If Lynn Sen. Tom McGee gets his way, there could soon be electronic tolls on the network of highways surrounding Greater Boston.
This story is part of ongoing MassLive coverage into the state's all-electronic tolling system on the Mass. Pike.
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If Lynn Sen. Tom McGee gets his way, there could soon be electronic tolls on the network of highways surrounding Greater Boston.
He is under no illusions this will be an easy sell.
"People can be adamantly opposed, but I hope they don't say 'Hey, you're crazy,' " McGee said in an interview. "We need to come up with some outside the box thinking and be willing to take this issue on in a way that's going to cause a lot of consternation and pushback, but that leads to a broader conversation on what we should do"
McGee, a chairman in the legislature's Joint Committee on Transportation, has filed a bill that seeks to expand tolling in Massachusetts beyond the Massachusetts Turnpike and Boston's bridges and tunnels.
It is a hot-button proposal, driven by concerns about fairness and an underfunded transportation system, McGee said. Massachusetts is spending between $1 billion and $1.5 billion less than it should to keep up with transit needs, McGee said -- and a disproportionate burden is falling on people like his constituents, who pay daily tolls to enter the city while other suburban drivers ride free.
"It's unfair that we're the only areas that are tolled, and just more important the dollars needed to make investments in this region are not coming back," McGee said. "If we don't continue to address the transportation needs of the region for today and tomorrow, we're going to see a real challenge to our current economic growth."
The proposal would add a wide swath of highway around Boston to the Metropolitan Highway System -- a semicircle from Route 1 and I-95 in Peabody through I-93 and I-95 in Woburn, Stoneham and Reading and south toward Canton and Braintree, including part of Route 2.
That change would allow the state to be tolled along with the existing elements of the system, including the Boston sections of the Mass. Pike, the Ted Williams, Callahan and Sumner Tunnels and the Tobin Bridge.
Massachusetts launched all-electronic tolling in October 2016 and did away with toll booths. Now vehicles are charged electronically as they pass under scanners mounted to gantries along the Mass. Pike. The subject of expanded tolls has come up before, but has been a hot-button topic that the Massachusetts Department of Transportation Board of Directors has been hesitant to explore.
McGee's bill would require the Massachusetts Department of Transportation to study, develop and begin implementing tolling on those sections of I-93, I-95 and Routes 1 and 2 by the end of 2018. The system would be designed to fund highway improvements and MBTA public transit, use all electronic tolling and treat drivers fairly regardless of where they come from, according to the bill.
While other legislators have filed legislation to study expanding tolls beyond the Mass. Pike, McGee's is the first he knows of to make it to a hearing, he said.
In that hearing, held Tuesday, McGee listened as representatives from Citizens of Limited Taxation blasted the bill as a money grab that would expose more residents to all-electronic tolling's surveillance capabilities.
McGee said he understands the instinct to oppose raising tolls, but said the state should have a serious conversation about how to fix its transit problems, reduce congestion and fund infrastructure.
"People are going to think, who would think that tolling is a good idea?" he said. "You can come out and be in position to it and make the points they made, or we can look at the broader picture and say how do we address a system that I think most agree doesn't work for us."
And he said those conversations should include "out of the box" ideas on how to solve the regions traffic problems, including looking at congestion pricing that would raise tolls during rush hour to encourage people to use other forms of transit.
"The traffic is becoming almost constant," McGee said.
Revenue from the new tolls could fund rapid transit to the North Shore, an expansion of the Blue Line and improvements to reduce traffic bottlenecks, McGee said. There is no suggestions on toll costs in the bill; if passed, those would be developed following study by MassDOT.