http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/4907677.html County to take another look at doubling fees Commissioners Court says the toll is still likely to increase, but for a shorter 'peak' By BILL MURPHY and RAD SALLEE Copyright 2007 Houston Chronicle Harris County leaders said Wednesday that they may reconsider their decision to double peak-hour fees on the Westpark Tollway, but the review might not lead to a reduction in toll rates. Commissioners Court, instead, may focus on whether the peak periods could be shortened. Several Commissioners Court members received calls and e-mail criticizing their decision Tuesday to double tollway fees during peak hours. "My initial thought was to implement these changes and then review them," said County Judge Ed Emmett. "But my view may be changing on that." But unless the court revisits the issue, the Harris County Toll Road Authority plans to move forward with the new fee schedule in September, said Peter Key, the authority's deputy director. The authority would study whether the peak-hour fees should be lower or higher after they go into effect, he said. The toll road authority pushed for so-called congestion pricing during peak hours, hoping to reduce traffic on the tollway and allow it to begin moving at a 50 mph to 60 mph rate again, Key said. Commissioner Steve Radack said he wants the court to discuss congestion pricing further — and possibly reducing the hours during which the higher tolls are charged — at an upcoming meeting. The court authorized the toll road authority to set peak-hour pricing from 6 a.m. to 9 a.m. inbound and 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. outbound. Toll transactions along the main part of the tollway now cost $1. That fee will rise to $1.25 per transaction during nonpeak hours. And the rate during peak hours will be $2.50 per transaction. "I don't think we need three hours in the morning and three hours in the afternoon," Radack said. Radack on Tuesday said of drivers unhappy about peak-hour pricing, "Let them go down Richmond Road. Or they can use Westpark," a secondary road near the tollway. His office received a slew of phone calls and e-mail from residents critical of his comment, he said. Commissioner El Franco Lee said of the Westpark peak-hour pricing, "Nothing is so ironclad that you can't make it better and more palatable for the public." Toll road prices will go up 25 cents throughout the toll road system in September, Key said. When backups start Traffic experts concluded that traffic can move at 50 mph to 60 mph on the tollway when there are 3,600 vehicles passing a given area hourly, Key said. About 4,200 cars an hour now pass through key areas of the tollway during peak hours, causing backups, he said. A traffic consultant hired by the authority concluded that a peak-hour fee of $2.50 will drive off enough customers to reduce traffic to 3,600 vehicles an hour, Key said. It now costs about $2.35 to drive the 14-mile length of the tollway in Harris County, counting exit ramp fees. The court's vote Tuesday called for that price to rise to $5.50 at peak hours, Key said. Tolls wouldn't change on the Fort Bend County portion. Kyle Bigelow, an Alief resident who works as a systems analyst near the Galleria, said he will stop using the tollway if peak-hour pricing is instated. He now spends $1,200 a year on the tollway and can't afford to spend $2,400 to $3,000. "I'm still working at paying off my student loans," said Bigelow, 26. "The middle and lower classes can't afford this. They're basically reserving the tollway for the upper class. I don't find that fair." Bonnie Scott, in an e-mail, said, "I spend $150 a month on that toll road and now with this new increase you can bet I will go down Richmond. Maybe (Radack) has deep pockets, but I am just a 57-year-old taxpayer." The Houston 'model' Congestion pricing is used elsewhere in the country to keep traffic flowing. It hasn't been tried before in Texas, but the future Katy Freeway toll lanes are expected to have peak-hour pricing. "What's going on in Houston will be a model for what people around the state can look forward to," said Christopher Poe, director of the Center on Tolling Research at Texas Transportation Institute at Texas A&M University. The peak-hour prices on the tollway would raise the toll rate during regular hours from about 18 cents per mile to about 20 cents. The peak-hour rate would be about 42 cents. Some rates are much higher in other parts of the country. During peak hours on Friday afternoons, motorists on State Route 91 in the Los Angeles area pay nearly $1 per mile, or $9.50 for a 10-mile trip. "The idea is not to discourage use," Poe said. "It's to get people to change their schedules to reduce the demand at peak hours." Jim McGrath, spokesman for a group that wants Harris County District Clerk Charles Bacarisse to run for county judge, criticized the court for raising toll fees 25 cents throughout the system and imposing peak-hour fees on the Westpark Tollway. McGrath said Bacarisse agrees with the court that a bond package should be put before voters in November.
I'm not trying to intrude on your precious neighborhood, Fatty. No need to be defensive. What my business parter was referencing was the life cycle of a neighborhood. Neighborhoods built 40-50 years ago either begin to die or they regenerate. These neighborhoods are regenerating. Houses are torn down...new ones are built over it...and property values are jumping. Very similar to West U about 20 years ago. There is no city center in Houston. The population center of Houston is I-10 and Gessner. We have about 5 different downtowns.
Wow, you have a lot of trust in these guys... at least Harris county has proven itself to be much much better with toll road mgmt than TXDOT, but still... the question is whether we've already paid our transportation taxes through gas taxes and taxes to the federal gov (that are then returned to the State). Although TXDOT may not have been involved in that toll road, a recent study from A&M indicated that TXDOT was overestimating their budget shortfall by $30 Billion (ostensibly to push concession toll roads). Further, TXDOT supports only the concession approach making one wonder why? Harris county fought TXDOT on this issue in the legislature and won (http://www.tollroadsnews.com/node/184) , and now municipalities have right of first refusal so TXDOT can't jam concession toll roads down our throat (at least for a couple of years). There's billions of dollars involved... TXDOT stinks and I wouldn't blindly trust anyone involved. And as for the raising prices on this toll road, they're not raising prices to cover costs. They're raising prices to decrease transit times for people willing to pay more, while the rest (majority?) now will have increased transit times as more cars are forced onto alternate routes. So basically they make more money while increasing the divide betwen haves and have-nots?
http://abclocal.go.com/ktrk/story?section=local&id=5408692 No doubling of fees on Westpark Tollway Harris County Judge Ed Emmett announced at a press conference moments ago that doubling of fees on the Westpark Tollway during peak traffic hours is now dead. There had been a huge outcry from the public that the hike on the Westpark Tollway is just too much. It was just two days ago when county commissioners approved the hike. It calls for a 25 cent increase on Harris County toll roads. But it had also called for fees to double on the Westpark Tollway. "As it turns out, I and the commissioners, and I have been in consultation with the commissioners, particularly Commissioner (Steve) Radack, where the Westpark Tollway runs, and there's a problem. And the problem is that you can't have congestion pricing if you don't have a place where people can go to avoid congestion," said Judge Emmett this morning. "You can get them off Westpark, but where are you going to get them to go? With that in mind, we have come up with a plan to seek Westpark solutions and as of now, we are going to have on the next commissioners court, an agenda item in essence canceling the Westpark increase, the congestion fee." Currently, the Westpark Tollway costs $1. That fee will still rise to $1.25 during non-peak hours, but will not double to $2.50 during peak travel time. The recommendation to increase toll fees came from a private company hired by the county to conduct a traffic study on the toll road system. That traffic study blamed congestion on the Westpark Tollway on three things: People moving to Ft. Bend County Construction on I-10, pushing people to Westpark The congestion during peak hours
If you sensed any tension on my part, I apologize if you felt it directed at you at all... I think it's just a multi-multi-billion dollar boondoggle. Just raise the d*mn gas tax. Then people can't dig their hands in to get a piece of the pie.
They knew. All the land in Ft. Bend County was master planned, approved by the county judges and flipped 5 times at a profit by banks and investors back in the mid 1980's when I was a Land Planner. I'm talking 20,000 acres worth...300,000 people's worth. The reason the Westpark is so restriced is because it only has the 80' of Right of Way that was only there because the train tracks that were there were sold to Metro. The tracks were only sold because at the time, railroad mergers made them redundant to ther tracks up 90A and the Railroad made a ton of jack). For several yearsI 've been telling anyone who posted a thread about moving to Ft. Bend County that the tollway is going to be a nightmare. There are still literally a thousand more homes going up that will depend on it. Maybe they will spend all that extra revenue to double deck it. Actually the completion of I-10, US 59 and their interchanges with TX 99 will help, so it will get a little better in two or three years. A philisophical question: Would the tollway make more money with more cars going more slowly at a lower rate or with less cars going faster at a higher rate? 100x$1 = 50x$2. Question #2: Wouldn't the frustration of congestion motivate people to use the alternative surface streets the same as raising the toll?
