09-15-2019, 07:03 PM
Will Aldurians Pay to Drive? Punta Santiago Considers Tolled Express Lanes to Curb Congestion
NARBONNE, ALDURIA (NABC NEWS) -- You might one day be able to pay to beat traffic coming in and out of Punta Santiago.
City officials are looking at how to create express highway lanes that drivers pay a toll to access - a recommendation out of a congestion report recently issued by the administration of Mayor Joe Gagarin. The idea has raised concerns about equity and highway expansion.
"Once you get in the lanes, it will be like free sailing," says Angela Grenier, an urban planner involved in the City of Punta Santiago report. She lives in Narbonne and regularly drives into Punta Santiago for work. "This can really help relieve congestion as our country keeps growing."
The lanes vary in price depending on traffic. If traffic increases, the price of the lanes increases too. The idea is that some drivers, like Grenier, will move out of the general lanes and into the express lanes — and ideally, speed things up on both sides in the process.
The rapid economic and population growth across Alduria has revealed the serious problems the country faces as its transportation infrastructure struggles to grow with it.
Local governments are increasingly exploring more ways to make existing infrastructure work better and planning for the construction of new highways, rail, and even mass transit systems. But the national government is ignoring the problem and it's starting to not sit well with the average Aldurian, according to Michael Roberts, the director of the advocacy group Transportation for Alduria.
"Instead of pricing people out of the existing infrastructure, we should be focused on expanding our current roads and railways, not to mention build mass transit systems that can usher people in and out quickly and efficiently," says Roberts. "We need more investment in infrastructure, otherwise, our economy will feel the hit."
Joan Albion, president of the Alduria Taxpayers Foundation, says express lanes are worth exploring but the government should try to get people to ditch their cars altogether by adding tolls. "There are a lot of roads in Alduria that we don't toll that we could use that money to help invest in public transit to accelerate the improvements and the modernization so that we have public transit as a viable alternative," says Albion, who was also vice-chair of the City of Punta Santiago's commission on the future of transportation.
There's no single solution to traffic. The report on congestion makes several other recommendations, including improving public transit and increasing telecommuting.