Quote:
Originally Posted by jubguy3
TOLL ROAD TOLL ROAD TOLL ROAD!
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Tolling was on the table from the project was first explored in 2003. Part of the reason why the freeway is called "Mountain View
Corridor" (and not "freeway") is because UDOT and the State Transportation Commission kind of figured that tolling was likely to happen.
I sat in a lot of MVC meetings, including the one in 2007 where Goldman Sachs (yes, that Goldman Sachs) presented their tolling analysis. They would have to be involved, because no other investors were willing to arrange that sort of capital. Even they were skeptical that Utahns would drive the road enough to justify the cost. Projections showed continued use of Bangerter and U-111, but little to no use of the road.
Worse yet, Goldman said they could make it work if they tricked drivers into paying an initial toll which was "artificially low," inducing families to purchase homes and form commuting patterns that required use of the toll road, and then "incrementally increase the toll over 10 years" to squeeze the money out of west-siders. It felt really shady. (Goldman never did anything shady, right?)
The late State Sen. Ed Mayne (D-West Valley) stood up. He was one of the last old time Democrats, who really cared about the working family. He saying something to the effect of, "I have a tool box at home. I don't use a Sawzall to pound in a nail. So a lot of the tools are dusty and never get used. I think tolling should stay dusty."
He described toll roads vs. "prole" roads (a reference to the novel "1984") and how working families, including himself, couldn't afford to use the new road, while the wealthy could.
From then on, the tone of the commission changed. Tolling was dead.
Bless the late Sen. Ed Mayne. He understood that keeping the road free would subsidize working families in West Valley.
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