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Thursday, April 19, 2012

Dulles Toll Road Fact Sheet #4: Exorbitant Reston Toll Costs per Mile



Reston Citizens Association
Reston 2020 Committee
April 19, 2012

Dulles Toll Road
Fact Sheet #4:  Exorbitant Reston Toll Costs per Mile

Put Dulles rail finances on the right track,
Not on the toll road user’s back!


MWAA must install distance-based tolling on the Dulles Toll Road to prevent the gross inequity in cost-per-mile for Reston and other partial-length toll road users. 

By virtue of the peculiar current tolling arrangement on the Dulles Toll Road, Restonians end up paying tolls disproportionate to their use of the tollway.  As the graph below shows, Restonians and visitors to Reston will pay 15% more per mile westbound than their full-length user counterparts ($1.49 vs. $1.30 per mile) while eastbound travelers will pay two-thirds again as much as their full-length toll road using counterparts—Greenway to Beltway—($2.19 vs. $1.30 per mile) in 2048 if toll forecasts are accurate.  




This year, the cost for full-length use of the Dulles Toll Road is 16 cents/mile, which is less than the national average of 19 cents/mile for similar types of toll roads, according to 2011 FHWA data.  Restonians headed west from the Reston Parkway get a slight break at $.13 per mile while those headed east pay a premium of $.26 per mile.  These tolls would increase about two and one-half fold by 2048 with inflation at 2.5%.  The added Metrorail debt will increase Restonians’ cost per mile nearly 8- to 11-fold over the forecast period, depending on the direction they drive.   That means the cost per mile will increase more than four times the rate of inflation westbound and nearly six times the inflation rate eastbound.   

Asking Reston users of the Dulles Toll Road to absorb a disproportionate share of an already outrageous 75% cost toll road users are to be forced to pay for completing rail to Dulles is a very bad idea for all toll road users and local businesses, especially for those in Reston.  MWAA must switch to distance-based tolling now. 

Moreover, our leaders need to find alternative funding sources for the bulk the $2.8 billion Phase 2 construction cost.  We believe toll road users should absorb no more than 25% of the cost as planned in 2004.  Until then, Phase 2 needs to be put on holdIf you believe these toll increases are excessive and the tolling process unfair—

  • Contact our local state legislators:
o   Senator Janet Howell:  SenHowell@aol.com
o   Delegate Ken Plum:  kenplum@aol.com
  • Contact our state leaders:
o   Governor Robert McDonnell:  Robert.F.McDonnell@Governor.VA.gov
o   Virginia Secretary of Transportation Sean Connaughton:  sean.connaughton@governor.virginia.gov
  •  Contact our incoming and outgoing Congressional representatives using these forms—
  •  Contact our US Senators:
o   US Senator Mark Warner:  warner@senate.gov
o   US Senator Jim Webb:  webb@senate.gov
  •  Contact the White House using this form: 

·       If you would like to help RCA’s Reston 2020 Committee share its concerns more broadly, contact us at reston.2020@yahoo.com.

3 comments:

  1. This post as does a few others does not display any content.. my problem or yours?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks for the heads up, Anon. I believe I have fixed the problem, although my solution was an unconventional one (copying vice embedding document).

    Please let me know if there are any further problems.

    ReplyDelete
  3. The text downloads but not the graph. Regardless, the message is clear and on target. Thanks.

    ReplyDelete

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