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Old 04-06-2019, 01:58 PM
 
Location: Philadelphia
273 posts, read 312,773 times
Reputation: 749

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Quote:
Originally Posted by MarketStEl View Post
That's good news, but the state's transportation funding mechanism still needs fixing.
I concur wholeheartedly. More on that in a minute.

Quote:
Originally Posted by MarketStEl View Post
Those requirements have also led to stiff toll hikes year after year for several years now. If things continue in this fashion, the tolls will price traffic passing through (instead of headed somewhere in) Pennsylvania off the highway completely...
The PA Turnpike’s current toll rates have been the subject of much hyperbole and handwringing. This needs to be brought into perspective.

When the Pennsylvania Turnpike opened in 1940, the toll rate was 1¢ per mile—and this was at a time when the cost of operating a motor vehicle was also roughly 1¢ per mile. In a now-infamous 1939 report by the Bureau of Public Roads, Toll Roads and Free Roads, the BPR predicted the financial failure of the PA Turnpike and other toll roads because the toll effectively represented a doubling of the motorist’s operating costs. Most motorists, the report concluded, would not bear such a cost for comparatively minor advantages in speed and convenience. The BPR report was proved utterly incorrect as PA Turnpike traffic exceeded its planners’ most optimistic projections and kicked off a toll road boom that lasted until feds began doling out free Interstate money in 1956.

Using the CPI, the most conservative of methods for calculating the historical value of money, that 1¢ toll in 1940 is equivalent to about 10¢ today. And what is today’s outrageous, obscene toll? If you have E-ZPass (as do the vast majority of Turnpike users): 11¢. About a cent higher than inflation itself. And in today’s environment, that 11¢ toll no longer represents a doubling of the motorist’s cost of operation, which AAA estimates to be about 54¢ for a midsize car. Further, the CPI does not account for the rampant inflation in highway construction costs, which the US DOT says soared nearly 70% in the past 15 years alone.

For comparison, the toll on I-95 in Delaware (a.k.a. the “Delaware Turnpike”) works out to 17¢ per mile—and is strategically placed on the state border so that Delaware residents who don’t go into Maryland never pay a penny in I-95 tolls. Nationally, PA Turnpike toll rates are solidly mid-pack; they're higher than most of the Northeastern turnpikes but lower than any of the toll roads in Virginia, Illinois, or Texas.

The fact that PA Turnpike tolls have not yet exceeded the public’s willingness to pay them is evidenced by traffic volume trends, which continue to show long-term growth. Volumes fluctuate month by month, but comparing last month’s report with the same period in 2010, passenger car traffic is up by about 12%; heavy trucks by 39%. This is despite tolls having increased substantially every year during that period.

n.b.: the above does not mean that the the PTC isn’t in a precarious financial position, because it is. Nor is anything I’ve written intended to be an endorsement of the shell game created by Acts 44 and 89 or of the efficiency and propriety of the PTC—which are separate issues. But for all of the borderline clickbait news stories loudly proclaiming each toll increase, their comment sections predictably jammed with blowhards railing that they’ll never drive the Turnpike again, those shunpikers apparently represent an insignificant minority. The facts are clear: Traffic counts and toll collections both continue to rise every year.

Quote:
Originally Posted by MarketStEl View Post
...we have to find something else to fund mass transit.
Yes, and that brings us back to Act 44, which had at its core the tolling of I-80. I can’t bring myself to understand the logic of those responsible for drafting the I-80 tolling application to the FHWA. As I understand it, PennDOT basically submitted an application that said “Please let us toll I-80 so we can spend the money on mass transit.” The FWHA responded “No—you have to spend I-80 toll revenues on I-80. Try again.” So PennDOT applied again: “Please let us toll I-80 so we can spend the money on mass transit.” And this pointless loop went around one more time before the FHWA told PennDOT to get lost. (Please correct me if this is not accurate.) If this is true and the Biehler administration saw the writing on the wall, why didn’t they modify the proposal so that I-80 toll revenues would be spent on I-80? Doing so wouldn’t have solved the transit funding issue entirely, but it would have at least freed some of PennDOT’s other funding sources that otherwise would have been needed to maintain I-80.

Why didn’t PennDOT apply to institute tolls on the free portion of I-76 (i.e. the Schuylkill Expressway)? Unlike I-80 or rural sections of the Turnpike, here we have a much stronger correlation between people who could and should be using SEPTA services instead of driving—or—would be benefitting directly from the diversion of commuters onto public transportation. Further, I wonder what ability the FHWA would have to restrict the state from tolling the Schuylkill. The entirety of the highway (originally PA 43) was already either under construction or complete prior to passage of the 1956 Act granting 90% federal funds for Interstates. At most, the Schuylkill may have qualified for 50-50 funding under earlier federal acts, but it might have been self-funded by PA. I’m not sure if any of that affects Pennsylvania’s ability to enact tolls on the Schuylkill Expressway, but certainly, the fact that the road predates the Interstate funding scheme severely undermines the critics who argue that the state has no right to toll a road that “the feds paid for”.

Not long ago, another poster started a thread asking the best route to commute from Ardmore to Center City by car—“...just in case, you know, I don’t feel like taking the incredibly convenient train service at my doorstep.” (I’m paraphrasing.) The fact that anyone with such a tailor-made transit commute would casually make such a statement is, I think, a clear sign that we don’t yet have the proper incentives to discourage unnecessary use of private cars. Schuylkill tolls and a Center City congestion charge could effectively serve that purpose while providing vital funding to SEPTA at the same time.

Ultimately, though, the root problem—as is the case with so many of Pennsylvania’s ills—is our counterproductive fractionalization. Companies may prefer suburban campuses where their employees aren’t faced with tolls or congestion charges in much the same way they’ve fled to evade various city taxes and regulations. On the other hand, if similar but perhaps slightly lower tolls were also added to other suburban highways and the cost of driving was closer to being harmonized across the region, the modestly higher costs of locating in Center City may seem minor compared with the inherent benefits of a central location.

Where I lived in Marin County, CA, we paid a 0.5% rider on top of California’s sales tax to support the county’s transit system plus an additional 0.25% to fund the joint Sonoma-Marin commuter train (which wasn’t yet operational at the time). I imagine doing something like that here to fund SEPTA would require approval from Harrisburg, but it would help to quell criticism that Philadelphia is funding its transit on the backs of rural Pennsylvania (another specious claim)—while simultaneously putting more of suburbanites’ skin in the game and being rather difficult for them to dodge.

Last edited by briantroutman; 04-06-2019 at 02:08 PM..
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Old 04-06-2019, 10:04 PM
 
Location: Germantown, Philadelphia
13,945 posts, read 8,793,611 times
Reputation: 10256
briantroutman: Your description of the repeated attempts Pennsylvania made to get the Feds to approve tolls on I-80 for purposes the legislation allowing demonstration projects for tolled Interstates forbade is accurate. From what I understand, though, what they did was try to ****** the figures so that it looked like the total revenue they planned to raise from tolls on I-80 were going to maintain that highway when they weren't.

I was reporting on transportation still then, and at one SEPTA board meeting, I asked one of the board staff why the state was applying one more time after having had their previous attempts rejected. "We figured that with the change in administration in Washington, we might have a better chance." Our lawmakers are even dumber than I thought they were.

Nothing should stand in the way of Pennsylvania tolling old PA 43 if it wanted to.
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Old 04-08-2019, 07:41 AM
 
Location: New York City
9,334 posts, read 9,191,704 times
Reputation: 6418
Thoughts on Lauren Vidas for 2nd district against Kenyetta? I like what I have read so far.

https://www.philly.com/news/lauren-vidas-20190408.html
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Old 04-08-2019, 08:28 AM
 
5,546 posts, read 6,827,966 times
Reputation: 3825
Quote:
Originally Posted by cpomp View Post
Thoughts on Lauren Vidas for 2nd district against Kenyetta? I like what I have read so far.

https://www.philly.com/news/lauren-vidas-20190408.html
I'd be willing to vote for her just because she's not Kenyatta. Could someone be worse?
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Old 04-08-2019, 09:11 AM
 
Location: New York City
9,334 posts, read 9,191,704 times
Reputation: 6418
Quote:
Originally Posted by AJNEOA View Post
I'd be willing to vote for her just because she's not Kenyatta. Could someone be worse?
Exactly, lol. Can't get much worse.

But from what I have read she seems like a level headed, educated and logical candidate, something we need more of in Philadelphia.
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Old 04-08-2019, 09:13 AM
 
Location: New York City
9,334 posts, read 9,191,704 times
Reputation: 6418
Great article about Northern Liberties (specifically the Piazza and its future). There is not pay wall, its Philly Mag.

https://www.phillymag.com/news/2019/...post-brothers/
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Old 04-08-2019, 10:08 AM
 
10,787 posts, read 8,664,920 times
Reputation: 3983
Quote:
Originally Posted by AJNEOA View Post
I'd be willing to vote for her just because she's not Kenyatta. Could someone be worse?
Yes, the person who preceded him, Anna Verna.
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Old 04-08-2019, 10:12 AM
 
10,787 posts, read 8,664,920 times
Reputation: 3983
Quote:
Originally Posted by cpomp View Post
Exactly, lol. Can't get much worse.

But from what I have read she seems like a level headed, educated and logical candidate, something we need more of in Philadelphia.
But it was worse before him. Anna Verna who was S. Philly's version of Jannie Blackwell.
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Old 04-08-2019, 04:07 PM
 
Location: New York City
9,334 posts, read 9,191,704 times
Reputation: 6418
This California banker bet on turning around Philly’s Hahnemann Hospital. He’s running out of time

https://www.philly.com/business/hahn...-20190408.html
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Old 04-09-2019, 01:34 PM
 
10,787 posts, read 8,664,920 times
Reputation: 3983
Quote:
Originally Posted by cpomp View Post
This California banker bet on turning around Philly’s Hahnemann Hospital. He’s running out of time

https://www.philly.com/business/hahn...-20190408.html
As the article says it's been on "life support" for a long time. Sad to see it go, if it does, since Hahnemann has such a historical medical profile.
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