Thursday, March 26, 2009
Metro columnist Dan Casey: Should tolls be part of scenic shortcut?
Photos by Eric Brady | The Roanoke Times
The idea of tolls or fees for commuters on the Blue Ridge Parkway has been rebuffed in the past, but some want to revisit it.
Traffic counters in February tallied more than 24,000 cars on the Blue Ridge Parkway at Virginia 24 near Vinton, but totals were less than a third of that at the Peaks of Otter.
Dan Casey is The Roanoke Times' metro columnist.
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Dan Casey
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If you're in a hurry and you need to get from Clearbrook in southern Roanoke County to the eastern county section of Bonsack, there is exactly one quick and hassle-free road you want to take: the Blue Ridge Parkway.
So many Roanoke-area drivers have happily discovered this nifty National Park Service shortcut that it's often swarming with rush-hour motorists. Some wags already call it the "Wal-Mart Expressway."
Spend any weekday evening on that gorgeous blacktop ribbon and you'll see what I mean. Long lines of hurrying-to-get-home commuters zip along at 50 to 60 mph or so, unimpeded by traffic lights, stop signs or typical traffic bottlenecks.
That's one of the reasons it's time to reconsider an idea floated but rebuffed in the past: tolls, or some sort of fee system, for parkway users who get a free ride now.
If you're thinking, "That darn Casey is one of those infernal parkway bicyclists who doesn't like all that traffic," you're partly right.
But what you may not know is that all those motorists are helping to wear out that beautiful road much faster than the National Park Service's repaving budget can handle.
Cracks, ruts, potholes
You can see the surface cracks in the parkway just about anywhere in the Roanoke Valley.
In a few places, such as near the bridge over the Roanoke River, or near Bonsack, there are 3-inch-deep potholes. Between Roanoke Mountain and Explore Park, you can find deep ruts in the edge of the pavement. Those are dangerous both for drivers and cyclists.
Right now there's neither the money nor the manpower to fix these things.
According to Joe Aull, the Asheville, N.C.-based administrative officer for the parkway:
-- The parkway's maintenance backlog now stands at $278 million in unfunded projects. The vast majority of that -- $259 million -- is for road maintenance, including resurfacing.
-- The road was designed for a 20-year repaving schedule. That has been shifted to a 30-year schedule because of the shortfall in funds.
-- The paving project now under way between U.S. 220 and Bent Mountain is the first new asphalt laid along the parkway's 469 miles in the past five years.
-- The parkway has 134 authorized maintenance workers, but 49 of those positions are vacant, and there's no money to fill them. Beginning in April, there will be a mere four rangers patrolling the 111-mile-long district that includes Roanoke, said Steve Buxton, the supervisory district ranger in our region.
Commuter traffic
Parkway traffic statistics are clear on the impact commuters play on the road. Let's take last month as an example. (Keep in mind the numbers grow far larger as the weather warms.)
Traffic counters tallied just more than 24,046 cars on the parkway at Virginia 24 near Vinton, and 25,670 on the road where it crosses U.S. 220 in Clearbrook.
Yet head about 15 miles south to Adney Gap and the count plummets to an estimated 4,229. At the Peaks of Otter it was 6,911.
The story is similar in Asheville, which like the Roanoke Valley is an urban area with four parkway exits.
The stats also show that in general, parkway traffic is slowly declining.
But most of that drop is in recreational (i.e. tourist) visits. The numbers of nonrecreational visits are far more constant. That suggests the proportion of commuters on the parkway may actually be growing.
An annual fee?
The good news is, there are signs some lawmakers are paying attention.
Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Roanoke County, said he has opposed tolls on the parkway because it has too many access points to make traditional toll collections feasible.
It also would be unfair to charge motorists only in high-traffic areas such as Roanoke and Asheville, he said.
But the congressman says he's aware of the backlog in parkway maintenance needs. For that reason, he's open to your revenue-raising suggestions.
Last week, he was hiking off Skyline Drive in Shenandoah National Park, which he noted charges a $15 one-time entrance fee, or $30 for an annual pass.
A yearly parkway pass might be feasible because automatic toll-collecting technology has made great strides in recent decades.
"I don't know how you would do that on the Blue Ridge Parkway, but if you do do it, you would have to have something like that for a regular user," Goodlatte said.
A similar scheme was recommended in a 2003 parkway business plan conceived by a group of graduate students, Aull said.
Weekly passes for $4, or annual passes for $50, would raise between $6.5 million and $10 million annually, the report estimated.
But that recommendation was put on a shelf because "politically, it's just not very popular," Aull said.
It's time to dust off that plan. Goodlatte's comments may be the right opening.
I'd pay that annual fee.
Would you?
At the least, shouldn't we begin talking about it?
