Because Your Commute Doesn't Cost Enough Already

The state is trying to figure out just how much you'd be willing to pay to cross the Evergreen Point Floating Bridge without being deterred by the cost to change your route. According to a study released yesterday, most drivers would continue to use the bridge, even in the face of fees up to $6.85 per roundtrip. Apparently, the state believes if you have a job on the Eastside, adding nearly $40 to your weekly commute—plus the ever-increasing cost of gas—is no big deal financially. The proposed tolls would vary throughout the day based on traffic volume—from $2.15 during lighter times to a $3.80 one-way fee during peak hours. Tolls on 520 could begin as early as 2010. Similar tolls are also being discussed for I-90, Seattle's other floating bridge. The tolls would go to funding a new six-lane replacement bridge for 520.

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By Abbey in News on July 24, 2008 3:30 PM

Comments [rss]

Troy Morris

Alright, not to be a broken record here, but some Rapid (not fucking buses) Transit Systems would probably help. Just an idea I borrowed from some major metropolitan areas.

pbee - yeah, pretty accurate analysis.

pbee

It seems to me that most major cities have tolls for traffic entering the city's core. This is just the simplest way to pay for ongoing infrastructure maintenance (lord knows we can't manage to vote for anything to accomplish the same end).

The simpler solution is, of course, to live near where you work. Work in Seattle? Live there. Work on the Eastside? Live there. Pretty easy actually.

Live on the Eastside, work in Seattle and drive a 6000lb 12mpg SUV? You suck, pay up.

MonkeyPilot

RE: without being deterred by the cost to change your route

If they are seriously considering a toll on 520 without a simultaneous toll on I-90 and some change to Lake City Way, those arteries are just going to be jammed as people avoid the toll. 405 is already a parking lot at the south end of the lake.

romulus

without being deterred by the cost to change your route

Isn't that sort of the point of tolling? Sending people towards other directions?

Figure the toll threshold is somewhere around the number of miles the next reasonable option would add to the commute times the cost of gas divided by, say, 20 (eastside workers don't exactly drive economy cars).

Troy Morris

You know why we're in this issue? Because we don't have an 8-lane bridge from the get-go.

And don't sit here and try to talk to me about RTS and our back and forth since the 80's about it. RTS hasn't helped any growing city... EVER.

berkun

> Apparently, the state believes if you have

> a job on the Eastside, adding nearly $40 to

> your weekly commute—plus the ever-increasing

> cost of gas—is no big deal financially

Point taken, but offer an alternative. There isn't one. Like most of the infrastructure problems Seattle has in 2008, there is no way around it. We have to suck it up and pay for the next few decades, in the same way the tolls paid for the 520 bridge we drive today.

If you were supreme emperor of Seattle can do whatever you wanted, how exactly would you solve this problem?