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This should get interesting quickly. Today the state of Rhode Island/Raimondo administration announced the locations of 14 proposed toll gantries for tolling commercial trucks.
Location: Earth, a nice neighborhood in the Milky Way
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ocngypz
The RT 6 and 10 interchange????????? Ugh........it's already a bottleneck.
Well, I don't know, but I would hope they would go all electronic tolling, without a cash option... I say hope not because I think cash transaction options should be eliminated, but because that number of gantries in such a small state would create congestion, increase pollution, etc.
I could have sworn I'd heard it was all going to be electronic. And that's what "gantry" means. It's a common setup -- vehicles have transponders and can drive through as fast as 60 mph (or maybe even faster). There are no lane divisions. I'm almost certain the Pell Bridge has it going into Newport.
Location: Earth, a nice neighborhood in the Milky Way
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Quote:
Originally Posted by boulevardofdef
I could have sworn I'd heard it was all going to be electronic. And that's what "gantry" means. It's a common setup -- vehicles have transponders and can drive through as fast as 60 mph (or maybe even faster). There are no lane divisions. I'm almost certain the Pell Bridge has it going into Newport.
Yes, I recall hearing the same thing, though when I did a quick initial search I did not confirm that...
A gantry by definition does not necessarily have anything to do with tolls. But you are right, in the context of tolls, a gantry implies electronic tolling, unless they're going to post eagle-eyed RITBA employees up there to take notes on who passes through.
Better search terms yield the following:
Quote:
Under the revised proposal, tolls would be collected from large trucks on 17 bridges across the state using electronic gantries. The maximum toll for a trip across the state would be $30, down from $40 to $50. The median toll per bridge would be $3.50, down from $6. Total toll payments per day by any truck would be capped at $60, in addition to the previously announced cap of one toll payment per gantry in each direction per day.
By 2025 new vehicles must, by law, run at an average efficiency of 54.5 miles per gallon. That is good news for the environment and motorists (less petrol burned and bought for a given journey). But it is deeply worrying for governments. Roads and highways are funded by the state and federal taxes that drivers pay at the pump. Fewer petrol purchases means a drop in tax revenue.
We all know that Rhode Island's roads and bridges are in horrendous shape. We are going to have to make some tough choices to repair them, and we ought to have a plan to fund their maintenance as well. Revenue streams should be constitutionally guaranteed to pay for transportation infrastructure and protected from going into the general fund, but I don't know how that can be accomplished in this state.
I am particularly concerned that in their haste to get this done, they are unlikely to implement a plan that works on the first try. Raimondo and RIDOT have not really thought this through. Their lack of transparency on this issue hurts our ability to implement a plan that will work by very nature of not subjecting it to criticism. If they rush this, they will mess this up.
Personally, I can't really think of a reason to oppose this plan. Local drivers don't pay tolls. Traffic patterns don't change. The state gets more money to pay for road maintenance. The increased maintenance creates jobs. I believe in-state companies will get tax incentives and reduced registration fees to offset the cost of the tolls. If those incentives are substantial enough, Rhode Island residents shouldn't be hit with higher prices for products and services provided by truck. (There may be price increases for commerce from adjacent states, but that could even be interpreted as a good thing, as it gives Rhode Island businesses a competitive advantage.)
I can only come up with two valid reasons to oppose this: Either you're involved with the national trucking industry or you have a moral objection to any additional government collection of revenue.
On the subject of interstate tolling, I've always been under the impression that it was illegal unless the highway existed prior to the creation of the interstate-highway system. The same goes for service plazas. But that seems as if it may not be true for I-66 in Virginia, so I don't know, maybe the laws have changed.
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