Alternative Toll Roads Don't Work

The case study from Orange County, California demonstrates that paid toll roads don't solve traffic problems.

1 minute read

April 27, 2002, 1:00 PM PDT

"What did the public transportation agencies -- like Caltrans and the Orange County Transportation Authority -- have to lose? If the toll road diverted traffic from the public freeways, that could delay the need to widen the freeways, and if California Private Transportation Co. wasn't making a profit on the toll road, why would anyone want to build a competing toll road? ... The traffic jams got so bad, in fact, that Caltrans decided to widen the public -- meaning the no-toll -- freeway. That's when the public agencies realized that they were the rubes who just fell off the turnip truck, because of the poison pill provision that prohibited competiton."

Thanks to Transport Policy Listserv

FULL STORY: When freeways become no longer free

Saturday, April 27, 2002 in Ventura County Star

Transportation California

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I love the variety of courses, many practical, and all richly illustrated. They have inspired many ideas that I've applied in practice, and in my own teaching.

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