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Greenbelt Alliance In the News

February 25, 2004

Transportation's toll

Subheading

Get more buses, more ferries, more train stations, proponents say. Get another piece to the funding puzzle for a renovated interchange when Interstate 680 meets Interstate 80 in Solano County.

That's the pitch from backers of Regional Measure 2. The measure is on the March 2 ballot.

No thanks, commuter Jill Bragg said. Day after day, she pays $2 to cross the Benicia Bridge. If the toll hike passes, that will rise to $3.

"It adds that much more to your cost of working and your cost of living," Bragg said.

Plus, Bragg doubts all of those promised transportation projects will create anything close to a commuter heaven on the freeways.

"I'd still see just as much congestion, given that we have more and more people moving to the area," Bragg said.

This debate will soon end. Voters in Solano, Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, San Mateo, Santa Clara and San Francisco counties will decide. A majority vote passes the toll hike.

The $1 increase would be permanent unless changed by future laws. The Bay Area Toll Authority would get the power to increase the toll still further, but only temporarily to avoid defaulting on bonds. That's in case toll revenues suddenly dipped for some unforeseen reason and couldn't cover bonds already issued.

Solano County Projects

Solano County would get around $224 million during the next 30 years from the toll hike for an array of local projects, plus $6.1 million annually in transit operating money.

There's money for roads, rails and ferries. There's money to buy buses and money to operate them.

"There's money for all modes in all cases," Fairfield Transportation Manager Kevin Daughton said. "That's a rare legislative package."

The biggest local item is $100 million to help fix the I-680/I-80 interchange. This interchange is the worst freeway bottleneck in the county.

Toll money wouldn't be enough to build a project estimated to cost $740 million to more than $1 billion, but it would help, local transportation officials said.

It would be nice if the federal government paid for the interchange, Supervisor John Silva said last fall. But federal lawmakers just smile and say they will give money only if local money is on the table, he said.

The Board of Supervisors then endorsed the toll hike measure.

"It's distasteful to voters," Silva said. "It's distasteful to us up here. But we need to move forward and take care of the problem."

The toll hike allots $25 million for local rail projects, including building a Fairfield-Vacaville train stop near Travis Air Force Base. Commuters could someday take trains to the Bay Area from this stop.

Solano County has one existing train stop, the Suisun-Fairfield station in Old Town, Suisun City.

Fairfield and Vacaville could open a train stop before 2008 with the toll money, Daughton said. The date depends partly on working out an agreement with Union Pacific on a track alignment. Union Pacific owns the train tracks and wants to make certain passenger service doesn't hurt its freight service.

The Fairfield Transportation Center, Curtola Park-and Ride lot in Vallejo, Vacaville intermodal station and proposed Benicia train-and-bus station would be the only projects eligible for $20 million of toll money to be awarded by the Bay Area Toll Authority, the agency controlling the toll bridges.

For example, Fairfield's transportation center at Beck Avenue and West Texas Street has a three-level parking garage. This garage is often almost full, Daughton said. Toll hike money could help pay for another parking structure to serve commuters who drive there to catch car pools and buses.

The measure also awards $28 million to Vallejo for a ferry/bus station and makes $20 million in grants available to North Bay express bus services.

Fifty million dollars would help pay for the new Benicia Bridge span, which is already under construction. Money from a 1988 toll hike was to pay for it. Then cost overruns hit, raising the estimated price from $586 million to $904.8 million.

Skeptical Commuters

Some commuters don't like the economics of the toll hike.

A commuter crossing one toll bridge 240 times a year pays $480 annually with the existing $2 toll. The $3 toll would raise this to $720 a year.

"Every time something comes up, they want to raise the toll," Fairfield resident Ricardo Aguilar said. "I don't want to call it a toll, it's a tax. It's a tax I can't deduct."

Fairfield resident David Thacker said people can drive from Vallejo to Chicago with no toll. Yet they pay $2 to drive over the Carquinez Bridge and commute between Vallejo and neighboring Crockett.

He predicted toll money spent on transit won't ease local congestion. The densities don't exist locally for transit to succeed, he said.

"If I could get to work in less than an hour taking the train, I'd do it," Thacker said.

But by the time he drives from his house to the existing Suisun-Fairfield station, takes the train to Martinez, then takes buses to his job, 1.5 hours have passed, he said.

Thacker predicted a new Vacaville-Fairfield station would serve next to nobody.

Still, he believes the $3 toll is coming.

"I think it's a no-brainer, it's going to pass, the reason being most people don't cross the bridge each day," Thacker said.

Fairfield resident Joseph Conway defined toll bridges as purposefully created traffic jams to generate revenues.

"Let's not continue making the mistake of throwing money away on bridges that have been paid for many times over," he said. "If tolls continue to be raised very few years, when will it end?"

Supporters

Fairfield resident Lewis McCreaven collected tolls at regional bridges for 22 years. He drives over the bridges occasionally and doesn't mind paying another dollar.

"It's not going to make me or break me," McCreaven said.

Among those endorsing the measure is the Greenbelt Alliance, a group devoted to preserving open space in the Bay Area.

"Our broader vision is if you have better transit systems, like BART and buses, it helps prevent sprawl," said Dan Fahey, communications director for the group.

The Greenbelt Alliance promotes the "livable city" concept of having higher-density development around transit centers. These developments can mix residences with offices and other uses.

"That's the type of thing we believe Regional Measure 2 will help encourage," Fahey said. "It's not going to solve all the region's transportation problems, but it's a start."

The Fairfield City Council also endorsed the toll increase. One reason is that toll money could be used for a match to get more federal money for such projects as fixing the I-80/I-680 interchange.

"I think there's never going to be a perfect tax," City Councilwoman Marilyn Farley said. "But I know we have a lot of problems with people getting to and from work. We know I-80 and I-680 is a commuter's nightmare."

Tolls through the years

Toll amounts have varied through the decades. The Carquinez Bridge opened in 1927 with a toll of 60 cents - about $5.75 in today's dollars.

But the Carquinez Bridge was privately owned. Toll money had to pay the $8 million pricetag.

California bought the bridge in 1940 and made the crossing free in 1945. As recently as 1988, the tolls for the Carquinez and Benicia-Martinez bridges stood at 40 cents and the Antioch Bridge toll at 50 cents.

Voters that year approved a measure raising tolls to $1. It paid for such things as a new Benicia Bridge span, which is under construction, and a new Carquinez Bridge, which opened last year.

The Legislature in 1998 raised tolls to $2. The extra dollar paid to make several of the bridges safer for earthquakes, including the Benicia and Carquinez bridges.

Now voters will decide whether tolls remain where they are or rise to help pay for what has so far proved an elusive dream - a less-congested Bay Area.

Reach Barry Eberling at 425-4646 Ext. 232 or at beberling@dailyrepublic.net.

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