Reader comments
UDOT to gauge tolls electronically

Nathan Gragg | 4:06 a.m. Aug. 19, 2008

Does this mean that I have to pay money now even when I am carpooling like we are encouraged to do???
If so, I am definitly be against this action.

Joe | 4:58 a.m. Aug. 19, 2008

People drive during peak times because they need to be somewhere at a specific time. UDOT's plan presumes that people can easily alter their schedules to take advantage of non-peak traffic pricing. This seems to be an unsupported assumption.

Clearly, UDOT's plan is simply to enroll more cars in its program to increase its revenue. If that isn't true, why doesn't UDOT present projections of revenue using the current system, versus its new peak pay system?

Rdub | 7:31 a.m. Aug. 19, 2008

I pay to many fees and taxes to a governemnet with a voracious appetite. I thought when the hov lane was first installed it was free as long 2 or persons were in the same vehicle. Incremental taxes, fees, tolls whatever you want to call them are wrong.

Comments continue below

Anonymous | 7:39 a.m. Aug. 19, 2008

Gragg,

We have two choices: pay congestion tolls or pay even more through increased sales taxes. The state is still more than $15 billion short over the next 20 years. To build and maintain the roads, the money had to come from somewhere. Congestion tolls are the lowest cost alternative. Doing nothing is not an alternative.

Off with their heads | 8:15 a.m. Aug. 19, 2008

If I were Governor of this state my first action would be to fire every current UDOT manager and hire a competent staff. When I-15 construction occurred prior to the Olympics and the project ended at 106th South creating a nightmare bottleneck UDOTï¿½s reply was that if they had lengthened the project to Point of the Mountain then they would have just moved the bottleneck. Then they discovered that 40% of the South bound traffic exits at 123rd South and Bangerter Highway. So they patched a couple of uneven lanes to Point of the Mountain. They so badly botched the design of the intersection at I-215 and I-15 that it has become a scene of constant accidents and congestion. The double white line design blocks traffic from entering the diamond lane for unreasonable lengths of miles i.e. enter I-15 Southbound at 72nd South and travel in congestion until almost 106th South before you can enter the diamond lane. Another inaction that is long overdue for ACTION NOW includes the underpass on Highway 89 in Pleasant Grove. Fix this problem now!! Learn to prioritize. Electronic tolls. Please! Get rid of these people. Cut them out like a cancer.

Anonymous | 9:05 a.m. Aug. 19, 2008

If we need more funds then raise the gas tax. Period. Why introduce a special tax? A new tax? We have one that works. Why try to fix something that isn't broken? Increase it or shut up about needing money. All Huntsman is doing is wasting our money on his special focus groups. Raise the gas tax and get it over with. You'll pay a use tax in proportion with your use. Easy and fair enough, but too stupid for that blockhead you so called conservatives keep voting for in your primaries.

You may argue that this does nothing to ease peak congestion. So what. Neither will a toll. You think people like driving in congestion? No. They do because they have to. They have no other choice. Adding a special fee will only tax disproportionately. It will do nothing to ease congestion.

Increase the sales tax or shut up.

Driver-Not by Choice | 9:29 a.m. Aug. 19, 2008

Deputy Director Carlos Braceras said, ". . . but they're forgetting they pay the gas tax. By making people aware . . . ."

No, Mr. Deputy Diretor, it's not _US_ who've forgotten who pays the gas tax, it's _YOU_ and all the Gov's rich buddies. And we don't need expensive lessons from rich elites to teach us how to stay out of your way.

We're also painfully aware that you and the Gov's rich, elite friends intend to hassle us off the roads to open them up for those of you that can afford to pay more to travel on them. It may be nice for you, but what about us that have to travel the roads to work and support our families?

It's amazing that, when the elitist Envision Utah crowd's alternate day-license plate scam failed, they went with an even more cynical and oppressive regime -- tolls.

Please, Carlos, remind the Gov that there are more of us than there are of the Envision Utah elites. Please do it before election day.

Anonymous | 10:19 a.m. Aug. 19, 2008

If you notice, the only cities that toll the HOV lanes have multiple HOV lanes, and they are completely separate from the normal flow (ex. Denver I-25 through downtown and I-5 through Seattle). Those lanes actually help break up traffic, rather than the single lane on the far left where people already dive in and out of no matter occupancy or white solid line.

No choice about when I drive | 10:24 a.m. Aug. 19, 2008

I don't get it. If I am car-pooling, as I usually am, do I still have to pay this ridiculous new toll? The roads are congested at certain times of the day because people are usually going and coming from work and they don't have much choice about when they have to drive. Duh. Please can't we get rid of these idiots at UDOT! Vote out Huntsman too.

Hallelujah! | 12:20 p.m. Aug. 19, 2008

This plan is spot on. Congestion pricing is the best way to raise money to pay for better roads and to improve traffic. So many people travel between 4-6 pm who could do so at other times. Also, the people who use the roads should pay for them. Why should people who don't have cars or don't ever use the freeways pay for other people to use them? We should decrease the gas tax and have tolls on all major highways. The gas tax will pay for general public streets and the tolls will pay for freeways.

To Hallelujah! | 1:38 p.m. Aug. 19, 2008

You must be a member of the Envision Utah elitist crowd.

It's the rich, out-of-touch elitists who are making it hard on the little guy by coming up with these cynical schemes to charge people for the use of the roads they built with their own tax money, and that they desperately need to get by, day-to-day.

Morgan | 2:30 p.m. Aug. 19, 2008

What percentage of the new tax will simply go for the costs of installation, maintenance, personnel;, billing, ENFORCEMENT, etc. I'm guessing that it will be 60%, if not more. You can bet that the company that will install, maintain, and operate this system is the driving force behind this effort. Telling the UDOT that they can start collecting revenue from 70,000+ drivers a day. If UDOT makes more money when traffic is bad, do you really think that they will have any incentive to make it better?

FYI: The separate lanes on I-5 in Seattle are FREE! It was added to reduce traffic. All of the lanes are southbound in the morning and northbound in the evening. It also has an HOV lane in addition to the regular lanes.

What a joke | 5:24 p.m. Aug. 19, 2008

I travel I-15 every day, and from what I can see, the HOV lane is underused anyway. So, let's introduce a new use tax for anyone that enters it at any time and see how that effects usage and congestion. Besides, the costs of implementing and managing this idiotic idea will far outweigh any revenue benefits. Can you imagine the infrastructure costs of putting sensors on EVERY car in Utah and developing the software and hardware infrastructure to monitor every second a car is in the HOV lane, take into consideration the time of day, the traffic conditions, etc.? What are you people at UDOT smoking? Message to Huntsman: Find some new lackeys.

70,000 vehicles | 6:16 p.m. Aug. 19, 2008

70000 vehicles vs 1700 now. UDOT wants 41 times as many cars in that far left lane as there are now. I think the slow lane will be faster if thats the case.

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Keith Johnson, Deseret News

U.S. Secretary of Transportation Mary Peters discusses funding and other transportation issues with Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. in Salt Lake City on Monday.