So all day yesterday, we heard people complaining about about the Harris County commissioners' proposal to raise the cost of using the county toll road system — and we even added our two cents. But is the rate increase a done deal? No, according to KHOU, which reports that commissioners approved a "toll-setting policy" on Tuesday, with the actual toll increase decision still to come in another vote. Or yes, according to KTRK, which says that County Judge Ed Emmett's office confirmed the vote was final and "the only thing left to decide is when it will be implemented." Whatever's going on, one thing seems clear: People aren't happy with the proposed toll hikes. Eighty percent of respondents to an online KHOU poll said the increases are a bad idea, and one KTRK viewer called them "very communistic." Well, uh ... OK.
At the center of criticism of the toll increase is a proposed doubling of rates on the Westpark Tollway during peak driving hours, a move county toll road officials could help reduce congestion on the road. According to the Chronicle, the county Commissioners Court approved peak-hour pricing between 6 and 9 a.m. for inbound traffic and 4 and 7 p.m. for outbound traffic. With the general 25-cent increase in tolls countywide, that means tolls on the Westpark would increase to $2.50 during those hours. On Tuesday, County Commissioner Steve Radack told motorists unhappy about the peak pricing proposal that they could use Westpark Drive or Richmond Avenue instead of the tollway, a comment that didn't go over well: Radack said yesterday that his office got a bunch of angry calls, and now he's wondering whether there really need to be six peak hours a day. "I don't think we need three hours in the morning and three hours in the afternoon," Radack told the Chronicle.
The peak pricing plan came from a traffic consultant the Harris County Toll Road Authority hired to look at the way vehicles move on the Westpark Tollway. The consultants determined that traffic can go between 50 and 60 mph on the Westpark when 3,600 vehicles pass a given area in an hour. Right now, about 4,200 vehicles pass certain areas in an hour, so the peak pricing is expected to knock that back down to 3,600. But even that doesn't mean the peak pricing is a good idea, the reformed Radack told KTRK: "Just because there is a recommendation from a company that supposedly knows what they are doing, that doesn't mean that is how it is necessarily going to be."
The Chronicle found a couple of motorists unhappy with the proposal, including Kyle Bigelow of Alief, who said he spends $1,200 a year commuting on the Westpark now and will stop using the road if the increase goes into effect. "I'm still working at paying off my student loans," Bigelow said. "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." And yet it's far from unheard of, Christopher Poe, director of Texas A&M's Center for Tolling Research (yes, there is such a thing). "What's going on in Houston will be a model for what people around the state can look forward to," Poe said. "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."
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