Tolls
Huh? After Bailing Out Toll Road, Florida Wants to Expand It
By any reasonable measure, the Suncoast Parkway in the Tampa Bay Area has been a complete failure.
February 18, 2016
The Great Traffic Projection Swindle
This is the final piece in a three-part series about privately-financed roads. In the first two parts of this series, we looked at the Indiana Toll Road as an example of the growth in privately financed highways, and how financial firms can turn these assets into profits, even if the road itself is a big money loser. In this piece, we examine the shaky assumptions that toll road investments are based on, and how that is putting the public at risk.
November 20, 2014
How Macquarie Makes Money By Losing Money on Toll Roads
This is the second post in a three-part series about privately financed highways. Part one introduced the Indiana Toll Road privatization as an example of shoddily structured infrastructure deals. Part three looks at how faulty traffic projections lead bad projects to get built, and how the public ends up paying for those mistakes.
November 19, 2014
The Indiana Toll Road and the Dark Side of Privately Financed Highways
This is the first post in a three-part series on the Indiana Toll Road and the use of private finance to build and maintain highways. Part two takes a closer look at how Australian firm Macquarie manages its infrastructure assets. Part three examines the incentives for consultants to exaggerate traffic projections, making terrible boondoggles look like financial winners.
November 18, 2014
So Your City Is Adding HOT Lanes. Will They Work for Transit?
High-occupancy vehicle lanes can help incentivize carpooling (and let solo drivers sit in punishing congestion). But too often, transportation agencies spend millions of dollars to widen the road to make carpool lanes, instead of simply designating existing lanes. To recoup some of the expense, the agencies also let drivers pay to use the new "high-occupancy/toll lane."
October 7, 2014
Georgia Removes Tolls, Invites 11,000 More Drivers to Clog GA 400 Each Day
Why raise desperately needed transportation funds for a broke region when you could let people drive for free? In Georgia, the state has made up its mind: The DOT will pay $4.5 million to tear down tolls on GA 400 -- and forfeit the $21 million a year the tolls brought in.
October 29, 2013
TIFIA-Backed, Privately-Operated Texas Toll Road Flirts With Default
It’s been nothing but headaches for Texas State Highway 130. The road -- or rather, SH 130 Concession Company LLC, which operates the road -- got a credit downgrade to junk bond status in April, and now it’s been deemed even junkier with another downgrade from Moody's last week. Traffic projections for the road failed to materialize, and so did the expected revenue. Now, the road could end up defaulting on its debts -- including a $430 million federal loan.
October 23, 2013
Moody’s Warns of Rising Debt Load for Toll Roads
Despite increased toll rates, toll roads saw their debt per roadway mile increase by a third last year, from $14.3 million in fiscal 2011 to $18.9 million in 2012.
September 20, 2013
Credit Rating Agencies Uneasy About Toll Roads as Americans Drive Less
Toll roads aren’t the cash cows they used to be. The assumption that the roads will “pay for themselves” is no longer a reliable one, and credit rating agencies are taking notice.
August 5, 2013
What Do Anti-Density NIMBYs and Road-Wideners Have in Common?
Matt Yglesias made an excellent point about NIMBYs over at Slate yesterday. Writing about opposition to multifamily residential construction in the tony neighborhood near Lake Calhoun in Minneapolis, Yglesias wondered how much value residents really place on keeping the area a "single-family residential community."
December 19, 2012