Highway tolls are inevitable in metro Puget Sound
King County Executive Ron Sims has his own inconvenient truth to convey: Tolls are inevitable on all major Seattle-area freeways. And he already has a plan for us to discuss.
A report created at the direction of King County Executive Ron Sims recommends turning all major freeways and limited access highways in metropolitan Puget Sound into toll roads. Only buses and emergency vehicles would not have to pay.
Called "transportation improvement fees," or TIFs, these round-the-clock tolls, collected electronically, would generate $24 billion over 20 years and pay for many of the region's roadway and mass-transit needs, from replacement of the Highway 520 bridge across Lake Washington to increased bus and light-rail services. Tolling, the report says, by its very existence should reduce congestion on these highways by 15 percent to 20 percent.
Continue reading this article from Crosscut Seattle:
Highway tolls are inevitable in metro Puget Sound
