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If you don't want to pay a toll, just don't leave the city.
Information is sketchy at best, but the federal government may soon propose a toll on cars entering the city via the 14th Street bridge, reports The Examiner.
According to the story, the proposal seems to be nothing more than another one of those fabulous pipe dreams feds float from time to time for improving our city. Like Sen. Sam Brownback's "flat tax" idea. Or that ingenious plan to give the District back to Maryland instead of just granting us a vote in the House.
The toll idea contains precious few details. The Department of Transportation has apparently not worked out exactly how much they plan to charge, when the toll would start, whether toll booths would be on the Virginia or D.C. side of the river, etc. In fact, the plan was presented with 43 other "options" for relieving congestion. Feds are also investigating water taxis, extending HOV lanes and changing some of the George Washington Parkway's on and off ramps between the bridge and the Pentagon.
The report with options and details is due sometime next year.
Photo by andertho
And the debate goes on
The Metro Board is meeting today to continue to grapple with our Metro fare futures. As The Post reported this week, the debate has now moved onto the classic city v. 'burbs affair.
D.C. Council Member Jim Graham wants to raise minimum rush-hour rail trips by 30 cents and parking fees by $1.25, a deal that clearly puts the financial pressure on those commuting into the city, since the majority of Metro's parking facilities are in Virginia and Maryland. Under Graham's plan bus costs would go unchanged.
Compare that to Metro Chief John Catoe's plan — raise the cost of rush-hour trains 20 to 40 cents, bus rides 25 cents, and parking fees 50 cents.
The fare raise is meant to help cover the $173 million budget shortfall projected for next year. But that date is quickly approaching, and so far all we've been doing is chatting about fare possibilities without taking any real action.
The question: when will we finally get a move on?
Weekend track work, delays
The Yellow Line will be completely closed between King Street and Fort Totten Saturday from 7 a.m. to noon while local officials conduct an emergency response exercise over the Potomac. To get around that, riders should take the Blue Line from King Street. Those who need the Yellow Line from Huntington will be able to take a shuttle train from Huntington to King Street. That train will single track because of track work at Huntington. All passengers should add at least 30 minutes to their trips.
Single tracking on the Yellow Line between Huntington and King Street will occur between 9 p.m. Friday and midnight Sunday. After the drill Saturday the Yellow Line will run from Ft. Totten to Franconia Springfield with shuttle trains to Huntington.
On the Orange Line, trains will share a track between New Carrollton and Cheverly between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. To help make service into downtown faster, every other Orange Line train will end at Cheverly and return to Vienna/Fairfax-GMU. Riders should add 30 minutes to their trips.
Green Line trains will share a track between College Park and Prince George's Plaza from midnight to 3 a.m. Friday and Saturday due to cable maintenance. Riders should add up to 15 minutes to their trips. They should also add 10 to 15 minutes to trips between Greenbelt and College Park between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. Saturday and Sunday thanks to continued new car testing.
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Toll booths just make traffic congestion worse. If they are going to charge they should do it via EZ-Pass. You drive through at your normal speed, the machines register your account number and automatically debit your account.
Instead of giving DC back to MD, give it back to the Powhatan Tribe. That way, DC gets tax exempt status, casino gambling, and Sen. Brownback's scalp.
We should do this like the Swiss, with a road permit sticker.
What the Swiss do is every car that travels on their highways needs an annual permit sticker. This is available for purchase at the borders and in other stores. The annual fee is high, $30 - $50, but is a one-time thing (no tolls). If you're just a tourist traveling through, you still have to get the annual sticker, even if you use it for one day.
Parking enforcement can check all cars for the sticker, and if they see one without it, they can ticket. Sweeps through office building parking garages would also work.
This way, all users of DC roads will pay the same amount, although the per-trip costs will decrease as you use the roads more.
What about the bloodsucking Marylanders? I say we erect toll booths at every entrance to the city. And only charge tolls Monday-Friday 6Am-10:30am.
So, entering DC via I-395 will be *slightly* less crowded. This will no doubt add more traffic to the Memorial Bridge. I say put tolls on all bridges crossing the Potomac into D.C. Utilize the aformentioned EZ-Pass system and for those vehicles without: cameras recording license plates, then automatically sending the vehicle's owner a bill. DC is already adept at tracking down out-of-state parking violators, so why would this be any different (anybody who has had a call from a collection agency, their car booted, or a negative comment on their credit report due to long-standing unpaid D.C. parking/moving violation tickets knows what I'm getting at)? If this effort went hand-in-hand with more robust commuting options via train, bus, carpooling and maybe a ferry or two--more Virginians would not grimace at the thought of paying a congestion fee to enter D.C.
Logan
You are still going to need booths since not all cars will have EZ Pass. With that, you have to imagine an I95ish Toll plaza on either side of the bridge.
I firmly believe that traveling on I-95 between here and NYC would take an hour less were there not toll plazas every fifty miles.
Toll plazas = congestion = stalled traffic = added pollution
"You are still going to need booths since not all cars will have EZ Pass. With that, you have to imagine an I95ish Toll plaza on either side of the bridge."
You could have a photo-based system that sends a bill to those that don't have EZpass. Make them pay a bit more for administrative charges, and that will be the motivation to move into EZpass. No booths necessary.
Water taxis! That's it!
Water taxis? Ask and ye shall recieve. Put a full bar on board and it would definitely make commuting a much more convivial experience.
Reid,
It all depends on the toll. If we are talking about a few dollars then the cost of redemtion will outwiegh the revenue of the toll. This is a toll not a fine. I am sure the reception of Joe and Jan Nebraska getting a bill from DC will go over well with them and thier congressman; and that alone is why this will never fly.
Perhaps Metro would have more money if they didn't fritter some of it away on projects like the huge engraved quotation at the Q Street entrance to the Dupont Circle station. That couldn't have been cheap. And perhaps they could save some money by not allowing the Post, the Examiner, or any other newspaper or organization to hand out free items (some of which are handbills, which would be a violation in Montgomery County, at least) to people entering the stations, because cleaning up the pigsty created by people leaving these papers on the train can't be cheap, either, nor can having to dispose of it all. The whole idea of a toll 14th St bridge sounds dumb to me - let's try to mitigate traffic by making it harder for lower-income people to get to their jobs. I'm not saying the toll would necessarily be prohibitively expensive, but let's face it - the only way you'd make a sufficient dent in the traffic volume would be if you made the toll high enough that a substantial number of drivers couldn't afford to pay it five days a week, twenty days a month. Harrumph.
I'm sick of those Joe and Jan Nebaska arguments. Joe and Jan Nebraska aren't driving to DC. The VAST majority of cars driving across the 14th St. bridge are from NoVa. I think the only Congressmen that would make much of a stick about this are the NoVa ones. They might as well come out against it, rather than hiding behind Joe and Jan Nebraska (who are good people, I hear).
You could have the toll be collected monthly. That way, for most people without EZPass, the cost of collection will be spread out over many tolls. If you come in to DC every day, you'd get a monthly bill of $30-50 with a $3-5 "convenience" fee. That should make it worthwhile.
That would also make up for the costs associated with sending a bill to the rare Joe and Jan Nebraskas.
Why does this only apply to the 14th Street bridge? You're basically targeting a very specific (and not terribly large) slice of commuters: District CBD workers who come from Alexandria, South Fairfax, Woodbridge, and points directly south. That leaves out anyone who works in Georgetown, or anyone who commutes from the wealthier parts of NoVA (McLean, Great Falls, Vienna, Fairfax City, Tysons, Reston, etc.) who are MUCH more likely to come across Chain Bridge, the Key Bridge, the TR, or the Arlington Memorial Bridge. And don't get me started on the District-Maryland line. Western and Eastern and Southern are more porous than the Afghan-Pakistani border. Not to mention the atrocious eyesore of a vast hazy toll plaza. I mean--if you're going to institute a road-use fee, at least be equitable about it, like Guest #3 suggests, and hand out some sort of permit.
Giving the district to Maryland actually makes a lot of sense. Hopefully it would cut down all the DC bureaucracy, like DC DMV and the likes.
It should be a "fine" in only a way to encourage NOVA commuters to get out of their cars. Perhaps, what could happen is to offer a discount to EZ Pass users, since they take the processing and billing costs out of the hands of the District. Other states and cities do this to encourage vehicle owners to make the swich to EZ pass through discounts or rebates. Placing several signs approaching the toll bridge (including feeder ramps from the GWP, VA 110, and Washington Blvd.) should explain the toll process, so we don't have visiting Cornhuskers making angry complaints to their congressmen. If you are that oblivious while driving around this city, you deserve to get a suprise bill.
As for the NOVA contingent to Congress, I hope they have the backbone to agree to this proposal (wishful thinking?) since it can significantly improve the quality of life (less commute time) for many constituents.
This is the classic cart-before-the-horse issue that consumes the ability to commute from the outer suburbs. More people would get out of their cars if there was greater capability and flexibility to commuting.
One thing abou the the water taxis-- I hope there is some intertia that develops which makes this the reality. Anybody ever ride the water taxis in Boston? They are a relaxing way to get from waterside suburbs to downtown, unless the weather is bad, and then I recommend some Dramamine if you get sea sick. Fortunately, I don't think that would be a regular issue on the Potomac. Usually the river is rather smooth.
http://www.14thstreetbridgecorridoreis.com/
it would be great if there was a toll for entering the city by car. i have no problem with this. anything to reduce traffic congestion and pollution in the District is fine by me....
oh heck, just build seven more bridges to link NoVA with the District. Or maybe just cover the river totally as it flows by DC...all access!
As a NOVA resident who drives into the city on weekends (bus and Metro weekdays, thanks very much) I gotta say I would just take one of the other bridges. Duh.