My wife and I reside in Prince William County, for you Virginia political junkies, we are in the 13th legislative district. I estimate that I spend 10 hours a week on 66 going to Alexandria. And some days I average 55 mph and some days, usually if there is an accident at the Vienna exit, I average 35 mph, but when we consider the policies regarding the use and tolls, it is clear that 66 is not the best deal for Prince William county motorists. In fact it’s a bad deal.
In the morning eastbound traffic is heavy, and it requires two or more motorists, and of course in the afternoon westbound traffic has the same requirements. So Prince William county motorists who work in Fairfax, Alexandria, Falls Church or DC, have to find someone to ride with or pay a fairly high toll.
Conversely, someone from Fairfax, Alexandria, Falls Church, DC, or Maryland can travel westbound in the morning and have no HOV requirement or toll.
The eastbound in the morning and westbound in the afternoon requirements does not favor us here in Prince William County, and as the state moves forward with tolling Prince William county motorists will pay a disproportionate share of the cost.
The other day I watched VA Transportation secretary Shannon Valentine explain to a House of Delegates committee that the toll is simply a choice. A commuter can avoid the toll by not driving on 66. When I heard that I thought to myself how galling. We paid for Rt. 66 decades ago. Now, if we want to use it at certain times, in a certain direction, we have to pay a toll.
The alternative that Shannon Valentine is talking about is that we take route 29, 50 or the GW Parkway which of course would increase the time that we spend in the car. Less time at work, or with our families. If time is money, and I believe it is, taking the alternate routes may cost us as much as a toll.
We here in Prince William county need members of the General Assembly who will fight for our interests. The use of tolls based on the current eastbound in the morning-west bound in the afternoon formula shifts the financial burden to Prince William County.
7 comments
I am open-minded to hear proposals for reducing the congestion eastbound in the morning, westbound at night. Absent some mitigation everyone is deprived of the use of 66 due to traffic-choking congestion.
The benefit of the commons becomes the tragedy of the commons. Basic economics seems superior to the prior plan, which was arbitrary prohibition.
BTW, you write that it is galling to be told that if you want to avoid the fee you can take another route. What you fail to take into account is that prior to the fee your *only* path was to take another route. You were previously without choice at any price.
I favor the proposals to reduce the fees, but pretending that these congestion fees are at any price an outrage fails to establish a rational alternative. If nothing happens to reduce congestion at these points at these times there will be little benefit of the road to anyone.
The impact comes from extending the commuting time by 90 minutes on each side. Those people were previously using the road for free with no HOV. They got hurt by the toll but they also previously jammed up the road. Now they just jam up other roads. The toll did not fix anything, just shifted things.
The toll did make the road usable for those who bear the toll’s high cost, which I cannot and will not defend. Let’s change that. Neither should we pretend the toll’s imposition is without warrant — congestion pricing as a replacement for prohibition is a rational act focused on market solutions to replace what were otherwise arbitrary govt dictates.
Not just PW county – commuters from Warrenton, Front Royal, and in my case Strasburg are getting the shaft.
Loudoun, Clarke, and Winchester too.
John and Jeanine – part of me feels like don’t we in Loudoun, Prince William, and other places deserve what we elect? The majority of our neighbors here elected Northam, McAuliffe, and recently voted out our Republican delegates for tax and spend Democrats. It stinks for people like the author of this piece, but part of me feels like other people in these counties need to get hit in the wallet before they stop getting duped by the liberal media with this anti-Trump hysteria.
Chad is correct. Democracy replaced spend without tax Republicans with Democrats. Voters were less responsive to monuments, race, immigration arguments than the RPV hoped, instead backlashing on POTUS. Expect this to continue and act accordingly. Less Sideshow Bob, more Stephen Brodie Tucker. The RPV can prosper competing for the middle, but its base is insufficient by itself to defeat what has become a trend towards a bluer Virginia.