Republican gubernatorial candidate Scott Walker last week endorsed the creation of Lexus lanes, which are freeway way lanes that allow rich folk to pay tolls to move faster than the rest of us.
The story was reported by the JS’ Patrick Marley rather inadequately, uncritically and without not a single question about details. Like, um, Scott, do you support Lexus lanes in addition to the Milwaukee-area freeway expansion recommended by the Wisconsin Department of Transportation and the Southeastern Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission?
If so, do you think the additional debt service required for the fifth lane will harm the state’s bond rating? How much damage to neighborhoods and the environment around freeways are you willing to cause so that certain people can drive faster?
If the intent of the new toll lane is to allow those who can pay to travel faster than everybody else, then obviously the tolls have to be set high enough to discourage everybody from using the toll lane. If you are not planning to expand the freeways from three to five lanes and intend only to expand from three to four lanes and limit the fourth lane to toll-payers, how will you ease congestion in the other three lanes? Or are you suggesting the reality — that Milwaukee-area congestion is not bad enough to warrant construction of a fourth toll-free lane? In that case, until the toll question is settled, shouldn’t the freeway expansion projects underway and being planned be cancelled?
If Walker simply wants to go ahead and build a fourth lane for rich people, the health and environmental impacts likely will be worse than if he builds a fourth lane for everyone. Under the toll scenario, there will be three lanes of stalled traffic belching out poisons and additional drivers zipping along emitting bad things, but perhaps at a lower rate. All the bad things associated with freeway expansion, like loss of wetlands and increased flooding, will occur, but any benefits will accrue to a much smaller group of drivers.
Walker’s idea is really pretty atrocious. A few folk reap the benefits, the public writ large pays the cost. Maybe that formula is now so common it’s not newsworthy any more.
This just isn’t true. Congestion pricing benefits all drivers because it increases the capacity of the facility. A road with moving traffic moves more people than a road with stopped traffic.
Furthermore, studies have shown that it’s not just the rich that use them. Lastly, who benefits largely depends on how the toll revenues are spent. If transit gets some or all of the money, that tends to benefit the less wealthy.
From the story:
“Minnesota’s system, which started five years ago, has proved popular, Thompson said. Traffic in the express lanes travels at 50 mph or faster 98% of the time, while other lanes have stop-and-go traffic during peak times.”
That stop and go traffic is exactly what the Wisconsin Department of Transportation is saying will be ended with freeway expansion. Adding a Lexus lane will draw cars with owners who can afford to pay the toll. It simply won’t do much to ease congestion in the other three lanes, thus adding to environmental problems associated with heavy traffic. And until I see Walker propose and support an improved transit system for everybody, it’s just another fanciful theoretical.