"Distance Pricing" Talks for Greenway Fail; Need to be an MWAA Priority for DTR

In a comprehensive article in a recent Leesburg Today entitled "Another Greenway Toll Compromise Stalls," Erika Jacobson Moore writes about the breakdown in discussions between Loudoun legislators and Greenway management to institute "distance pricing" for tolls there.  

"Distance pricing" is simply paying for what you use when taking a toll road.  Toll road users don't have it on the Greenway, and we don't have it on the Dulles Toll Road.  It is the only fair way to charge tolls, but toll road managers, including MWAA for the DTR don't care.  

• There nominal complaint about distance pricing--and the one they're using on the Greenway--is that it would cost a lot to install the new equipment.  Dulles Greenway management puts that cost at $6-8 million.  
• The REAL issue, however, is that distance pricing would mean lower toll revenues as people using less than the whole toll road would pay less than a full toll.  In turn, that would mean toll road managers would have to raise the tolls on the toll road to meet their revenue requirements, primarily paying off debt.  
• Also, they find it unattractive because they would have to raise the base toll rate--probably by a third or more--to make up for the lost tolls from partial length toll road users. 

This is especially a problem for Reston drivers who use the DTR.  Sitting about half way from either end of the toll road, they are paying about twice as much per mile to use the DTR as people driving its full length under the current tolling scheme.   So, while the average per mile toll rate for the Dulles Toll Road users is about $.17/mile--very near the national average--Reston area toll road users (who comprise about half the vehicles entering/leaving the DTR according to the CDMSmith report--see "DTR 2011 Weekday Traffic Profile") are paying as much as their Greenway counterparts at peak period pricing--$.34/mile.

So what is the first priority of the MWAA Board in terms of tolling changes (besides, of course, hiking tolls in multiples over the next 40 years):  It's peak period pricing.   That is, MWAA is exploring the idea of increasing the tolls even further during the busiest periods of the day--morning and afternoon rush hours.  They want to do that because they don't have to modify their current toll collection structure (other than changing the toll charged) and they will end up with greater revenues!  It's a true win for MWAA and, yes, once again, a huge loss for most Dulles Toll Road users.

Toll road users, the Boards of Supervisors in Loudoun and Fairfax counties, and our state legislators must all push MWAA  (and, for that matter, the TRIP II partnership that runs the Greenway) to adopt distance pricing to assure toll road users are treated fairly.  And that would be a change!

For more on the exorbitant price per mile paid by Reston toll road users, please click on "DTR Fact Sheet #4:  Exorbitant Reston Toll Cost per Mile."