Dear Senate Committee on Transportation and Homeland Security,
I wish to enter my comments regarding toll policy, Public Private Partnerships and the Trans-Texas Corridor.
Previously delivered oral testimony and now written.
Name: Richard Reeves
Representing: Hardworking Texas Taxpayers and myself
Title: N/A
Street: P.O. Box 152541
City: Austin State: Texas Zip: 78715-2541
Phone: 512-673-7360 Email:
luckpresser at yahoo.com
I hereby certify that the above and following statements by me are true and accurate, and that the testimony I give before this body will be true and accurate.
Attest: Richard Reeves March 8, 2007
Dear Senate Committee on Transportation and Homeland Security,
Suggestions and Solutions to:
Traffic Congestion
I-35 Congestion
Highway Financing
Without:
the Trans-Texas Corridor
tolls on any existing or new roads
or
CDA'sTable of Contents
Introduction
Part 1: Why Toll Roads Are a Poor Answer to Reducing Congestion
Part 2: Possible Solutions to I-35 Traffic Congestion Without the
TTC and/or Other Toll Roads
Part 3: Solutions and Suggestions on How to Fund New Roads and
Road Improvements
Introduction
Greetings, my name is Richard Reeves and I've been a professional driver for nearly 30 years. For approximately 20 years I drove large commercial vehicles, about 10 years regional and local, about 10 years over the road(OTR). During my time as an OTR driver, I covered all 48 of the contiguous states and parts of Canada. During the last 9 years, my miles have been behind the wheel of Taxicabs in Dallas/Ft.Worth, Austin, and San Antonio.
Over the past two years, because of concern about the SH130, the TTC and Phase 2 toll projects in the central Texas area, I've become an even more serious student about one of the key tools of my trade.....the roads.
In fact during the last year and a half, I've actually had a cable TV access program whose main topics of concern are toll roads, transportation, the TTC, etc. At first I thought it would be impossible to find sufficient news on the topic to be worthy of a weekly show. Boy, was I wrong! The news is sometimes so bountiful that I can't even cover it all.
Not only have I studied toll roads in the U.S., but Canada and several foreign countries as well.
By the way, the above mentioned years of driving equates to approximately 120 years of the miles that an "average" Texas driver would cover. During my time as a professional truck driver I dodged more toll roads than I ever took. And my colleagues did as well.
While I don't consider myself to be an "expert " on roads, nonetheless I'm a very serious student and I believe contained within this testimony you will discover points that are rarely, if ever, brought to light.
Part 1: Why Toll Roads Are a Poor Answer to Reducing Congestion
First of all, a very common characteristic of tolls roads is that they have ULTRA-LIMITED access and crossovers and/or crossunders that are too far apart thereby creating the perfect storm for bottlenecks at each and every intersection of the highway. Example (A good U.S. road map would be handy): Take a look at an urban toll road, I-294 in the Chicago, IL area. Insufficient local access, both ingress and egress, unnecessarily reduces utility of the road to the local traffic and thereby primarily serving regional and through traffic. The road is then underutilized by local traffic not just because of the toll aspect, but also because of a shortage of access. In the future, even if tolls are removed, the lack of access will still hamper traffic...especially the local, short distance travelers. On top of that, since the access is too limited and the crossings insufficient, local traffic has to travel greater distances on secondary arterials unnecessarily just to get to the aforementioned.
Now let's look at Orlando, FL. Almost all of the limited access highways in Orlando are toll roads. So, if we are to believe that toll roads are the answer to congestion, then Orlando must be one of the least congested cities in the country, right? WRONG!
In fact, Orlando ranks as the 28Th largest metropolitan area (per 2004 census) in the U.S. but according to the Texas Transportation Institute study called "The 2005 Urban Mobility Report" Orlando ranks disproportionately high, tied at 9Th worst in Annual Hours of Delay Per Traveler (55 hours).
Meanwhile, Cleveland,OH, which is the 23rd largest metropolitan area (per 2004 census), ranks 73rd in Annual Hours of Delay Per Traveler with only 10 hours! The Cleveland metro area has NO toll roads and, in fact, many, many travelers choose to drive through Cleveland, OH to avoid the tolls on the Ohio Turnpike. I personally did this more times than I can remember.
While we're on the subject of the Ohio Turnpike, it has been reported that on just ONE (U.S.20) of several alternate routes, there are 3 times the number of trucks per hour than are on the Ohio Turnpike. On just one! The state of Ohio has had to respond by lowering truck tolls and raising the speed limit, but I still doubt that they have gained much truck traffic.
Closer to home, let's look at Houston. Some make the claim that toll roads have solved Houston's traffic problems. The Houston Metro Area ranks 7Th largest (per 2004 census) and ranks 5Th worst in Annual Hours of Delay Per Traveler with 63 hours (same 2005 TTI Study). The way I see it, prior to toll roads, Houston was like a person being strangled whilst held under water, now with toll roads Houston is still strangled, but at least they aren't held underwater as well. Houston.....you have a problem!
Now, let's look at Austin, TX. Austin ranks 38Th in population (per 2004 census), but is disproportionately high in Annual Hours of Delay Per Traveler ranking 13Th worst with 51 hours (same 2005 TTI Study). However, this circumstance does not exist due to toll roads (yet), the reasons for Austin's dire straits are due to a simple lack of freeway miles and significantly due to a lack of a viable bypass or an alternate route for I-35. The CAMPO board and CTRMA had an independent study done by Charles River Associates, Inc.(CRAI). The CRAI study echoes my assertions of Austin's traffic woes.
Sadly, with SH130 scheduled to open as a toll road and being a longer through route, Austin's traffic dilemma seems unlikely to end any time soon.
As another example of drivers avoiding the toll roads, please refer to a Friday, Jan. 12, 2007 story in the Statesman: "Tollway Use Falls". In this article it was reported that as cash customers had run out of the free trial run period on portions of SH45 and SH130 that daily transactions fell by 48 to 60%.
In the Dallas area, now that SH121 is being converted to tolls, look for more traffic to divert to US 380, US 82 and I-635 (yikes). I'm sure the north Dallas area along I-635 will appreciate the additional traffic.
As far as managed lanes go, SR91 in California is the poster child for what can go wrong. Orange County, CA agreed to a Public Private Partnership along with the non-compete clauses attached. Over the years the traffic increased creating gridlock on the free lanes and high prices on the managed lanes. Orange County wanted to add lanes and/or build alternates but were thwarted by the non-compete clauses. Ultimately, Orange County had to buy out the Private Party at a huge premium over what it would have cost to build the new lanes originally. Orange County still suffers due to that mistake to this day.
I can cite many more examples such as the ETR407 in Toronto, New Jersey Turnpike, Pennsylvania Turnpike, and London and Singapore congestion pricing schemes.
In short, I've yet to find any location in the world where toll roads have "solved" congestion. Toll roads merely shift congestion to other roads leaving the toll road under utilized.
Part 2: Possible Solutions to I-35 Traffic Congestion Without the TTC And/Or
Other Toll Roads
First off, get out a good Texas road map.
I-35 traffic should be able to be largely alleviated by making improvements primarily to existing roads such as the following: US 59, US 79, SH 31,SH 34, expansions of I-35 in certain areas and removing tolls from SH 130, SH 45 (north and south).
Currently, much of the NAFTA truck traffic out of Laredo, TX goes to destinations east of I-35. Therefore, if trucks and other drivers have other good limited access freeway routes to I-20 and I-30, the drivers would gladly divert to get away from I-35. The same routes would be utilized on the way back to Laredo. Also, I-69 should be developed and built as a freeway.
It appears that there is a plan to create a mega-port in Lazaro Cardenas, Mexico. Work with shippers and transportation companies to not over divert inbound containers away from west, east and gulf of Mexico US ports of entry. Try to distribute inbound containers close to their final destinations. Right now it looks like the plan is to force feed containers and freight through Texas that may well terminate on the east or west coasts. If this occurs, it will unnecessarily drive traffic through Texas and be wasteful to boot.
Inbound traffic that is destined west of I-35 can be rerouted through Del Rio, TX. Improve US 277 and others to move traffic to points north and west.
Part 3: Solutions and Suggestions on How to Fund New Roads and Road
improvements
A: According to CAMPO (Capital Area Metropolitan Planning Organization), constructing a road as a toll road adds 20 to 30% to the cost. That can make for a significant realized savings. Add to that, the fact that we keep learning that many of these roads that are supposedly funded by the future tolls or by a Private Partner are actually hugely funded by current tax dollars. During the public hearing on March 1, 2007, one individual claimed that the George H.W. Bush tollway north of Dallas had been tax funded to the tune of $850 million!
Is this true?
The same individual stated the some or all of the interchange costs had been borne by other cities and towns. How much of a shortfall did they claim to have to justify tolling the road? Would the savings garnered by building the road as a freeway have been enough to get the project built or mostly built?
It has been reported that SH 130 in central Texas has been partially funded by the city of Austin to the tune of at least $67 million. How much other tax funding has been rolled into the SH130 project?
Yet, despite the large investment by Austin, Austinites and other travelers will suffer the I-35 mess because the tolls on SH 130 will discourage a higher level of utilization SH 130.
B: By canceling the TTC, inflation of construction costs should diminish or drop due to less anticipated demand on raw materials, equipment, etc.
C: During the 2006 Texas elections we kept hearing about a $12 to $15 billion surplus, if we have no money then why is that and where is it?
D: Despite the fact that Texas has more miles of US, Interstate, State Highways, etc., Texas has for many decades been a donor state. For many, many years the people of Texas have sent a dollar to the Fed Gov and only gotten back 80 cents. Over the years, this has added up to billions and billions of dollars diverted away to states with many less miles of roads to build. This fact combined with the fact that the NAFTA agreement implemented by the Feds has overwhelmed I-35 with a great deal of additional through traffic makes it time that the Fed Gov make Texas a priority and fully or partially fund many if not most major road projects.
E: It is my understanding that many governments, IE, state, county, city and others maintain Comprehensive Annual Financial Reports aka CAFR's. It has been reported that these CAFR's are treated as a complete separate set of books and that the principal, earnings and interest on the CAFR's accounts for huge incomes annually to the respective controlling governmental body. To date, no one has ever disputed the existence of the CAFR's. By all accounts the CAFR's amount to billions of dollars. It is time that the State of Texas, Texas cities, counties and others utilize these huge assets to build some roads and other needed projects. The money belongs to Texans!
To learn more about
CAFR's go to
http://www.cafr1.com/. Be sure and look up the
CAFR's for cities, counties, municipal districts, utility districts, and of course the State of Texas.
F: Why is it that to-date, over 98% of all the roads in Texas have been built through traditional funding sources such as the gas tax and other related taxes? Why is it that TXDOT officials, the Texas Transportation Commission and many others keep repeating the theme that Texas has no money to build new roads and that our population has grown and will continue to grow, yet these same entities NEVER point out that along with the population growth there has been an accompanying growth of tax revenues of every sort including gas tax revenues. In all of the transportation related hearings and meetings I've attended, I don't recall ever hearing an official cite or acknowledge this fact.
Case in point, according to the Texas Comptroller, Susan Combs, the Texas Net Revenue by Source in 1978 was $8.3 billion. In 1986 that number had grown to $17.8 billion, 1996 was $40.4 billion, and finally the latest 2006 numbers stated a whopping $72.4 billion!
I'm old enough that I had a job with a beer distributor in Ft.Worth,TX during the late 70's. The job paid in the neighborhood of $30K to $35K. That same job today might pay $50k tops. That's a far cry from the near 9 fold increase in revenues at the state level. And that is just at the state level. What about all the other levels of government that have had similar levels of increased revenues? When are our tax dollars going to be properly allocated and accounted?
G: Personally, after citing the above, I don't believe that the following is necessary, but hey what the heck.
As I'm sure many of you know, the Texas Transportation Institute reported in December that the current so-called highway funding crisis could be solved by an immediate 8 cent per gallon gas tax increase and CPI indexing thereafter. In view of the fact that during the public hearing held by Senator Carona on March 1, 2007, we repeatedly heard from many different sources that Public-Private Partnerships also known as Comprehensive Development Agreements here in Texas are the MOST EXPENSIVE option to get Texas roads built. We just don't need the added expense, the added bureaucracy, and an entity that would actively work to thwart solutions to traffic congestion because it may cut into their revenues and/or profits!
H: Lastly, the Federal Government seems to have no qualms about borrowing (for any or no reason) from the Federal Reserve to the tune of supposed trillions of dollars. The Federal Reserve doesn't seem to mind the arrangement too much after all they print the money from paper, ink and thin air, then loan it to us and collect massive piles of interest on virtually nothing. The Fed Gov has spent billions and even trillions and gotten less to show for it than at least investing in the roads.
Sincerely,
Attest: Richard Reeves
P. O. Box 152541
Austin, TX 78715-2541
512-673-7360
Labels: CAFR, Carona, CDA, Cleveland, FL, Houston, I-35, Lazaro Cardenas, Mexico, NAFTA, OH, Orlando, SH130, SH45, toll, toll road, tolls, TTC, TX
