Mike Jerman, vice president of the Utah Taxpayers Association, said Wednesday that the bill the association is promoting would allow electronic tolling price bumps at certain times of the day based on how many cars are on the road.
The initial targets would be the planned west-side Mountain View Corridor and the Legacy Parkway, now under construction in south Davis County.
"It makes sense to implement [congestion pricing] on new roads," Jerman said. "For us, the main issue is slowing the growth of vehicle miles traveled."
If that happens, highway congestion would decrease, lessening demand for new highways, Jerman said. A desired side effect would be people wanting to live closer to where they work because their commute would be substantially cheaper.
"Even if that weren't an issue, congestion pricing would slow [the growth of vehicle miles traveled], which would mean we would have to spend less on roads," he said.
Right now, the bill is protected, that is, not available for public perusal anytime soon. Jerman wouldn't talk about all its details, but said it would be a better way to pay for transportation than the quarter-cent tax hike that voters in Salt Lake and Utah counties approved in November.
"The sales tax is the most regressive tax we have, and that's the one the state has been relying on the most," Jerman said.
The Utah Department of Transportation says the number of miles Utah motorists drive each year has increased at a rate roughly double that of the state's population growth.
At the same time, federal highway funding has just about run out after decades of mining the Highway Trust Fund. And despite regular infusions from Utah's general fund, UDOT never will be able to keep up with road construction and maintenance needs, says UDOT Executive Director John Njord.
A bill passed last year allowed the state Transportation Commission to impose tolls on new highways.
Jerman said the Utah Taxpayers Association proposed law would include the Legacy Parkway as a way to address those who say it's unfair to make west-side residents pay a toll to use Mountain View - which is yet to be funded - when no one else has to.
UDOT spokesman Nile Easton said congestion pricing could appear on sections of Interstate 15 in the next couple of years.
UDOT is now studying electronic tolling for the carpool lane in Salt Lake and Utah counties. The agency estimates the electronic tolling mechanism would cost around $12 million to build. Easton said the system could attract 15,000 users, compared to the 1,300 solo drivers who now pay a flat fee of $50 per month to use the high-occupancy lane.
UDOT likes a Minnesota system that uses roadbed sensors to measure travelers' speed and adjusts tolls accordingly, which are picked up on transponders in the vehicles and translated either to credit card-type debits or invoices. The tolls range from 25 cents per mile when there is no congestion to $6 per mile when congestion is severe.
Already, states on the East Coast and Illinois have signed onto the E-Z Pass system, making it possible to collect tolls in a uniform manner.
The auto industry will join in, too, said Tom Warne, a transportation consultant and former UDOT executive director. "The day is going to come that the E-Z Pass transponder will just be part of the [on-board] computer," with drivers able to activate the function as needed, Warne said.
phenetz@sltrib.com
