HARRISBURG PA – The 25-mile stretch of limited-access, four-lane U.S. Route 422 between King of Prussia and Reading PA will be promoted June 6 (2011; Monday) as a potential model for tolling highways across the state in answer to Pennsylvania’s need for increased transportation funding, The Pennsylvania Independent online news service reported Friday (May 27).
The 30-member executive commission, appointed by Gov. Tom Corbett, will see a presentation demonstrating how tolls would work on Route 422 in Montgomery, Chester and Berks counties, The Independent said. The commission is “looking for a way to generate more than $2.5 billion in annual transportation funding in the post-stimulus environment of declining federal spending on infrastructure,” it added.
The commission’s meeting intends to “focus on ways to make transportation spending more efficient and effective, including cost-saving proposals with revenue-raising options,” The Independent quoted state Secretary of Transportation Barry Schoch as saying. “I think it is appropriate for any commission that is examining financing to look at how we are spending the current dollars,” Schoch said.
The article did not report who would make the presentation, but proposals to impose tolls on 422 automotive traffic have been advocated for almost two years by the Philadelphia-based Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission (DVRPC) and affiliated agencies.
A Route 422 Master Plan created by DVRPC identifies the need to relieve the highway’s congestion, and the agency has consistently said tolls may be the best way to raise funds to solve the problem. It also continues to study tolls as a prime revenue-generating option. The master plan itself has been endorsed by Limerick (PA) Township supervisors, rejected by the Pottstown Borough Council, and received no comment from Lower Pottsgrove commissioners.
- Read a story by reporter Eric Boehm, titled “Tolling, possible savings on Transportation Funding Commission agenda” and published Friday by The Independent, here.
Related (to U.S. Route 422 Corridor planning):
- Exec Highway Group To Hear Rt. 422 Tolling As ‘Model’
- 422 Questions Answered, For Your Viewing Pleasure
- In 422 Tolling, Planners Say, Studying Doesn’t Make It So
- Former Reporter Asks Commissioners To Support 422 Tolls
- Online Survey Seeks Opinions On Local Road Congestion
- 422 Plus Project Plays Offense With FAQs Debut
- Peering Into The Future? Gov’s Bridge Proposal And 422
- Another Township Endorses 422 Master Plan
- Neighboring Limerick Supervisors Endorse 422 Master Plan
- Understand 422 Plan Endorsement, Lower Pottsgrove Advised
- Lower Pottsgrove Holds On 422 Plan Endorsement
- Engineers Claim PA Roads Worse Now Than In 2006
- Tuesday Session Tackles Funding For 422 And Elsewhere
- Tolls, Lower Pottsgrove Station Part Of 422 Plan
- Pending Decision May Affect Route 422 Projects
- Last Day For Your Say On Route 422 Plan
- Notebook Worthy (Aug. 24, 2009)
- Consultants Express Interest In Studying 422
- Don’t Like 422 Tolling? Website Wants Your Alternative
- Truckers Alerted On Highway Partnerships Bill
- In 422 Debate, Time A Hindrance And Help
- Notebook Worthy (June 29, 2009)
- Growth, Planners Say, Is 422’s Growing Problem
- Tech Used To Draw For 422 Meetings
- Route 422 Toll Meetings Next Week
- 422 Repairs, Delays Start Tuesday
- 422 Proposal, Like Traffic, Creeps Ahead
- Got A Route 422 Idea? Time To Air It
- Train Service On The Front Burner Once More
Graphic from The Pennsylvania Independent
The 422 tolling issue is a prime example of a government entity capitalizing on a self-created flaw to increase its own size, power and revenue.
Any person who drives in the 422-East AM-rush learns quickly about the “snake”. The snake is a line of slow moving traffic which forms a head at the Trooper Road on-ramp immediately west of the Betzwood Bridge and grows ever-westward as the AM rush continues. The tail will often reach the Collegeville interchange, but often can grow as far west as the Royersford or even Limerick interchanges. As you travel eastward in the AM rush you will undoubtedly run into the tail of the snake and become inexorably bonded to it. The snake moves eastward at an average speed of about 20-25 MPH in fits and starts. This on a road which was designed to carry 55 MPH traffic, but which is safely traversed routinely at 70 MPH.
Those caught in the snake soon realize that the snake spits them out of its mouth as they cross the Betzwood Bridge. Here the average traffic speed rapidly increases to about 50-55 MPH as motorists proceed along that few mile stretch of 422 to their KofP exits, the headwaters of the Schuykill Xway, and the PaTpk entrance.
The cause of the snake is NOT the Betzwood Bridge as many have suggested. This is obvious from the observed fact that the snake begins to disintegrate as you enter the Betzwood Bridge. That’s where you notice the first increase in the average traffic speed. The problem, which is the cause of the snake, is the Trooper On-Ramp. If the problem were the Betzwood Bridge, traffic would continue at the 20-25 MPH rate completely across the bridge itself. That is rarely the case.
Who decided to build that Trooper On-Ramp right exactly at that location some 30 years ago? PennDot. Who cast that On-Ramp in concrete? PennDot. Who has NEVER made any effort whatsoever to remedy the situation? PennDot. PennDot has a habit of creating problems and leaving them for people to suffer thru for decades. Example – the Route 100 traffic light timings; layouts at Upland Square and Shoemaker Road. Expect that situation to persist for at least 20 years before it is corrected in some way.
Now, the FLAW, which is the Trooper On-Ramp, is being used to promote the overwhelmingly unpopular 422 toll system. How the tolls will be used to fix the flaw and allow traffic to flow at the design speed of 55 MPH during the AM-rush is hardly ever discussed. The usual proposed remedy is to build another lane on the Betzwood Bridge or an additional bridge for the Trooper Road traffic a bit further north of the existing bridge. We can’t do that without tolling 422?
We could, but that wouldn’t produce the desired effect of the tolling – to create a new revenue stream and thus a new, or at least expanded, government entity. Thus, all of the emphasis is placed on the tolling and not on simply solving the problem created by that decades-old flaw – the Trooper On-Ramp.
By the way, the plan to toll 422 does not include installing toll booths and toll plazas. The plan is to use a combination of EZ-Pass and Big Brother instant photography of license plates at the entrance ramps. The system is already half in place. As you travel eastward on 422 there is a digital sign just east of Collegeville which provides helpful time-to-travel information (e.g. “X minutes to Pa Tpk”, etc.). That information is obtained by reading EZ-Pass tags as they pass under that sign, reading them again at several antenna locations in KofP, and then calculating the average speed of the vehicles bearing the matching EZ-Pass tag numbers. With the current state of technology it won’t take much to connect this existing system to your EZ-Pass account or your credit card number.
Right now the promoters are talking about the same per-mile toll as the PaTpk. I think that works out to about $2.50 one-way from Douglassville to KofP, proportionately less as you would enter on more eastward interchanges. My prediction is that tolling will start at a much lower rate, to make it acceptable to the commuting motorists. More like 50 cents one-way. The important goal is to get the tolling system established, then they can turn up the spigot to the $2.50 and beyond levels once the public is “properly trained”. Then you’ll be swallowed by a different “snake”.
Troll system model … Bahh!
We pay taxes and fuel fe’s for road maintenance. We don’t need to troll Route 422.
Let’s Troll Route 76 Down into Philadelphia, or Route 202, or Route 309, or Route 1. Stop picking on us out here who commute into the work environment of KOP.
Let’s get PennDOT to start spending money on maintenance instead of cameras and muliti-million dollar systems to watch the overcrowded and poorly designed roadways.
Just got back from Disney on Orlando. Wouldn’t it be great if we built a monorail down the center of 422 all to the way to KOP starting say in Douglassville? People could use this system if there were connections at the end to get them to their offices.
Troll 422 no way!!!!!