Paying to Drive in Express Lanes: What Do Motorists Think? With Traditional Funding for Highways in Decline, "Priced Managed Lanes" Are Scaling Up

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Apr 12, 2013, 05:08 ET

Diane Gutierrez-Scaccetti, Executive Director, Florida's Turnpike Enterprise
Matthew Click, HNTB Corporation, Consultant to State Departments of Transportation
Patrick D. Jones, Executive Director & CEO, International Bridge, Tunnel and Turnpike Association

WASHINGTON, April 12, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Five years of high unemployment and a sluggish economy have cut deeply into state and local tax revenues, seriously compromising localities' ability to maintain and expand their highway systems. Now "priced managed lanes" – more commonly known as express lanes – are on the rise, with motorists paying tolls for a faster, more predictable, congestion-free trip. There are more than a dozen such projects operating across the nation – with over two dozen more in development or under study in large metro areas.

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How do motorists feel about paying more to use public highways? America THINKS surveyed 1,000 of them – and the results of that survey will be made public at a National Press Club Newsmakers news conference on Monday, April 22.

Discussing the survey results and the rapidly growing trend toward express lanes and toll roads will be: Diane Gutierriez-Scaccetti, executive director of Florida's Turnpike Enterprise, responsible for the second-largest user-financed transportation system in the nation; Matthew Click of HNTB Corporation, an infrastructure solutions consulting firm; and Patrick D. Jones, executive director and CEO of the International Bridge, Tunnel and Turnpike Association.

This National Press Club Newsmaker news conference will take place on Monday, April 22 at 10 a.m. in the club's Zenger Room on the 13^th Floor of the National Press Building, 529 14^th St., NW, Washington, D.C.

SOURCE National Press Club