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Highway tolls, commuter taxes called ‘nonstarters’
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WASHINGTON (Map, News) - Northern Virginia congressmen who helped fund a study of congestion on the 14th Street Bridge are calling a suggestion to charge commuters entering the city a “nonstarter.”
Federal highway administration officials unveiled 43 suggestions to reduce traffic in the busy corridor between Crystal City and downtown Washington during public meetings this month. Charging tolls on bridges entering the District or requiring a fee for all drivers entering downtown were among the options.
No specific dollar amounts were described. The study won't be completed until 2008.
Even so, local lawmakers were not amused by the idea of charging tolls to cross the 14th Street bridge.
“If it’s a bridge toll or a fee for entry into D.C., some form of commuter tax, that’s a nonstarter,” said Brian McNicoll, spokesman for Rep. Tom Davis. Davis is a Republican who represents Fairfax and Prince William counties.
“There's probably a less effective way to alleviate traffic in the Washington Metro area, but one doesn't come to mind,” said Rep. Jim Moran, a Democrat who represents Arlington and Alexandria.
Transportation experts say a toll could improve congestion without harming the economy. Requiring a fee of drivers entering the downtown area in the morning would reduce total travel time in the District 13 percent, according to a recent study by the nonprofit Washington think tank Resources for the Future.
“Our result was economic activity was pretty much unchanged,” said Elena Safirova, one of the three fellows authoring the study.
Safirova said that their study limited tolls to $4.70 paid by drivers to enter downtown between 6:30 a.m. and 9:30 a.m. Because the toll in their study was imposed only during the morning rush hour, the retail sector was “hardly affected” in the researchers’ computer modeling, she said.
The study is in its early stages and examines many other options including extending high-occupancy vehicle lanes or adding bus-only lanes, said Jack van Dop, who is leading the study.
mhegstad@dcexaminer.com
Comments from Examiner Readers
11:46 AM MST on Mon., Oct. 15, 2007 re: "Highway tolls, commuter taxes called ‘nonstarters’"
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Examiner Reader said:
Oh boy- a bunch of politicians siting around a table working on new and better names for taxes. To listen to them, they would have us think that they are doing us a favour by saving travel time to and from work, while they fail to mention that the real motivation behind their work is the flow of dollars from our pockets into they coffers. This is yet further proof that our elected officials are not able to responsibly budget. They will always take the easy way out - that is to buy a solution with the voters money. When politician take this approach to government, it is a sure sign that they have been in office too long. Vote them out !
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