Obama to Allow Interstate Tolls

Driving May Become More Expensive

Other than a few stretches across the country, interstate highways are by and large toll free, at least for now. The Highway Trust Fund that manages road maintenance and construction is close to running out of money and so the White House has lifted a moratorium on placing tolls on interstates. This is actually a good thing.

Fixing a Broken System

The Highway Trust Fund is funded entirely by the Federal Gas Tax, which has stood at 18.4 cents per gallon since 1993. For the last 21 years, cars have become more efficient, requiring less fuel. At the same time, the gas tax has become less valuable because it has not been adjusted at all for inflation. Imagine not getting a raise for 21 years! 

The reason that interstate tolls become necessary is that a simple raising of the gas tax is extremely politically unpopular. The public hears more taxes and says "no way," but if roads are not taxed more, they will fall even deeper into states of disrepair. So rather than raising the unpopular gas tax, the White House has decided to allow interstates to collect tolls. 

In a way, this is brilliant. The Highway Trust Fund pays for federal roads, but everybody pays the gas tax, regardless of whether they drive on those roads. Now, interstate tolls will only be paid by those who actually drive on the federal interstates. It will raise the needed revenue to pay for road repairs while not taxing those who do not use those specific roads. Additionally, if we bring the cost of driving more in line with what it actually costs society to maintain roads, more people may make the choice to use public transportation instead! 

The Problem With Urban Advertising

When Corporate Ads Rule Our Cities

In America, we pride ourselves on choice. We are offered a wide array of goods and services and we have seemingly endless ways to spend our money. Because of all of this choice, companies fight hard with one another for our dollars partly through the use of advertisements. While I will be the first to admit that some advertisements can be funny or useful, most are just a nuisance. Sometimes, ads become so prolific that they seem to reinforce the commercialism that represents America, and I believe that this is a problem. I take particular offense to the number of advertisements that appear in cities, whether on highways, streets or buildings. 

What's Wrong with Urban Advertising?

When you turn on your TV, browse the Internet or walk into a store, you are offering permission to be shown ads; you could easily avoid advertisements by not participating in these activities. Now of course, everyone needs to enter the commercial world from time to time, but in this context advertising makes sense. 

However, when you choose to drive to work, walk down the street or relax in a park, you are not participating in a commercial activity and have not given permission to be shown ads. When advertisements, such as the McDonalds fries pictured above, dominate the urban landscape, cities transform from whatever you want them to be into an extension of our commercial culture. City street and airspace are public goods and for the most part, you can not and should not alter your use of these areas in order to avoid ads. Advertisements simply should stay away and companies should be forced to respect public space.

My main reason for rejecting urban advertising is that it is simply unpleasant. Imagine yourself strolling the tree lined streets of Paris, marveling at the beautiful architecture your see. Now imagine the same streetscape where half of the street was devoted to Coke ads and the other half was plastered in Pepsi. You would suddenly be missing out on the beauty of the city itself, as the street converts itself into a product. 

Worcester Needs a New Highway

Bringing the Airport to Life

I want to begin this post by saying that in almost all cases, I think that the construction of new highways is not a good idea. I tend to think that highways are a waste of public funds that could be better spent on things such as public transportation. But, the city of Worcester is particularly unique in that it is currently not well served by highways. 

Worcester is the second largest city in New England, but it has a poor road network compared to other major cities. There is only one highway that runs through the city, I-290, and one that runs to the north of the city I-190. Most cities have the fortune of having highways that run through the city as well as a beltway that encircles the city. 

Worcester could benefit from a beltway loop for two reasons. The first is that currently, anyone who lives on the west side of the city is about a fifteen minute drive from an interstate. This dramatically increases commuting times and because there are no highways or viable forms of public transportation, main roads become unbelievably clogged in residential neighborhoods for hours at a time. If you live West of the city outside of the city limits, your commute is likely even more unfortunate.

The second reason is that Worcester actually has an airport which has started offering daily flights. The city has struggled for years to make it's airport a viable option, but it is largely ignored for airports in Boston and Providence. One major reason is that right now it is quite inconvenient to fly from the airport as it is difficult to access. If Worcester wants to expand it's airport and bolster it's economy, it must make the airport more accessible.

From the highway, it takes 13 minutes and several winding roads to find the airport when there is no traffic. And there is always traffic. Signs directing traffic are poor, roads are bumpy and it is just unpleasant trying to get to the airport. If Worcester has any chances of competing with customers flying out of TF Green or Logan, it needs to improve airport access.

Here is my proposal.

Beltway

Worcester should build an interstate, presumably named I-490, that would connect the Mass Pike with I-190. The route could go around the outside of the city through relatively undeveloped sections of Auburn, Leicester and Holden. It would link all three of these towns more readily to the Mass Pike and allow commuters to reach their jobs much more easily. These western suburbs of Worcester, and the west side of the city itself, could actually begin to expand just as communities to the east of the city have done.

But more importantly, it would link the airport directly to the mass pike. It would suddenly become convenient for residents of central New England to fly out of the Worcester airport. They would have easy directions and not need to worry about driving through the clogged city to catch a flight. I strongly believe that this would give a huge boost to the local economy.

Why Does the Mass-Pike Avoid Worcester?

Mass-Pike Does Not Service Worcester

A problem that seems to come up time and time again for residents of central Massachusetts is why when building the Massachusetts Turnpike did construction avoid Worcester? Being that Worcester is the second largest city in the state, one might assume that the primary highway in the state would cut through Worcester. However, when looking at this map, the Mass-Pike shown in red dips south just east of Worcester.

One reason for the strange turn in the road may be simply economic. It is said that the construction of the highway was to run extremely over budget and that the amount of property that would need to be reclaimed in Worcester would outweigh the benefits. Simply, the increase in tax revenue that Worcester could expect from a location on the turnpike would not offset the cost to pay property owners to relinquish their lands. This seems reasonable, but the highway does go straight into downtown Boston, so it seems unlikely that this problem was not present there as well.

Another possibility is a bit more interesting. In the 1950's when construction was set to begin, Worcester had reached it's peak as an industrial powerhouse city; it's then population of more than 200,000 later declined by about 25%. Boston officials were worried about the growing importance of Worcester and thought that the city may eventually outperform Boston. One way to deal with this problem would be to suffocate Worcester by making it difficult for goods to be transported to and from the city by road. The solution: make sure that the main highway in the state did not pass through the city.

Which seems more likely?