ATA says toll research shores up points made in privatization policy
The ATA opposes lease or sale of tolls roads and bridges to private parties.
The Trucker Staff
2/22/2008
ALEXANDRIA, Va. — The American Trucking Associations’ official Policy on Privatization of Toll Facilities makes it very clear where the organization stands on the issue of privatization.
“ATA strongly opposes the lease or sale of toll roads and bridges to private parties for the purpose of funding highway infrastructure,” the ATA policy reads.
“This is a valuable report that shores up several points that ATA has made previously about diversion as an unintended consequence of rapidly escalating tolls from privatization, or, in the case of New Jersey, Gov. Jon Corzine's 'monetization' of public highways,” said Clayton Boyce, ATA’s vice president of public affairs and press secretary. “Secondary roads aren't built to handle the traffic volume and traffic is forced to take longer, indirect routes to their destinations. Safety is also an issue because super highways are safer than secondary roads.”
A document on privatization on the ATA Web site says that “through privatization, we effectively are witnessing the dismantling of the nation’s interstate highway network.”
The statement also says that privatization would “generate revenue at great expense to the trucking industry and taxpayers and which pose potential negative impacts on highway safety, security and the motoring public.”
The statement also tells of ATA’s belief that carriers and independent contractors who can’t afford higher tolls might use smaller, less safe local roads and that “operators of privatized roads will be motivated by the profit factor and may not operate the facility in a way that serves the public’s needs.”
The ATA policy on privatization recommends 10 stipulations “if such a facility (toll road, bridge or tunnel) is sold or leased to private investors.”
Among those recommendations, the policy says:
• Proceeds derived by the government from the sale or lease of a toll facility should be used exclusively for highway investments on untolled facilities. Facility customers should not be required to subsidize unrelated government functions, and
• Toll rates should be set at a level that covers only the costs of construction, reconstruction, maintenance and operation of the associated toll facility, plus a reasonable return on investment and debt service costs. Any differences in toll rates among vehicle classes should be reasonable.
The ATA says that private toll road operators are not held publicly accountable for the social impacts of toll rates on low-income workers, or on the costs to businesses that depend on the highway for transporting employees, customers, goods or services.
For more information on the ATA’s policy and position on privatization, go to www.truckline.com, click on the Priority Issues drop down at the top of the home page and then click on “Privatization.”