25 Express Lanes)
- Houston, Texas (I-10 West Katy Freeway)
- Los Angeles County, California (I-110 Express Lanes)
- Miami-Fort Lauderdale, Florida (I-95 Express Lanes)
- Minneapolis, Minnesota (I-394 and I-35W MnPASS Express Lanes)
- Orange County, California (SR 91 Express Lanes)
- Salt Lake City, Utah (I-15 Express Lanes)
- San Diego, California (I-15 Express Lanes)
- San Jose, California (I-680 Express Lanes)
- Silicon Valley, California (SR 237 Express Lanes)
- Seattle, Washington (SR 167 HOT Lanes)
- Washington, DC (I-495 Express Lanes on the Capital Beltway)
- Salt Lake City, Utah (I-15 Express Lanes Pilot)
*Source: State Road and Tollway Authority
Top 10 toll agencies by mileage
1. Oklahoma Turnpike Authority — 605
2. Florida’s Turnpike Enterprise — 594
3. New York State Thruway Authority — 570
4. Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission — 554
5. New Jersey Turnpike Authority — 321
6. Illinois Tollway — 286
7. Ohio Turnpike and Infrastructure Commission — 241
8. Kansas Turnpike Authority — 236
9. ITR Concession Company LLC, Indiana Toll Road Concessionaire — 157
10. Maryland Transportation Authority — 146
Top 10 toll agencies by revenue (in millions)
1. New Jersey Turnpike Authority — $1,413
2. The Port Authority of New York & New Jersey — $1,330
3. MTA Bridges and Tunnels — $1,227
4. Illinois Tollway — $943
5. Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission — $812
6. Florida’s Turnpike Enterprise — $756
7. Bay Area Toll Authority, Metropolitan Transportation Commission — $670
8. New York State Thruway Authority — $649
9. North Texas Tollway Authority — $572
10. Harris County Toll Road Authority — $560
Source: International Bridge, Tunnel and Turnpike Association (IBTTA), 2013.
Get ready for more toll lanes — here and everywhere.
States are building them as a way to pay for construction and upkeep. And drivers, desperate to escape the gridlock afflicting metro regions, are using them more than ever before.
Federal law prohibits states from tolling existing highways, except for a few “demonstration projects” such as the I-85 HOT lanes. A recent proposal by the Obama administration, however, could change even that, enabling more states to experiment with converting free roads to toll roads to offset the cost of maintaining them.
“There is a growing realization that the whole interstate system — which started being constructed in the late ’50s — over the next two decades will reach its sell-by date,” said Bob Poole, director of transportation policy for the Reason Foundation, a Libertarian think tank. “We have to come up with something, or we’re going to let this incredibly valuable resource fall apart.”
Georgia plans to build a 94-mile network of express toll lanes by 2040. Two mega-projects currently under construction will add 30 miles of reversible toll lanes along I-75 in Cobb and Cherokee counties, and another 12 miles of reversible lanes along I-75 in Henry and Clayton counties.
There’s a key difference between the Georgia projects and nearly every other express-lane toll project in the nation: Georgia’s toll lanes will be built and run by the state, while private companies typically contract with other states to construct and operate their projects.
That means taxpayers here will be on the hook if drivers don’t use the lanes and the expected revenue doesn’t materialize. Unfortunately, traffic and revenue studies are notoriously unreliable, especially when the project involves adding new lanes to a corridor that has never been tolled before. Poole said any professional in the field would agree they’re “always something of a crap shoot.”
“There is risk to taxpayers in the model that is now being followed by Georgia DOT in not shifting that traffic and revenue risk to the private sector,” Poole said. “Certainly, the first year of I-85 (HOT lanes) was touch-and-go for a while.”
Now, however, the HOT lanes have become sufficiently popular that the state is offering incentives to drivers to stay out of them at certain times to keep traffic moving.
‘We don’t really even come close’
The first toll-lanes project in the country opened in 1995 on a 10-mile stretch of SR91 in Orange County, Ca. Now, tollways thread through Seattle, Washington D.C., Houston, Dallas, Salt Lake City, Denver and Miami, among other cities. A majority of the 20 most-congested metro areas have at least one in operation, and more are planned.
The reason: transportation is woefully underfunded, said Robert Puentes, director of the Metropolitan Infrastructure Initiative at the Brookings Institution.
“People assume their car registration, or their gasoline tax pays for the system. But it doesn’t,” Puentes said. “We don’t even really come close. So part of what toll roads help you do is more accurately price the system, so it’s closer to a user fee.”
A report on tolling issued this year said the number of trips on toll roads has increased 14 percent in four years, according to the International Bridge, Tunnel and Turnpike Association. That corresponds with a 9 percent increase in the miles of toll roads available nationwide between 2011 and 2013, says the Federal Highway Administration.
Several toll projects around the country have been notable successes, and some have been notable for other reasons. Here’s a sampling:
State Route 91, Southern California
Construction cost: $135 million.
Concept: Private industry designed, built, financed, operates and maintains it.
Design: Two express lanes were added in each direction through Orange County on one of the most congested freeway corridors in the state.
Comment: A federal report in 2015 said increasing numbers of drivers are using it, helping to offset traffic in the regular lanes. Meanwhile, the project has paid for its construction and operation. It appears poised to yield a favorable rate of return through its lifetime.
I-95 Express in Miami
Cost: $139 million.
Concept: Designed, built and financed by private industry. Operated by the state of Florida.
Design: One high-occupancy vehicle (HOV) lane was expanded to two high-occupancy toll (HOT) lanes in each direction.The first phase of the project opened in 2008.
Comment: So many people are using the lanes that the toll frequently hits its $10.50 ceiling during peak times. The state is now considering raising it to $14 to keep traffic in the lanes from bogging down. Meanwhile, express bus travel has increased fivefold since the lanes were converted to express toll lanes.
I-85 HOT lanes, Gwinnett
Cost: $23.5 million.
Concept: The state transformed existing HOV lanes in each direction into HOT lanes, handling the design, reconfiguration of the lanes and finance. It also operates them.
Design: An existing HOV lane going in each direction was converted into a toll lane and opened in October 2011. Vehicles with three or more occupants may still use it free, along with motorcyclists and alternative-fuel vehicles.
Comment: The project performed poorly in its initial year, but now it is beating both traffic and revenue projections. Average weekday trips have more than tripled from about 7,000 to 23,000 since it opened.
U.S. 36, Denver-Boulder
Cost: $497 million
Concept: Private developers designed and built the U.S. 36 Express Lanes, which will be operated and maintained by the state.
Design: The existing four-lane highway was widened from Denver to Boulder to add an express lane in both directions. The first phase of the project opened this year.
Comment: The U.S. Department of Transportation has hailed the project because it reinvents U.S. 36 into a "multimodal corridor." Besides adding another lane for solo drivers, it incorporates HOV travel and a bus rapid transit system. It also adds a commuter bikeway.
Indiana Toll Road
Cost: $3.8 billion
Concept: The highway opened in 1956, but a partnership between an Australian and Spanish company bought a 75-year lease to operate it in 2006. The ITR was the first long-term lease by a state of an existing public toll road in the United States to a private entity.
Design: A 157-mile highway across northern Indiana.
Comment: The business that holds the lease declared bankruptcy in September. The toll revenue failed to meet initial projections because traffic declined during the recession. In March, an Australian company announced that it reached an agreement to acquire the lease.
South Bay Expressway, San Diego
Cost: $658 million.
Concept: A private developer raised the capital and built the road in exchange for a 35-year concession to operate it and receive the toll revenue.
Design: The four-lane express toll road is a 9.2-mile extension of SR125. It opened in 2007.
Comment: Its operators filed for bankruptcy in 2010. Revenue projections that investors relied upon to finance the project were too rosy. The highway is in an area where real estate was booming, but the Great Recession stalled growth along the corridor. The project was also plagued with litigation costs arising from a dispute with contractors who built the road. San Diego Association of Governments bought the toll road and continues to operate it.
Dulles Greenway, Washington
Cost: $350 million.
Concept: A private company designed, built, financed, operates and maintains the tollway.
Design: The 14-mile private toll road opened in September 1995 and has since been expanded from four to six lanes.
Comment: Early ridership projections fell short, and the owners defaulted on bonds that backed the project. The project was purchased by an Australian firm in 2005. It has been the subject of public scorn because of steadily rising toll rates. In recent years, Virginia state lawmakers have tried unsuccessfully to enact legislation to buy the tollway or force its operator to lower rates.
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