I-295 Express Lanes: Get Ready To Open Your Pocketbooks

[thelakelander]

For those who say "you are paying for the road you are using", okay then shall we do that for every road everywhere? Do you know how much it would cost just you and your immediate neighbors to build even your driveways or cul-de-sac asphalt road portion, if *you* had to pay for it directly? You would never end up paying off the loan. Or the country types who are anti-government, anti-tax, anti-everything; do you know how much your simpler 2-lane asphalt road would cost if just YOUR COUNTY paid for all of their own simple roads? You wouldn't be able to without county-wide taxes on the relatively tiny populace that would sink every one of them.

So true, so true....

[simms3]

Yes.  All true.

The tolls to get into the city of SF have gotten quite steep, too.  The Bay Bridge toll for cars on non-rush times is $5.  The Golden Gate toll is being raised over the course of the next year from $6 to $8 (with a pass...add $1 if you don't).  Even to take BART from downtown Oakland to the first station in downtown SF *one-way*, which is probably not even where you want to go, is now $3.30 (one station apart via a single underwater tunnel).  So it's technically more expensive to take the train to go back and forth from Oakland to SF than it is to take a car (since the toll is only going into the city and not leaving).  Traffic on the bridge is enough to make anyone used to Jax traffic cringe and cry (usually takes an hour+ to cross this one bridge in rush hour).  However, if you're claustrophobic, neither option is good.  The bridge is 6 lanes each way and double decker (so leaving you are squished underneath with metal and cars all around you).  The trains are CROWDED leaving the city into Oakland.  Like NYC crowded.  If you don't like that kind of situation, you're SOL.  Unfortunately, if your an average American, you probably can't afford SF and so you need to live in Oakland, with all its coolness but all of its issues.

With transit options, though, there IS a wonderful solution.  The ferries!  Most of them have a bar, and they are very smooth, pleasant, enjoyable rides.  Not too crowded, not noisy, no claustrophobia, and they aren't too expensive.  Lessons from most big cities to all growing smaller cities - explore every option.  Someday ferries could be a viable transit option in Jacksonville, too.  Passenger ferries, not car ferries.  People would have to learn to walk from the drop off points to their destination, or find connecting transit.

All of the fare increases are in the name of funding for new projects.  Such as the $6.5B replacement of one of the spans of the Bay Bridge, that came in billions of dollars and 5+ years over budget and over time.

HOT hasn't hit here, yet, to my knowledge, though the restrictions to get into HOV here are quite high (higher than I've seen elsewhere).

[tufsu1]

I second that question.  Are these tolls even legal?  We voted for the sales tax with the promise that there would be NO tolls. 

they are legal because they are attached to new capacity...and you will still have the option of traveling in the existing lanes for free

[Tony B]

This is stupid.  For a city of it's size JAX doesn't have much of a traffic problem.  For the most part barring weather or a wreck traffic moves well. 

[Tony B]

Some people out here actually like the idea of the private auto and dislike public transportation.  It's true. We love our cars.  We love to go where we want - when we want - taking the route we want - on the schedule we choose. 

This opinion was formed from years of riding the NYC subway system.  Filthy. Expensive. Often unreliable. Always uncomfortable.  On weekends... you might end up walking.

This is a fail of a plan. Where is the Rail plan for Jax?? I want commuter, light, or heavy rail.. I would even take a starter streetcar line from san marco to riverside/avondale to start.

I swear, car ownership has got to be the biggest racket in the history of mankind. Pay to purchase the thing that's used for transport, get locked into a loan, pay for maintenance, pay for gas constantly, get raped by insurance, pay for the "privilege" (like we have a choice) to use the roads, tickets, death, etc etc. It never ends.

But mention paying slightly more in taxes for a real choice for alternate transit & people have a shit-fit. I'll never understand it. Actually I do understand it, but it's still sad.

[thelakelander]

Me sitting in I-95's managed lanes in Miami.....I think the toll was $5.50 at the time.



Btw, I noticed Miami's commuters switch lanes abruptly by driving right over those orange sticks.

[coredumped]

Houston has similar lanes, but they're free during rush hour to HOV cars, any chance FDOT would do that here?

[thelakelander]

Doubt it. Miami had free HOV lanes for several years. FDOT converted them into managed lanes a while back. Now they're turning the HOV lanes in Broward, south of I-595, into managed lanes as well.

[RattlerGator]

Btw, I noticed Miami's commuters switch lanes abruptly by driving right over those orange sticks.

That's Miamuh for ya; funky hipsters et. al -- do I have that right?

[coredumped]

That's a shame, we should be rewarding carpoolers.

[Charles Hunter]

I agree, carpooling should be rewarded, but how do the automatic toll devices tell how many people are in each car?

[thelakelander]

How do the automatic toll devices tell when people drive over the solid white lanes, to move in and out of the toll lanes?

[Charles Hunter]

They don't,  only can tell when a car passes under a sensor. If the car has a transponder, it debits the account, if not, it takes a picture of the license plate.  That's why, for toll purposes, barrier walls are better.  But those have drawbacks. First is cost, then ease of access or escape in case of an emergency.

[brainstormer]

All of this because FDOT believes they can continue to add lanes and build our way out of congestion. It will be very interesting to see how their toll lanes in Jacksonville work out.

[coredumped]

Massive loss of money, that's my guess.