As Toll Clock Winds Down, Here Comes The Special Session

Tolls should be implemented A.S.A.P. without any further discussion. Our Bridgeport legislators should back the tolls simply because no one has offered any viable alternatives and we are long past where we can sit on our hands and wait. Please read the piece that I wrote and was published more than two years ago. for the CT Post more than two years ago. I have forty trucks domiciled in Bridgeport that ply the CT highways, and I for one, embrace tolling to reduce congestion and provide revenue fairly to maintain and improve our transportation system which is decades behind the times.

The case for electronic tolls and consumption pricing in Connecticut
I’ve lived in Connecticut all my life and have watched our highway/rail infrastructure deteriorate and our traffic situation slow to a crawl. What once was billed as the “traffic hour” has become a day long frustration. One should be able to get on Interstate 95 in Bridgeport and travel to the New York line in thirty five minutes travelling fifty five miles per hour. The reality is that you’re lucky if you move at twenty miles per hour during many hours in the day. I was around for the 1983 Mianus River bridge collapse where several people died and the northbound side of Interstate 95 was closed for nearly six months. The traffic problems on Connecticut highways have been in a crisis mode for more than thirty years and it shouldn’t take a major failure of our rusting outdated infrastructure to cause our citizens to push for reforms and our politicians to enact them. Our transportation system (railroad and highways) needs monumental repairs and upgrades. We currently fund our highways (or lack thereof) through Federal subsidies and more locally with state taxes on every gallon of motor vehicle fuel. Up until 1983 Connecticut collected tolls on both Interstate 95 and the Merritt Parkway. The toll booths were deemed a major safety hazard and a cause of traffic jams prior to their demise after a deadly tractor trailer crash that killed six people. The Connecticut fuel tax is an unfair and broken revenue system that no longer provides for a shared burden on the users of CT roadways. Many vehicles both in and out of state travelling our roadways avoid fueling in Connecticut due to the high fuel taxes. The future is here and automobiles are changing dramatically. Electric, hydrogen and hybrid powered vehicles are reducing the need for combustible fuels. These alternatively powered vehicles along with higher mandated fuel economy standards have lead to declining tax revenues. A change in how we fund our transportation system is absolutely necessary and long overdue.
Our politicians have been advertising that “Connecticut is revolutionary”, however we haven’t lived up to that motto. We in fact need a revolutionary approach to address our decaying transportation infrastructure. We need an “Apollo” like program to modernize and move the economic needle in this state. This will take a serious commitment that will cost in the billions of dollars. This effort will put thousands of people to work in good paying jobs and will ensure the future economic growth of Connecticut. Electronic tolling that is geared for consumption pricing is the future of transportation. Imagine getting on I95 at 7:30 in the morning and leaving Bridgeport to drive thirty miles to Greenwich and knowing that you will be there in thirty minutes. We can achieve this Nirvana with an electronic toll/consumption pricing strategy. Yes, you will need to pay more if you want to drive during peak congestion hours (traditionally known as the rush hour). You will have choices to make. Do you carpool (does anyone remember this concept) to cut down on the cost per person, do you take the train or a bus or might you wait until 9:30 am when the price is much lower? You’ll go and check your phone to see what the cost is at any moment to get on the highway, but you will become confident that you can make your destination by allotting time to travel at the posted speed limit.
No one trusts the politicians in this state or the country for good reason. Why should we think that our elected politicians won’t look at electronic tolls as an unopened cookie jar made for their insatiable snacking habits? They will be creatures of habit if we don’t lock the box. Electronic tolls should only be a revenue source for our transportation network and no other purposes. Let’s lock the box.
We all benefit when our transportation system runs smoothly, efficiently, timely and at a low cost. Time is money and we lose millions of dollars of productive time when we sit in the rush hour traffic jams that have become 24/7 on our major roadways in Connecticut. Connecticut state taxes on motor fuels should be reduced to bring them in line with our bordering states. Sales of motor fuels would increase in Connecticut as people would no longer have reason to purchase their fuel out state due to lower costs. Modern electronic tolls are cost efficient, they don’t slow you down, and are the fairest way to provide revenue for the upkeep and modernization of our roadways. Our current transportation system is in shambles and is a stranglehold on our economic growth. Let’s not be blinded by our anger with our former or current politicians. Let’s move on and make Connecticut truly revolutionary with a transportation system that sets the stage for an economic renaissance.