Ridiculous Proposed Toll for I-95 in NC

[Webmaster]

The North Carolina Turnpike Authority, which was established by law in October 2002, is authorized to construct, operate and maintain up to three toll roads in the state. The Authority is also authorized to study, plan, develop and prepare preliminary designs for three additional toll roads that will require legislative approval to build them.

I've lifted the following "Frequently Asked Questions" from their website for this discussion:

Why are toll roads being considered for North Carolina?
Roads and transportation systems are not free. The public pays for them one way or another, whether it is with gas taxes, new vehicle sales taxes, or tolls. Gasoline taxes, initially conceived as a kind of shadow toll that people would pay in proportion to their use of the roadway system, have become relatively large -- typically 35 to 40 cents per gallon -- and increases now frequently meet strong public resistance. In addition, the automobile industry is making continuous improvements in the fuel efficiency of vehicles, reducing the amount of revenue generated per vehicle-mile of travel. Alternative fuels, such as natural gas, ethanol, and electricity, are taxed at lower rates to encourage their use. A study by the Institute of Transportation Studies at the University of Southern California determined that the California state gas tax would need to be increased 30 cents per gallon in order to raise the same amount of revenue for each vehicle-mile traveled now as was raised in 1960. Factors like these will continue to limit the potential of gas taxes as solutions to our funding problems. Increased levels of urban congestion and declining funding by federal and state governments prompted a wave of toll road projects during the 1980s, particularly in Florida, Texas, Virginia, Colorado, and California. Today there are more than 5,000 miles of toll roads and bridges across the nation. Toll roads offer an opportunity to supplement ongoing department of transportation programs and can accelerate the implementation of transportation infrastructure improvements years before a traditional pay-as- you-go approach allows. Toll roads also provide opportunity to apply innovative financing options that are currently allowed with federal aid revenues.

Motorists would continue to pay gas taxes, and also tolls on certain highways. Isn’t that double taxation?
No. It is true that motorists who pay tolls also pay federal and state motor fuel taxes. But the double taxation argument was addressed by the United State Department of Transportation in its 1968 Highway Needs Report to Congress, which states: "The toll road user pays a toll and also pays taxes on fuel consumed while traveling on the toll road. But this is not truly double taxation, since the fuel taxes paid are applied to other highways. The situation is essentially the same as the support of low-volume roads by the taxes 'earned' on high-volume roads." The bottom line is that motorists are not paying twice to use a toll facility. Instead, in return for paying a toll, they are given new road capacity that enables them to reduce losses of time, productivity, and competitiveness.


Won’t the presence of toll plazas create a safety hazard for motorists?
The accident rate on toll roads is on average around 1/3 less than on tax-based roads. According to 1998 USDOT statistics, the nation's freeways and expressways had 8.6 fatalities per billion miles traveled. Data for toll roads from the International Bridge, Tunnel and Turnpike Association indicate a fatality rate of 6.2 per billion miles traveled. While traditional cash toll plazas create backups that present the greatest safety hazard for motorists, often resulting in increased incidences of rear-end collisions, electronic toll collection ultimately will make traditional cash plazas obsolete. Long lines and bottlenecks at tollbooths need no longer be synonymous with toll operations.


Who will decide what toll roads will be built, and when?
The state Legislature in fall 2002 established the North Carolina Turnpike Authority (NCTA). The NCTA is authorized to plan, design, build, operate, and maintain up to 3 toll facilities, and prepare plans for up to 3 additional projects. For additional details on the statutory powers and duties of the NCTA, click here.


When will a decision be made on toll projects to be programmed?
The NCTA is currently in the process of developing a business plan, project selection criteria, and a work program. Actual selection and programming of projects will likely not occur before summer 2004.


When will the first toll road be open to traffic?
NCTA projects will be subject to the same planning and environmental documentation requirements as any other proposed highway project. The actual time required to complete this process, prepare the necessary designs, and acquire the needed right-of-way, will vary considerably from project to project, but under a best-case scenario, the earliest a toll facility might be open to traffic would be approximately 2010.


Will the Turnpike Authority impose tolls on any existing roads?
The Authority is statutorily prohibited from tolling existing highways.

[Kate]

I don't see how truck traffic in NC is worse than it is in NJ. NJ only charges tolls on the turnpike and parkway and there's more than enough other roads that truck drivers and out-of-staters can use to travel or bypass toll roads. NJ taxpayers have been paying for all other roads in NJ that everybody else uses. Let's see there's 80, 287, 206, 1, 78, 17, 22, 31, 46, 10 and those are just some of the ones in northern NJ. Comparing traffic in NC to that in NJ is like comparing apples and oranges. I always see out-of-staters on the roads in NJ. They contribute to the everyday, unbearable congestion we NJerseyans face on every road in the state. NJ should start posting tolls to non-NJ license plates on 287, 1, and 78.

[lou]

Charging a different toll on out of state plates is not the answer

NJ has unbearable congestion because it is 1000 people per square mile, making it the most densly populated state in the union.

NC only has one consistent high speed route from Maine to Florida: I-95

Route 31 is a 2 lane highway, how could that be a major highway in NJ?

US 206 is a 2 lane road in NJ, its a bottleneck

Would you rather not have tolls and see the road with only 2 or 3 lanes each direction, lots of potholes, unsafe geometric ramps, etc?

Lots of states have out of state travelers, not just NJ (wake up and smell the coffee)

Tolling I-287, US 1 and I-78 will never happen. What would that accomplish?

Whoever said truck traffic was worse in NC than NJ, i dont believe i ever said NC was worse than NJ. I-95 in NC has a high percentrage of trucks because its the only main road to Florida from the north. NJ is apparently worse obviously because of trucking facilities along the NJ turnpike that go beyond NJ to send goods around the country.

[gatuson]

The thing that most people miss is a the out of state traffic also pumps money into the state economy. Why else do hotels, resturants, and gas stations build near the exits.

[lou]

Gatuson makes a good point. Toll facilitites for one provide service areas for food, gas etc which funnels money into the state.

[scs]

Tolls on any government road are ridiculous. We already pay a ridiculous amount of tax with every gallon of gasoline (roughly 40¢), most pay an annual driving tax known as "Registration" every year, we pay a huge amount of tax for the car, sales tax on the maintanence of that vehicle, and taxes on everything we buy at most exits along the road - in other words don't tell me NC "needs" a series of toll booths so that useless trolls can sit in the booths and steal even more of my money while slowing down my trip in the process. The toll will hit NC residents far more than people think, don't believe me? Look at the license plates in that stretch of road next time you travel through.

What tax proponents fail to realize is that their quest for maximizing taxes will affect human behavior. I am on this site trying to find an easy way around the inexcusably huge toll-taxes in MD & DE. What do you think someone like me is going to do if NC blindly decides to abuse the drivers with even higher taxes to ride on that slab of cement that was paid for decades ago? Tolls in NC will be the straw that will break this camel's back and I'll take my business to the airport. Driving from FL to PA is already a big enough of a pain in the a** and if NC wants to make that even more difficult then it won't see another penny from me in gax taxes, hotel lodging taxes, or food taxes. Florida has a series of toll roads in the central part of the state. Not only do they waste more time than taking 45mph backroads due to the nonstop obnoxious tax booths, they cause traffic to build up like crazy on tax...er...toll-free I-4. Personally I hope some NC toll-proponents live near some of the neighboring roads that will get bogged down toll-refugees. They deserve all the "benefits" of these tolls that they want so bad.

I can't believe people are posting on this thread in support of this toll insanity. What is wrong with you? Maybe instead of sticking it to the tax payers you should look into why your state is managing its resources so poorly. Chances are you have union goons getting $30 an hour to hold a sign at a road construction site.

[lou]

The NCDOT is starting to run out of money because of continious highway improvements and new projects statewide. I-95 is mostly used by out of state drivers SO, to ensure saftey and better flow of traffic to make our northern neighbors happy and our northern transplants in Florida, tolling is the only way out. I think its a waste of money to put in MORE money onto I-95 from the NCDOT TIP where out of staters benefit more than people of NC. The NJ Turnpike is used by many out of staters to begin with, I don't see NJersians complaining about the tolls on the Turnpike, they've been there since the 1950s! As I've posted above, IF I-95 MUST have tolls, it should be built as I mentioned in the older posts so the money spent and the tolls activated (definitly not 18 bucks, hopefully much less) are well worth it. 18 dollars is ridiculus, I know, but something needs to be done other than not doing anything about it.

One way or the other, tolls or no tolls, traffic continues to increase regardless and I wouldnt be suprised if US 1 in NC shows notable increases from traffic shifting from I-95 to US 1 in the next 5-15 years from out of staters. Ive already seen NJ plates on NC 177 and US 1 in Richmond County so it will catch on sooner or later. Eventually, US 1 will be all 4 lanes from I-85 in Henderson to the SC state line and SC as of now and for the next 20 years at least, it will NOT dualize US 1 to 4 lanes to Camden (near Columbia).

From old original interstate planning maps I've read, US 1 in NC was suppose to be paralleled by I-95, then it shifted towards the coast paralleling US 17 (and parts of US 13 in NE NC) then to its current alignment paralleling US 301.

If tolling IS NOT a solution at all, then what is?

[lou]

Clarify this cause i even read it and confused myself a bit:

From old original interstate planning maps I've read, US 1 in NC was suppose to be paralleled by I-95.......

I meant to say the proposed I-95 was to suppose to be paralled along US 1 through NC instead of its current route paralleling US 301 in eastern carolina.

[snowdog]

Tolls on I-95 in North Carolina ha no problem i like rt.301 or rt.17,who knows if lots more people start avoiding I-95 it may bring some economic life back into towns that were bypassed by the interstate.$18 is way too high,$5 at a toll at the stateline i could probably live with.

[lou]

If passing through NC and going beyond SC, say the east coast of Florida, US 1 is the best alternate through NC with no tolls at all. US 1 dosent offer the best scenery through the state though but it gets you from one end to the other mostly with 4 lanes and mostly filled with bypasses. Rockingham, Pinebluff, Kitrell, Tramway(Sanford area) and North Raleigh are the only areas left in the state that arent bypassed but Rock'ham will get a bypass around 2008-2010 but the rest wont. Still, the rest of those towns (except N Raleigh) are not a big deal (at 45mph BRIEFLY) but if passing through N. Raleigh during the busiest times of the day, it may slow you down a bit but i prefer that over I-95 backup anyday.

US 1 already has a lot of economic prosperity between Southern Pines and Raleigh as thats one of the states highest priorities of four laning whats left of the two lane segments through the state. Richmond County (where Rockingham is) has soooooo much potential NOW and WILL HAVE MORE potential in teh future for economic growth but they are too conservative minded people who dont want change and promote new development due to its ideal location. Major highways like US 220, US 1 and US 74 are already or being planned to bypass ALLOVER Rockingham. Rockingham's great location of major cities within a hour/1.5 hour drive and the halfway point of the coast and the mountains; it would be a great trucking facility and not a bad suburb of Charlotte from the growing real estate values.