Toll scheme details
January 8th 2008 08:30 pm
After spending many months and millions of dollars, Governor Corzine has finally released the details on his toll scheme. Bottom line, by 2022:
- Turnpike tolls increase by over 8x today’s rates
- Parkway barrier tolls increase to $5.40 (yes, $5.40 for each toll plaza)
This assumes a 3% inflation rate. If inflation is higher, the tolls will be even higher.
Details available here (800 KB PDF).
Bob Scheurle responded on 08 Jan 2008 at 9:07 pm #
For months, the Corzine administration was telling us it would be a 45% toll increase. Now we see it will be a 721% increase. Did they just figure this out now, or were they lying to us all along?
alewifebp responded on 08 Jan 2008 at 11:59 pm #
Wow, this is pretty insane. I don’t doubt that we need to raise money somewhere, but these increases are just too much, and are actually quite punishing. By pricing the Turnpike and GSP way out of the reach of most people, those people will just find another road, which is most likely already congested. You’ll create gridlock on every other road that runs near these highways. While we could argue that this would be a huge incentive to take mass transit, how can that be when these highways pass through plenty of areas of the state that are poorly served by mass transit, or barely at all, such as the southern part of the state?
Although, maybe this is the plan. Propose something that will never be passed, then Corzine can say, “what do we do now?” Bam, introduce the bond issue again, richening himself and his crony banking friends.
Joe Versaggi responded on 09 Jan 2008 at 9:07 am #
What I am not sure of is if the toll-backed debt impacts the state’s credit worthiness. As it is, our bonds are not far from junk, and our credit line is more or less maxed out. Anything but raise the 3rd lowest gas tax in the nation.
He could well propose the same for NJT fares, conveniently forget they have gone up 250% since the Parkway tolls last went up, use THE Tunnel as an excuse, seeing how easy a time the PA had with it, and the enthusiasm the TSTC and Sierra Club had for it. Being “green” in this state evidently has nothing to do with access to public transit.
Bob Scheurle responded on 09 Jan 2008 at 10:48 am #
The Administration says: “All potential debt would be issued by the PBC. This debt would be paid through dedicated revenues earned from tolls and the State would have no liability on debt payments.”
I don’t believe that for a minute. If it were true, the public benefit corporation (PBC) could simply close up shop, the debt would disappear, and the State wouldn’t be on the hook for the money.
Regarding THE Tunnel, the above document says, “in order to maintain the federal matching funds for the construction of the ARC tunnel, New Jersey needs to identify $3 billion of funding for the project.”
Joe Versaggi responded on 09 Jan 2008 at 12:57 pm #
With the official cost of T.H.E. at $7.5B, no way will the feds pay more than 40% (31% if they also include Portal Bridge), which is not a glowing Federal endorsement.
Bob Scheurle responded on 09 Jan 2008 at 1:25 pm #
PA has kicked-in $2 billion, so that leaves the FTA with $2.5 billion or 33%.
LRTADV responded on 11 Jan 2008 at 5:46 pm #
Seems like truckers and other travelers will eventually bypass the turnpike by taking parallel “free” roads like I-81 if they don’t continue to clog Route 1
and Route 130. I like the idea of windmills along the highways, though.
finsuburbia responded on 13 Jan 2008 at 4:28 pm #
You’re being a little misleading here. The tolls would rise to $2.70 for two way toll plaza and $5.40 at one way toll plazas. As I have mentioned earlier, if the tolls had been indexed to inflation since 1957, they should have been $1.79 for two way tolling. If you extrapolate out with 3% inflation over 14 years until 2022, you get $2.71 cents. These tolls are not actually that bad. They just bring the real price of the toll back to what it was in 1957.
The PA has upped their contribution to $3 billion and the state did the $1 billion highway funding swap. That’s a 53.3% local contribution.
There will only be a certain amount of spillover onto nearby free parallel roads as for business time=money. If trucks can get to their destinations faster without traffic, businesses are usually willing to pay more. If you just factor in the difference in fuel consumption, it is very competitive. That being said, tolls should be added to certain parallel roads to discourage “shunpiking.” I-295 definitely needs this (although they would need federal permission to do so).
Bob Scheurle responded on 13 Jan 2008 at 6:38 pm #
I’m not being misleading at all. My figures come straight from the Guv’s office and are publically available. The misleading part is that the Guv’s office assumes inflation will only be 3% per year for the next 14 years. For the past year, inflation in this area was approx 4%, so I don’t know if the 3% figure will hold for the next decade and a half.
finsuburbia responded on 13 Jan 2008 at 9:20 pm #
I know. What you are being misleading about is that its not $5.40 per toll plaza. It’s $2.70 for two way toll plaza and $5.40 for one way tolls. Technically, its best to say that the toll would be $2.70 because at the one way toll plaza, you pay for both directions at the same time.
Bob Scheurle responded on 14 Jan 2008 at 6:25 am #
Nine (9) of the eleven (11) barrier toll plazas are “one-way” tolls. So it’s more accurate to say the toll would be $5.40, and the other two plazas are the exceptions.
You can try to dress up this pig, but it’s still a pig.
finsuburbia responded on 14 Jan 2008 at 11:33 am #
I still disagree. The base toll rate is 35 cents which is consistent on *all* the barrier tolls along the parkway (its lower on some of the entrance tolls). It’s just collected different ways at some (i.e both directions at the same time).
Regardless, the toll in 2022 will be almost the exact same as it was in 1957 in real terms so its really not that high.
Joe Versaggi responded on 14 Jan 2008 at 2:24 pm #
Since many NJ drivers were not even born in 1957, that argument just won’t sell. Playing catch-up in 12 years will be regarded as abusive.
finsuburbia responded on 14 Jan 2008 at 5:14 pm #
Well whether or not it sells is a different story. My point is that it is not high when you take it in a historical perspective.
finsuburbia responded on 14 Jan 2008 at 5:19 pm #
And that it is not that abusive, even if it is regarded as such.
finsuburbia responded on 14 Jan 2008 at 9:04 pm #
Sorry looking back I made a mistake. Its 16 years from 2006 to 2022, not 14. If the toll had tracked inflation since 1957, the toll would be $2.87 for two toll plazas and $5.74 for one way toll plazas, so motorists would still make out better than they did in 1957.
Regardless, it is confusing to think about this in nominal terms. People have a big problem with this. The real value of the tolls in 2008 dollars are $1.66 and $3.32.
Honestly, what difference does it make if inflation is 4% rather than 3% if the real price of the toll will remain the same.
Bob Scheurle responded on 14 Jan 2008 at 9:12 pm #
No, the real value is not $1.66, as congestion is several orders of magnitude worse than it was in 1957. Give us the same traffic-free road that we had in 1957, and then it will be worth $1.66 per one-way toll.
finsuburbia responded on 14 Jan 2008 at 10:28 pm #
No, I was talking about real rather than nominal value.
If you want to talk about how congestion should affect the toll, it should be much higher. The demand for road space is much higher and the supply is roughly the same. Therefore the price should rise to meet demand which would hold back demand to match the available road space. The result would be little to no congestion. Ideally, the parkway should be a closed system like the turnpike (cashless tolling with licenseplate identification and ez-pass makes this easier than in the past). That way the toll would vary depending on the demand and be paid per mile.
Bob Scheurle responded on 15 Jan 2008 at 5:59 am #
Neither the Parkway nor the Turnpike are closed systems in the scientific sense. What you do with the tolls affects other roads that are many miles away. For example, the last time tolls on the Turnpike were doubled (small change to Corzine’s scheme!), trucks diverted to 287/202/31, with innocent motorists losing their lives in deadly accidents on Route 31.
You can’t just say you’re going to use tolls to control demand on the toll roads without having to make major upgrades on other roads.
finsuburbia responded on 15 Jan 2008 at 10:29 am #
It’s a closed system in the sense of toll road terminology. Yes diversions do occur, but only to a limited degree because non-toll, non-interstate roads are generally slower (due to design and congestion) and for businesses, time=money.
Actually, if you make major upgrades to the other roads, there will just be more diversions on to those roads. Controlling demand through pricing, btw, is congestion pricing.
finsuburbia responded on 15 Jan 2008 at 11:12 am #
Moreover, many of the diversions would be in the form of schedule delay when you have demand based pricing (similar to peak pricing, only more dynamic).
Joe Versaggi responded on 15 Jan 2008 at 2:00 pm #
Trucks diverted to 287/202/31 not only because it was cheaper, but a short-cut over toll roads. Also, plenty rolled across the Water Gap, then down 31. Both so much so that they found it necessary to impose a ban on 102″ wide trucks on 31 until a court over-turned it. Also plenty of wide spots off the northern half of Route 31 to make unchartered truck stops for which this state has a shortage of according to truckers. Demand-based pricing means more trucks on 31 during the 4-wheeler rush hours.
Bob Scheurle responded on 16 Jan 2008 at 6:46 am #
I had the occasion to drive on the Parkway from Woodbridge to Passaic County on Tuesday morning. There was no traffic on the free portion of the Parkway, but traffic stopped completely on the toll portion. I guess congestion pricing isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.
Regarding 1957, maybe we should go back to that time and ban motorcycles and pickup trucks from the Parkway, like they used to be. And give tickets to the 6-wheel trucks illegally using the northern part of the Parkway (I see them on the Parkway every day). All trucks should be prohibited north of exit 82, like it used to be.