Proposal: Pay by the mile

Drivers could pay up to 15 cents per mile under a proposed plan to add toll lanes to several area highways.

A new $400,000 joint study by the Federal Highway Administration and the Virginia Department of Transportation, approved last week by the Washington Metropolitan Council of Government's Transportation Planning Board, will examine if drivers would accept GPS transponders in their cars -- devices that would be used to charge drives to use the proposed lanes.

The study comes after a report from the Brookings Institution stated road-use pricing -- which entails converting existing highway travel lanes into toll lanes, and charging drivers an average of 9 to 15 cents per mile to use them -- could generate billions for transit improvements.

If road-use pricing comes to the Washington area, the report estimates the region could see a 94 percent drop in vehicle miles traveled, as many drivers could shift from driving to mass transit.

Fewer drivers on the roads could lead to 75 to 85 percent fewer delays, according to the report.

Mahlon G. "Lon" Anderson, spokesman for AAA-Mid Atlantic, a group that advocates for area drivers, said the plan seeks to penalize motorists.

"Unequivocally, I will go on the record and say charges of this magnitude … don't have a snowball's chance in hell of being enacted," stated Anderson in a press release. "Elected officials would have to have a death wish before they would agree to these charges."

The Transportation Planning Board voted to seek $320,000 in FHWA funding to implement the study, and agreed to pay $80,000 in federal matching funds.

While no specific highways were mentioned in the Brookings report, Prince William County, Manassas and Manassas Park are included in the study area.

Much like an EZ-Pass, the GPS transponders would be fitted into cars, allowing it to track how far drivers travel on the lanes. Drivers would then be charged -- per mile -- how far they traveled.

The report states there are privacy concerns that come with the transponders, but notes in most states, data collected from EZ-Pass transponders can only be released by a court order.

It further states that cameras posted along Washington area highways are "inherently more invasive" than transponders would be.

Road-use pricing could bring $2.96 billion to $4.79 billion to the region, according to report estimates. Current gas taxes, charged at the pump, bring in $420 million to the Washington area annually, according to the report.

Prince William County Supervisor Michael C. May, R-Occoquan, serves on the Transportation Planning Board, and voted against the study. He said placing tolls on existing lanes already paid for by taxpayers, rather than building new ones, is a bad idea.

May also opposes a plan to convert the High Occupancy Vehicle lanes on Interstate 95 and 395 to toll lanes.

"Tolling for new capacity makes a lot more sense, but putting tolls on existing capacity is not good public policy and doesn't have a good chance of gaining public support," said May.

Staff writer Uriah A. Kiser can be reached at 703-878-8065.