(The Center Square) — A new report illustrates the complexity of replacing the state’s gas tax with other fees, even as fuel efficiency renders the fund – and its support of road and bridge repair – more useless by the year.
It’s a bind the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation has been stuck in for years. Various proposals to raise revenues – including an unpopular plan to toll nine interstate bridges that was later struck down by Commonwealth Court – have been rejected by legislators who recoil at the thought of pressing taxpayers for more money.
But legal and political hurdles aren’t the only problems that come with plans to add tolls.
A case study of how traffic would change if a nominal toll were added to Girard Point Bridge in Philadelphia illustrates the trade-offs: PennDOT could raise significant revenue, but traffic time would increase — as would emissions.
The study, done for the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission and funded with a grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation, estimated a $1 toll on the bridge would bring in about $30,500 per day and $46,700 per day with a $2 toll during morning peak hours. Annually, those tolls would be $11.1 million and $17 million, respectively.
Those numbers, however, are only a rough estimate. Researchers used a generic model and not one fine-tuned to account for all potential changes that would happen locally.
Such a toll would cause significant diversions.
“In our simulation, 65% of travelers will adapt to this tolling and may change their routes while the remaining 35% travelers will still stick to the pre-determined routes,” the study noted.
Significant amounts of extra traffic would head toward the George C. Platt Memorial Bridge and Passyunk Avenue Bridge instead, driving up emissions and commuting times. State officials, with the Girard Point Bridge and others across the state, must weigh when the need for revenue outweighs the potential costs of extra traffic elsewhere.
“We’re talking about how to make a good compromise among different stakeholders,” Sean Qian, a civil and environmental engineering professor at Carnegie Mellon University and co-author of the study, said. “PennDOT, I do see their perspective because it’s important to have extra revenue to fix the infrastructure. Especially for Pennsylvania, it’s a big challenge.”
Legislators and leaders have not found one funding mechanism to unite behind, as The Center Square previously reported. Public input could help narrow down the options.
“The government agency has to work with all the stakeholders, all the community members to make sure it’s an equitable pricing scheme,” Qian said. “The pricing issue is very hard, it’s hard to get a compromise.”
Getting a better grasp of the rough cost of tolling or taxation or other forms of revenue generation can also help.
“Sometimes they don’t even have the numbers to make a decision,” Qian said. “Quantitative data-driven models at a very large scale can help decision making.”
