Greenway Toll Increases

Most everything rational that can be said quickly about the coming increases to the tolls on the Greenway has already been said over on Loudoun County Traffic.

The Virginia State Corporation Commission (SCC) has approved a revised toll structure for the privately owned Dulles Greenway that raises the maximum base toll ceiling for cars from $3 to $4. The modified toll structure is effective October 1. However, the new maximum allowable toll will not be reached until 2012.

A couple of quick thoughts.

- 5 years may seem like a long time, but it's not.

- The Greenway is only part of our transportation system. Higher tolls are a symptom of the fundamental ailment that is the ratio of roads to cars to miles traveled.

- All our issues are interrelated. Affordable housing, transportation, development, economic growth and diversity are all questions of growth and equitable allocation of benefits and costs. We cannot address one problem without considering the others.

If we solve our transportation problem, our individual costs go up and our quality of life may suffer. If we prioritize the preservation of low taxes and rural character, we doom the existing roads to gridlock and steeply erode the quality of life in some districts, if we prioritize property and home values, we price our teachers and public servants out of the county they serve.

At the end of the day, someone is going to be unhappy. The question, as in all questions of political economy, is who?