Why Drivers Should Love Tolls
July 6, 2009
"That will be $21.25, please".
Pretty expensive charge for merely driving on a road, eh? It's easy to cringe as you hand over a couple of bills and think about how unfair it is that so many roads are "free" but the one you needed to take costs a relative fortune. It's easy to imagine this because comparing a toll road to a "free" road is an apples to oranges comparison, but one that is too often made anyway.
Last weekend ago I drove across Pennsylvania on a high-quality, uncongested highway, and never once slowed below 55mph. The route wasn't very scenic, but it was easy to drive and not particularly stressful. Once we exited the Turnkpike, I drove on a "free" highway into Philadelphia for the next 15 miles. In stark comparison, this highway was congested, slow-moving, and stressful to navigate. Break lights lit up the landscape and I moved a little and stopped; moved a little more and stopped... And this wasn't during rush hour, either. This was at 9:00pm on a Friday night and at 3:00pm on a Sunday afternoon. This "free" highway suffered from what appears to be a simple problem: too many people wanting to use it.
In the discussion on toll policy, it often is portrayed as the drivers who are fighting the war against toll roads, and the non-drivers (the pedestrians, cyclists, and others) who support the policy. I guess because it's compelling political rhetoric to portray the enemy as people who want life for drivers some sort of hell on earth.
Sure, as a driver, it would have been great to have had an identical drive across Pennsylvania and not have had to directly pay cash for it; but it would be counter-factual thinking to imagine what an untolled highway might have been like. For all I know it could have been significantly more crowded, I might have traveled at a much slower average speed, and it might have been a huge waste of time and energy. But I'll never know...
Ultimately, I think the adage that "you get what you pay for" may be very true here. As a driver last weekend, even though it seemed overpriced at first, I think I got what I paid for.
Pretty expensive charge for merely driving on a road, eh? It's easy to cringe as you hand over a couple of bills and think about how unfair it is that so many roads are "free" but the one you needed to take costs a relative fortune. It's easy to imagine this because comparing a toll road to a "free" road is an apples to oranges comparison, but one that is too often made anyway.
Last weekend ago I drove across Pennsylvania on a high-quality, uncongested highway, and never once slowed below 55mph. The route wasn't very scenic, but it was easy to drive and not particularly stressful. Once we exited the Turnkpike, I drove on a "free" highway into Philadelphia for the next 15 miles. In stark comparison, this highway was congested, slow-moving, and stressful to navigate. Break lights lit up the landscape and I moved a little and stopped; moved a little more and stopped... And this wasn't during rush hour, either. This was at 9:00pm on a Friday night and at 3:00pm on a Sunday afternoon. This "free" highway suffered from what appears to be a simple problem: too many people wanting to use it.
In the discussion on toll policy, it often is portrayed as the drivers who are fighting the war against toll roads, and the non-drivers (the pedestrians, cyclists, and others) who support the policy. I guess because it's compelling political rhetoric to portray the enemy as people who want life for drivers some sort of hell on earth.
Sure, as a driver, it would have been great to have had an identical drive across Pennsylvania and not have had to directly pay cash for it; but it would be counter-factual thinking to imagine what an untolled highway might have been like. For all I know it could have been significantly more crowded, I might have traveled at a much slower average speed, and it might have been a huge waste of time and energy. But I'll never know...
Ultimately, I think the adage that "you get what you pay for" may be very true here. As a driver last weekend, even though it seemed overpriced at first, I think I got what I paid for.
I'm still trying to think more about this issue, and am admittedly on the fence...but you make a good argument here, at least in respect to highways. Tolls within a city may be a different matter...