Roughly 578,000 people travel into Chicago's central area for work each day. Roughly half of those people take transit. Roughly half of the remainder must drive.
http://www.cityofchicago.org/dam/cit...sportation.pdf
Given that those numbers are for Chicago's entire central area, I'd estimate that roughly 150,000 workers drive into Chicago's core central area - i.e. Loop/East Loop/West Loop/River North/Streeterville - every day.
Here's my question for the forum. On any given day, how many of those 150,000 workers would be willing to pay $30 for access to a tolled, managed express lane that would guarantee them savings of roughly 30-40 minutes round trip compared to congested public lanes? I'd guess roughly 10%, or 15,000 commuters. In other words, on an average workday, I'd guess there are 15,000 core central area commuters willing to pay a toll of $30 if that would cut their round trip drive by 30-40 minutes. Would there really be that many people on a daily basis? I think so. Think rich executives and law firm partners who would use the lane regularly. Even if they took the lane every day, it would cost them about $7,500 annually, which is a drop in the bucket for professionals who charge $1,000 for one billable
hour. And non-rich folks would take the lane one way for $15 occasionally as well - think of workers who are running late or who have emergencies.
That's a potential revenue stream of roughly $112 million annually. ($30 x 15,000 x 250 days) And that rough guess is based
only on revenue from downtown workers on their commuting trips. Express trips to the airports could offer a substantial additional revenue stream. Personally speaking, I would pay $15 one way to cut 30-40 minutes off a rush hour cab ride to O'Hare. And, these days traffic sucks on the weekend too. How many suburbanites would pay a sizable toll to get into an express lane to get to downtown shopping, restaurants, or theaters?
So, my best guess is that tolled/managed express lanes on Chicago's expressways could generate more than $150 million annually in revenue. I'd guess roughly $200 million. There is at least one American example of a managed toll lane generating significant revenues. The SR-91 managed toll express lane in Orange County generated $43 million in annual revenue in 2009.
http://www.trforum.org/journal/downl...upancyToll.pdf
That's just one toll lane, on one road, serving an area of the country that doesn't have the concentration of traffic and wealth that the Loop does.
So, how much annual revenue do you think tolled/managed lanes on each of Chicago's major freeways could generate?
I have some creative ideas on how express lanes could be added to Chicago's expressways in a cost-effective manner, but first I wanted to see what the forum thinks about how much revenue could be generated by such lanes.