Elizabeth River Tolls
Every day, two of my brothers leave on a forty to fifty-minute drive to get to the commissary at Scott Annex in Portsmouth, where my brothers work as grocery baggers. They must drive another forty or more minutes to get home, meaning they spend over an hour a day on the roads. My family lives in Norfolk, where the commissary should only be a twenty to thirty-minute drive away. However, my brothers do not want to pay the toll required to take the Downtown tunnel. Thusly, they go on a longer route through the Gilmerton Bridge or the High Rise Bridge, which do not charge tolls. This my brothers do not only to avoid paying costly tolls on grocery baggers' incomes but also to protest unfair charges which cripple Tidewater's road system for them and others like them. Their case and many others like it are why the Elizabeth River tolls should be eliminated. The Elizabeth River tolls put a strain on Tidewater's lower-income citizens and its road system, and therefore the toll system needs to be overhauled. …show more content…
Elizabeth River Crossings (ERC), the private company that oversees the administration and collection of the tolls, maintain that the tolls are for the purpose of expanding the local roads and tunnels and therefore alleviating traffic conditions; among other benefits, they claim, "When the Project opens, the average round trip user will save about 30 minutes a day, saving fuel and reducing gas emissions." However, these good intentions have never reached fruition and do not override the problems tolls create. The tolls are a burden to lower-income residents. …show more content…
Many people, like my brothers, live in Norfolk and work in Portsmouth(or vice versa), but struggle to pay several more dollars every day on their commute. Virginia's government recognized this when they implemented the Toll Relief Program, which reduced tolls for low-income residents of Norfolk and Portsmouth who make eight or more trips through the tunnel in a month. However, that good effort is not enough. It only reduces the tolls, and it still leaves residents of Virginia Beach, Chesapeake, or other local cities or those who travel the tunnels infrequently out of luck. Local transportation secretary Aubrey Layne recognized the pilot program may need to be altered or expanded in the future (WAVY News). In all, this means Virginia's government has noticed the problem tolls created but is still struggling to tackle it. The toll system also hurts the local transit system for many despite claims to help. While the tolls could supposedly alleviate traffic in the Midtown and Downtown Tunnel areas by as much as thirty minutes, the reality is more complicated (Vergakis). Many people like my brothers take alternative routes, and whenever I accompany them traveling the Gilmerton or High Rise Bridges, I see a large amount of traffic. Yet, as claimed, the traffic in the Downtown Tunnel area is reduced. Most times I have traveled through the tunnels, transit seems smoother and clearer. The result of the tolls has been a tradeoff, not a reduction in traffic, and that tradeoff harms people who do not pay. Another false claim is that the money from the tolls funds expansions to the roadways. In actuality, the money is collected by ERC, a private company, as part of an agreement with the government. The company did build a new tunnel from toll funds, but
Every day, two of my brothers leave on a forty to fifty-minute drive to get to the commissary at Scott Annex in Portsmouth, where my brothers work as grocery baggers. They must drive another forty or more minutes to get home, meaning they spend over an hour a day on the roads. My family lives in Norfolk, where the commissary should only be a twenty to thirty-minute drive away. However, my brothers do not want to pay the toll required to take the Downtown tunnel. Thusly, they go on a longer route through the Gilmerton Bridge or the High Rise Bridge, which do not charge tolls. This my brothers do not only to avoid paying costly tolls on grocery baggers' incomes but also to protest unfair charges which cripple Tidewater's road system for them and others like them. Their case and many others like it are why the Elizabeth River tolls should be eliminated. The Elizabeth River tolls put a strain on Tidewater's lower-income citizens and its road system, and therefore the toll system needs to be overhauled. …show more content…
Elizabeth River Crossings (ERC), the private company that oversees the administration and collection of the tolls, maintain that the tolls are for the purpose of expanding the local roads and tunnels and therefore alleviating traffic conditions; among other benefits, they claim, "When the Project opens, the average round trip user will save about 30 minutes a day, saving fuel and reducing gas emissions." However, these good intentions have never reached fruition and do not override the problems tolls create. The tolls are a burden to lower-income residents. …show more content…
Many people, like my brothers, live in Norfolk and work in Portsmouth(or vice versa), but struggle to pay several more dollars every day on their commute. Virginia's government recognized this when they implemented the Toll Relief Program, which reduced tolls for low-income residents of Norfolk and Portsmouth who make eight or more trips through the tunnel in a month. However, that good effort is not enough. It only reduces the tolls, and it still leaves residents of Virginia Beach, Chesapeake, or other local cities or those who travel the tunnels infrequently out of luck. Local transportation secretary Aubrey Layne recognized the pilot program may need to be altered or expanded in the future (WAVY News). In all, this means Virginia's government has noticed the problem tolls created but is still struggling to tackle it. The toll system also hurts the local transit system for many despite claims to help. While the tolls could supposedly alleviate traffic in the Midtown and Downtown Tunnel areas by as much as thirty minutes, the reality is more complicated (Vergakis). Many people like my brothers take alternative routes, and whenever I accompany them traveling the Gilmerton or High Rise Bridges, I see a large amount of traffic. Yet, as claimed, the traffic in the Downtown Tunnel area is reduced. Most times I have traveled through the tunnels, transit seems smoother and clearer. The result of the tolls has been a tradeoff, not a reduction in traffic, and that tradeoff harms people who do not pay. Another false claim is that the money from the tolls funds expansions to the roadways. In actuality, the money is collected by ERC, a private company, as part of an agreement with the government. The company did build a new tunnel from toll funds, but