Statement to Prince William County State Legislators Regarding Toll Cheating on I-66 Inside the Beltway

 

Statement of Allen Muchnick to the 
Prince William Delegation to the Virginia General Assembly

January 5, 2019

I'm Allen Muchnick, a City of Manassas resident, speaking on my own behalf.  I’m concerned that HOV enforcement during the tolling of I-66 inside the Beltway has generally been inadequate.

VDOT’s alteration of the 36-year-old I-66 HOV restrictions to add congestion-priced tolls for solo motorists has generally been a substantial success.  It has increased ridesharing and express bus ridership, moving more people through the corridor.  During weekday commuting hours, traffic congestion on I-66 has largely ended, while congestion on alternative routes is essentially unchanged or lessened.  Moreover, at least $20 million/year of toll revenue is now being invested in multimodal corridor improvements, creating a virtuous cycle.

Despite the outcry over “exorbitant tolls”, about two-thirds of the people who use I-66 during tolling are carpoolers or bus riders who pay no toll at all.  That share is even greater when the toll prices are highest.

Nevertheless, no project is perfect, and I’m concerned that many drive-alone motorists have been unlawfully cheating the I-66 tolls, by improperly sliding an E-ZPass Flex transponder to the "HOV setting".

Such toll cheating is unfair to all law-abiding I-66 travelers and raises the prices charged to those who do pay those tolls.  Moreover, since toll cheaters are immune to the variable pricing message,  toll cheating likely contributes to the notoriously high ($40-plus) peak AM I-66 tolls, is greatest when the tolls are highest, and causes some I-66 congestion that delays ridesharers, bus passengers, and toll-paying motorists.

Since mid-2012, VDOT consistently told the public that the change from HOV-2+ to high-occupancy/tolling would effectively end the previously rampant HOV cheating by solo motorists.  To that end, the previously lawful HOV exemptions for drivers traveling to or from Dulles Airport and for vehicles with grandfathered clean fuel license plates were finally ended, and VDOT now dedicates at least $550,000/year of I-66 toll revenue to constantly station at least four State Troopers along I-66 during tolling, presumably to vigorously enforce the HOV-2+ requirement for a toll-free trip.

To understand the nature and extent of HOV enforcement during tolling, I requested information from the Virginia State Police (VSP).  I’ve learned that VSP does not report or collect much useful data on HOV enforcement and has no estimate of HOV violations. 

According to VSP, no special HOV-enforcement initiatives were conducted during the first 51 weeks of tolling.  A "targeted HOV enforcement" initiative on November 30, 2018 resulted in 32 HOV-violation summonses, despite considerable advance publicity.  A second such initiative, also with advance publicity, was conducted on December 13, 2018.

During the first 53 weeks of tolling, only 702 HOV-violation summonses were issued during routine HOV enforcement on 253 tolling days.  Thus, on average, only 2.77 HOV-violation summonses were issued for every 8 hours of tolling.

According to VDOT, I-66 averages more than 33,000 vehicle trips/day during the eight daily tolling hours with 42.3% of those trips (14,000 vehicle trips/day) using an E-ZPass Flex in the HOV mode.  Considering the high toll prices, especially from 7:30-9:00 am, it seems likely that far more than three solo motorists/day are cheating the tolls.  Even 99% HOV-compliance among the E-ZPass Flex users would yield 140 toll-cheating trips/day.  A WTOP report publishedyesterday suggests at least 400 toll-cheating trips/day.

HOV enforcement on I-66 is difficult and endangers both the trooper and the traveling public.  The trooper must visually observe the number of vehicle occupants and then pursue the suspected violator and initiate a traffic stop in dense freeway traffic.  Presently, the paved shoulders are often inadequate, especially eastbound.  At least 41% of the time, the chased and stopped suspect vehicle actually has two or more occupants, so no summons is warranted.

I-66 users deserve effective HOV enforcement, and similar problems may exist with all express toll lanes in Virginia.  In the short-term, VSP and VDOT should be required to routinely collect and report meaningful data on HOV enforcement.  I further recommend conducting a full, fair, and open study to determine whether automated vehicle occupancy detection and/or HOV-enforcement is feasible or whether exempting HOVs from tolling should be discontinued because effective HOV enforcement is impractical.

Thank you for holding this public hearing and for considering my comments.