PennDOT’s unfolding plan to impose tolls on some bridges — including several on interstate highways in Pennsylvania — undoubtedly will cause consternation among drivers, especially truckers and local people who frequently use the bridges.
But because evolving transportation technology and the unending wear and tear on bridges, the tolls likely are a preview of long-term change rather than a temporary inconvenience.
PennDOT says that it would need $15 billion a year to fully attend to all needed bridge work, but its bridge budget this year is $6.9 billion. It needs the toll revenue.
Gasoline and diesel fuel taxes are the primary source of highway and bridge money. But it has been clear for a long time that state governments would have to develop an alternative revenue source. Ever-improving auto technology has driven up engine efficiency, producing more miles for less fuel. And it is just as clear that electric vehicles that do not use liquid fuels are the future of transportation. So the state government must shift from fuel taxes to other taxes, or tolls, to raise revenue.
Ultimately, that will require a shift from basing the tax on the amount of fuel that drivers buy to the number of miles that they drive. Using technology similar to that now used for the E-ZPass toll system, vehicles could transmit the number of miles they travel on Pennsylvania state roads, enabling the state to tax the vehicle owner.
The system could be created to record only miles, rather than locations, to preserve privacy. Or the state could set higher registration fees on fully electric vehicles.
Meanwhile, rural residents who object to tolls on rural bridges can mitigate the cost by having their townships form their own police departments, hire other local police or join regional departments.
To enable state police to cover communities that decline to establish their own departments, the state poaches about $700 million a year from the Motor Vehicle Fund, which is supposed to be dedicated to highway and bridge projects.
— The Citizens’ Voice, Wilkes-Barre/TNS
