On Oct. 7, the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) opened a public input period for implementing a toll on Interstate 90 between I-5 and I-405, along the Lake Washington corridor. The tolling would help pay for the state Route 520 bridge from Seattle to Medina, which still needs $1.4 billion to finish the project. WSDOT points to an expected increase in city population and jobs as further reasoning for a toll.
Since WSDOT started tolling the SR 520 bridge, I-90 traffic has increased by 15,000 vehicles a day, while the new U.S. Department of Transportation study determined that SR 520 traffic has been cut in half. Of course, tolling on one bridge would increase traffic on the other — people are avoiding paying every time they go in and out of the city.
Tolling both Lake Washington bridges may force commuters to turn to the bus system and exchange their keys for an ORCA pass, which would mean fewer tolled vehicles using the bridges. But the bus system might not be able to handle that many new travelers by the time tolling goes through. King County Metro’s budget is short $75 million, which will result in service cuts by as much as 17 percent next year, with 65 routes cut and 86 routes reducing service.
The SR 99 Alaskan Way Viaduct tunnel will also be tolled when it opens in late 2015.
The $3.1 billion tunnel is funded through local, state and federal sources — $200 million of the funding should come from tolls, WSDOT said, which would pay for future operation or maintenance costs.
Determining whether to toll I-90 (which won’t be decided until early 2015) will cost an estimated $3.3 million — why not just use this money to help fund some of the construction on SR 520? Clearly, it’s not going to even come close to the $1.4 billion the state needs, but tolling I-90 is just punishing drivers for the poorly funded SR 520 bridge.
One road should not be tolled to pay for another. WSDOT should have predicted that tolling on SR-520 would encourage people to travel east and west via I-90 instead.
Tolling is a valuable method to pay for construction of roadways — the money has to come from somewhere. But it seems excessive to put a toll on the only two east-west roads out of the city — unless the WSDOT plans to ultimately toll all our roads. Is this where we’re heading?
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