Governor Dannel Malloy’s transportation goals for the state include a plan to widen the entire length of I-95 in Connecticut. The state’s transportation commissioner said on WNPR Friday that the widening plan is actually tied to congestion pricing to discourage highway use.
The state said it’s trying to give people an incentive to try other forms of transportation.
“We don’t want people to drive if they don’t need to, and we can provide choices,” said James Redeker, Commissioner of the Department of Transportation, during an appearance on WNPR’s Where We Live. “The state is congested now. Not solving it leaves on the table the economic benefits we’ve calculated.”
A state public research group, ConnPIRG, recently criticized the governor’s highway widening plan, which includes not just I-95 but also sections of I-84. The group said the widening will lead to what economists call induced demand.
Releasing a report last month, ConnPIRG’s spokesman Evan Preston said wider roads increase capacity, and end up forcing more people onto the road. It gives drivers an incentive to use the highway, he said, not relieving congestion at all.
“I frankly disagree with the singular view that it takes,” Redeker said Friday about ConnPIRG’s report.
Below is Redeker's exchange with WNPR's John Dankosky during Where We Live:
REDEKER: We’ve actually done all of the modeling of this, that shows what adding a lane, using congestion pricing, does for automobiles.
DANKOSKY: With using congestion pricing.
REDEKER: Absolutely, absolutely.
DANKOSKY: Okay, so that's very key. I want to make sure that that's understood. If we're talking about widening the highways, we've gotta do it with congestion pricing.
REDEKER: That's what we're talking about. That's what's in the plan.
The state’s goal is economic growth through better transportation, Redeker said -- which is mainly about fixing congestion problems.
“To say that we shouldn’t widen a highway, I think, is really short-sighted,” Redeker said. “This is a through-state. And so there are people that are coming through all the time. And we are a state that depends and will always have to depend on trucks to move goods. They all use our highways, and they all sit in congestion, raising the cost of business, and making us not attractive.”
Redeker said the plan is comprehensive and is really about trying to attract people to stay in Connecticut, or choose to live in the state for its quality of life.
Preston said the state's plan to try congestion pricing has merit. “There is evidence that financial incentives can change driving behavior,” he told WNPR. “However, there is no merit to the DOT’s argument that this must be done in conjunction with lane widening. …As we know, lane widening doesn’t work as the road is more congested during construction – which takes years – and then again, later on, as people realize the additional capacity.”
Preston noted that in previous announcements about highway widening, Malloy has not mentioned congestion pricing as any part of that plan.
In a Let's Go CT! presentation dated May 2015 -- the state's five year "ramp up" transportation plan -- widening I-95 includes two points: start with the Bridgeport to Stamford segment of the highway, and "institute congestion management practices."
“If the governor believes widening I-95 should only happen if it is accompanied by congestion pricing,” Preston said, “that is a different public discussion than the one we’ve been having.”
