Toll Roads in Connecticut could be a reality, Again!

Connecticut’s Transportation Strategy Board (TSB), which is an independent board appointed by lawmakers and the governor, is charged with the task of creating and guiding Connecticut’s transportation strategy. The transportation research group, Cambridge Systematics, will deliver a document that lays out as many options as possible so the board can make informed recommendations to our legislators for the 2009 session.

This TSB is expected to make a descion whether they will support returning tolls to Connecticut’s highways as other states look to pay-to-drive lanes as a way to relieve congestion and help with infrastructure improvements on January 15th. According to the TSB, the tolls were removed from I-95 in 1985 and Gov. M. Jodi Rell has adamantly opposed returning them to use again. Critics have said it presents the possibility of turning the public highways into personal roads for the rich.

One possibility if tolls become a reality in CT would be using different types of lanes including creating high-occupancy toll, or HOT lanes. Federal and state officials are big proponents of HOT lanes, largely because they cost less and do not require new asphalt or the lengthy approval process for building or expanding new highways. HOT lanes allow people driving by themselves to pay a fee to use lanes reserved for carpoolers and buses, labeled high-occupancy vehicle lanes, or HOV lanes. The buses and carpoolers still drive in the HOV lanes for free. Tolling, especially through HOV lanes, is gaining in popularity in other parts of the country. But groups such as the AAA expressed some concern. “AAA believes that all roads should be toll-free. Where toll roads are utilized, reasonable alternative toll-free routes should always be available,” said Gregg Laskoski, spokesman for AAA South. HOT lanes are only appropriate if an existing car pool lane is underused and the change won’t contribute to congestion, he said.