Dulles Toll Road Fact Sheet #3: The Toll Surcharge, March 14, 2012

Reston Citizens Association

Reston 2020 Committee

March 14, 2012

Reston.2020@yahoo.com

Dulles Toll Road

Fact Sheet #3:  The Toll Surcharge

Put Dulles rail finances on the right track,

Not on the toll road user’s back!

If you are among the tens of thousands of Fairfax County residents who regularly use the Dulles Toll Road[1]—mostly commuters—you face a nearly $1,000 increase in your toll road costs next year as tolls double.  That’s a 0.9% toll surcharge in 2013 to pay for Dulles rail on the average Fairfax household income.  

Your real annual toll road costs will increase to almost $1,600 by 2020—a 1.5% toll surcharge for rail—and increase to well over $2,000 in real terms in 2023 and beyond.   The toll surcharge nearly reaches 3% in the out years.   

If your household income happens to be less than the median county household income (~$110,000 this year), your toll surcharge rate increases proportionally—a truly regressive surcharge on toll road users.  For example, a regular toll road user whose household income is $80,000 per year would face the same added costs.  These would be equivalent to a 1.2% toll surcharge next year and a 2.1% toll surcharge in 2020, and the rate would climb from there.

The reason regular toll road users will be forced to pay these extra thousands of dollars each year is that the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors agreed with Loudoun County and MWAA that toll road users should pay 75% of the cost of Phase 2 Silver Line construction absent other funding sources.  And no one else has stepped up.  That decision is subject to reconfirmation with the recent announcement of updated construction costs ($2.8 billion for Phase 2) and toll road traffic and revenue forecast.  The forecast is based on a preliminary estimate of borrowing costs for revenue bonds to pay for most of the new Metrorail line—and toll road users will pay off those revenue bonds.

Asking Dulles Toll Road users to absorb 75% of the cost of completing rail to Dulles is a very bad idea for toll road users and our communities.  Our leaders need to find alternative funding sources for the bulk the $2.8 billion Phase 2 construction cost ($2.1 billion now planned from tolls).  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 hold. 

Let our leaders know what you think of this “rail gone bad” idea.

·         Contact the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors at clerktothebos@fairfaxcounty.gov with your comments and concerns. 

o   Call Hunter Mill District Supervisor Cathy Hudgins at 703-478-0283.

o   Call Board Chairman Sharon Bulova at 703-324-2321.

·         Contact our local state legislators:

o   Senator Janet Howell:  SenHowell@aol.com, 703-324-2321.

o   Delegate Ken Plum:  kenplum@aol.com, 703-758-9733.

·         Contact our incoming and outgoing Congressional representatives using these forms—

o   Gerry Connolly:  https://forms.house.gov/connolly/contact-form.shtml

o   Jim Moran:  https://moran.house.gov/contact-me/email-me

·         Attend the public meetings to learn more and question County transportation officials about the toll increases. 

o   Wednesday, March 14, 6:30-8:00PM, Herndon:  Hutchison Elementary School Cafeteria, 13209 Parcher Ave., Herndon, VA

o   Thursday, March 15, 6:30-8:00PM, Falls Church:  Westgate Elementary School, 7500 Magarity Rd., Falls Church, VA

o   Friday, March 16, 7:00-9:00PM, Fairfax:  Fairfax County Government Center, Conf Rm 9/10 (Lobby level), 12000 Government Center Pkwy, Fairfax, VA

·         Attend and, if you wish, speak at the Public Hearing on Phase 2 of Dulles rail on Tuesday, March 20, at 5PM.  To sign up to speak at the hearing, please fill out the online form at  https://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/bosclerk/speaker­_bos.htm

·         Help RCA’s Reston 2020 Committee stop this inequitable toll surcharge by contacting Reston.2020@yahoo.com.

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[1] Regular toll road users use the Dulles Toll Road twice a day, 220 days per year or 44 work weeks.  The balance of the year, they have vacations, holidays, business travel, illness, or other considerations that keep them off the toll road.  We believe this is a conservative estimation of “regular” toll road use.

Dulles Toll Road Fact Sheet #2: Traffic Diversion, March 11, 2012

Reston Citizens Association
Reston 2020 Committee
March 9, 2012 (Rev: May 20, 2012)
Reston.2020@yahoo.com

Dulles Toll Road

Fact Sheet #2:  Traffic Diversion to Local Roads

Put Dulles rail finances on the right track,

Not on the toll road user’s back!

Are you ready for nearly 10,000 more cars per day on Reston’s streets?

If CDM Smith’s most recent traffic and revenue forecast (January 2012) is correct, about 34,000 vehicle trips per day will be added to the Dulles corridor’s local roads next year.  That includes some 9,800 trips per day added to Reston’s streets by our conservative estimate.  By mid-century, high tolls will see more than 100,000 added trips daily on local roads if MWAA’s official forecast is near accurate.

Smith projects an 18% reduction in Dulles Toll Road (DTR) transactions next year if tolls double to $4.50 as forecast.  With recent gross average daily traffic counts on the toll road running at some 189,000 vehicles per day (based on 2010 VDOT report), 34,000 vehicles will divert to local roads.  We expect 7,100 local Reston vehicles will avoid the DTR while another 2,700—ten percent of the total traffic diverted outside Reston—will add to Reston’s congestion.  In fact, two-thirds of the diversions are likely to occur in Loudoun County, and we would expect much of that traffic to take Rt. 7.

In the future, the traffic diversion problem becomes much worse as population and employment grows along the Dulles Corridor as the graphic below reflects.  Using MWAA’s official job and population forecasts for the primary Metrorail market through 2050, and discounting them generously to account for the availability of the SIlver Line, other public transit, and less driving, we anticipate that the number of trips diverted from the Dulles Toll Road because of high tolls will grow to more than 100,000 per day--a range of between 80,000 and 120,000 trips per day.  These trips would be absorbed by the toll road if the tolls remain constant in 2012 dollar terms.




 
Adding traffic to Reston and other Dulles corridor community roads is a very bad idea.  

• These roads are already congested—most of the nearby parallel roads in Reston carry an “F” grade for Level of Service (LOS)—and adding traffic will only aggravate congestion.  
• The County has no money and no plans to maintain, much less improve, any of these intensely trafficked alternative routes while it continues to complain to Richmond about its transportation funding needs in the short term.  
• It is an especially bad idea since there are no real public transportation options.  Phase 1 Metrorail service won’t begin until at least December 2013, and no area bus service improvements are planned.  
• Longer term, it is difficult to imagine that sufficient improvement could be made to the area’s roads--because of either physical or financial constraints--to prevent a serious deterioration in the area’s already serious traffic congestion.  
• On the other hand, the Dulles Toll Road will more and more become “The Highway of the One Percent” as only the wealthy are able to afford the skyrocketing tolls.

Asking Dulles corridor drivers to absorb 63% of the cost of completing rail to Dulles is a very bad idea for drivers and our communities.  Our leaders need to find alternative funding sources for the bulk the $2.8 billion Phase 2 construction cost ($2.1 billion now planned from tolls).  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 hold.