(Source: MIRS.news, Published 02/07/2023) The Senate Transportation and Infrastructure Committee probably won't adopt any bills this year related to a 500-plus page study exploring the possible future of highway toll roads in Michigan, said Chair Erika Geiss (D-Taylor).
Tuesday, Geiss' committee hosted a hearing on the aforementioned study that was commissioned by the Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) and officially released in January of this year. After the committee met for more than an hour, Geiss told the media she still doesn't know what she envisions for the future of tolling in Michigan, but believes legislators should now have conversations with additional stakeholders.
"What does it mean with respect to how we fund roads and how that's going to change with lighter, more fuel efficient vehicles, with (electric vehicles) . . . how we fund roads is going to have to change," Geiss said. "You know some things move at a glacial pace around here and sometimes things move quickly. I hope we will do it thoughtfully and really deliberately."
The study was produced by the HNTB Corporation, an American infrastructure design firm.
It found that all life cycle expenses for 545 miles of highway, at or above standard performance measures, could be covered by charging vehicles six to 6.5 cents per mile through a toll. According to the report's calculations, the practice would support an $8.5 billion capital investment for tolled roads by 2032.
Throughout the United States, there are more than 5,000 miles of toll roads, featuring the 289 miles on the Illinois Tollway, 241 miles on the Ohio Turnpike and 157 miles on the Indiana Toll Road.
"Tolling could diversify revenue sources for transportation in the state of Michigan, and free up existing sources of revenue at federal and state levels for other bridge and road projects not on these 545 miles," said Eric Morris, the senior vice president of HNTB which is based in Michigan.
However, Morris told the committee that the implementation of a tolling program would require a careful and considerate approach.
For example, he said federal rules mandate that states look at "all electronic tolling on these roadways," which he described as the only way permissible by the federal government to implement tolling.
"What that means is no more toll booths, no more cash transactions, no more stopping and waiting in line…what must be required is what we call 'all electronic tolling,' and that is tolling that is collected at highway speeds, just like you're driving down the freeway now," Morris said.
He said there are no violators in an all-electronic tolling system. Instead, there are two types of customers, which consist of one with a prepaid account validated by a toll transponder in their windshield and one who will have an invoice mailed to them after equipment snaps a photo of their license plate.
Geiss explained how conversations around the HNTB study would come down to a lot of education and helping people understand "that these aren't our grandparents' and parents' toll roads that we're talking about."
During today's hearing, Sen. Joseph Bellino JR. (R-Monroe), the committee's minority vice chair, was concerned with how - through a tolling system like the one being utilized by the nearby Ohio Turnpike - a commercial semi-truck can be charged around 18 cents per mile as a base rate.
Ron Davis, a project manager for HNTB, told the committee that some of the other Midwestern toll agencies have much higher commercial rates.
"It looks to me like Indiana, Illinois…like they screw truck drivers," Bellino said. "They already pay a lot more tax on fuel, and they pay a lot more tax on registration. These are all pass-through states here that I'm looking at. We're not a pass-through state, they got to make a turn to get up here, and they're just going to raise their prices on goods just to pay the cost. It just doesn't seem fair to me."
