What's the deal with the South Bay Expressway (SR 125)? (bankruptcy, taxes)

[GoldenKiwi]

I've been heading to Eastlake more often lately and after using the toll road several times stopped taking it and now take the alternate route because I realized it wasn't saving much time and definitely not worth paying $5 round trip.

I'm aware of the history, it operated as public-private partnership known as South Bay Expressway LLC which declared bankruptcy in 2010 and was taken over by SANDAG the following year. According to an article cited on Wikipedia, the toll road was expected to have been paid off last year and yet according to the official website "At this point, there are no plans to completely eliminate the tolls on South Bay Expressway until the franchise agreement with the State of California runs out in 2042."

Why is this not funded by taxes? Obviously people having to pay to use the road is a massive deterrent to using it, especially when they can take an alternative route which only adds 5-10 minutes. No one is going to pay $5 round trip to save that little bit of time, as I have seen the few times (around 6 PM southbound, peak traffic time) I've used it that I was one of only a few cars using that entire section of freeway. Is SANDAG really so incompetent that they are willing to let a perfectly good freeway sit unused because rational people don't want to pay to use it?

[The Flying Dutchman]

The rational thing to do would be to toll major highways according to their demand, but your complaint illustrates this very clearly:

A toll-road sees much less use compared to a stretch of highway that most drivers perceive as "free". The same can be said for free vs. pay parking. If you want make an argument for paying for roads with taxes as well as reduced congestion, then you might start with pricing them according to demand. There's rationality for you.