What Happened to Free Markets?

“Drivers Seeing Red Over Greenway Toll” reads the headline in the Washington Post. The article reveals that the State Corporation Commission (SCC) has received over 100 letters opposing the Greenway’s owner’s application to increase tolls over the next six years. The Republican-controlled Loudoun County Board of Supervisors are screaming foul, and my good friend Republican Frank Wolf has written a letter, which he uses in his campaign ads, opposing the toll increase. It is an election year and Frank has a tough fight in a year when Republicans are being depicted as devils around the world. Let’s put politics aside as the SCC must do and consider some facts.

In 1988 when the private toll road legislation was passed to permit the first private toll road in the United States since before the Civil War, State Route 267, later named the Greenway, was not even on the VDOT 20 year plan. A year before Ralph Stanley, President Ronald Reagan’s Urban Mass Transit Administrator, left his government job to develop the Greenway and sell his idea to legislators in Richmond and to the public. Ralph setup a small office across from the Courthouse in Leesburg. I met with him often and we shared ideas on right-of-way issues. We became good friends. I was personally very interested in seeing this project happen. At the time I was commuting on Route 7 from Chevy Chase Maryland to the Leesburg Airport, an increasingly frustrating and dangerous journey. I could also see the benefits this road would bring to Loudoun County, Leesburg, and my business at the airport.

When the Greenway opened in 1995 it was toll-free for the first month or so. When a toll was levied, trips on the Greenway dropped as commuters and other drivers returned to Route 7. But slowly back they came to the Greenway as traffic increased on dangerous Leesburg Turnpike. My point is that they had a choice.

So why is the SCC even involved in setting toll rates? The Greenway is not a monopoly like Dominion Power or other utilities. It was not built with public funds. The owners of the Greenway pay for the State Police to patrol the road. If drivers feel the toll is too high, they can take alternates like Route 7 or Route 50. If VDOT and the State Legislators want to compete with the Greenway, they can raises our taxes (a government toll) and make Route 7, Route 50 and other roads competitive. Fat chance – we have just spent a year of gridlock in Richmond over these transportation issues.