DOT Proposal Includes Rest Area Commercialization and Promotes Tolling
U.S. Department of
Transportation Secretary Mary Peters released the proposal,
entitled Refocus, Reform, Renew: A New
Transportation Approach for
Commercialization
If passed, the proposal
would suffocate existing interstate businesses in favor of just one
business hand-picked by the state.
"It is astonishing that the administration continues to back a proposal that would have such detrimental effects on drivers, highway-based businesses and local communities," said Lisa Mullings, President and CEO of NATSO, representing travel plazas and truckstops.
This proposal threatens many interstate-based businesses that depend on the free movement of interstate traffic, not to mention their employees and the local governments which need taxes generated from these businesses. The reason is simple and undeniable: it is virtually impossible for a business at the interchange to compete with a state-sanctioned business located directly on the shoulder of the road.
Commercialization of
interstate rest areas will not result in the sale of any additional
hamburgers or increase the number of gallons of fuel
purchased. “It will merely shift the point of sale away
from
In its proposal, the DOT acknowledges that current law prohibits commercialization because it would give an “unfair advantage to the businesses located directly on the interstate over those that are located at an exit off the interstate.” However, the administration has disregarded the devastating effects that unfair advantage would have on communities and instead focused on the quick capital the projects could generate for the state.
While the state might make more money, the tax base of local governments would shrink. By 2010, interchange businesses will contribute an estimated $1.8 billion-plus in property taxes to local governments annually, funds that are used for education and police and fire protection.
Under the guise of improving public safety, the proposal would direct participating states to incorporate improvements and expansion of truck parking facilities at the newly privatized rest areas. However, commercialization would actually reduce the overall number of spaces available for heavy trucks.
Mullings said, “Truckstops and travel plazas provide 90 percent of this nation’s truck parking. There is no doubt that we will see a severe truck parking shortage if these businesses are forced to close their doors.”
Tolling
In addition to promoting commercialization, the DOT proposal strongly
supports the use of tolling and congestion pricing by state governments
to fund highway programs. The proposal would remove the general
prohibition of tolls and allow states to implement tolling mechanisms on
federal highways, with minor restrictions. The document also
favors the implementation of congestion pricing to mitigate traffic, and
in some cases would prioritize federal grants to states that adopt such
pricing schemes. In its submission, the Department also strongly
criticizes the gasoline tax as a sustainable method of financing for the
Highway Trust Fund.
NATSO strongly opposes the tolling of the nation’s interstates. “Tolls represent a system of double taxation for the commercial trucking industry, which already pays 40 percent of all highway user fees,” Mullings said. In addition, tolls divert traffic onto secondary roads that are not equipped to handle this traffic, resulting in higher accident rates and damage to these secondary roads.
The resulting traffic diversion would also reduce the customer base of the interstate-based businesses that rely on professional drivers and the motoring public. Mullings said, “Travel centers, truckstops, restaurants, gasoline stations, convenience stores and lodging establishments have invested millions to build facilities and depend on the free movement of traffic.”
She continued, “By the year 2010, small business owners who provide services to highway users along the interstate are expected to employ over two million Americans and generate nearly $200 billion in sales annually. We want to ensure the interests of business owners along the highways are taken into consideration.”
With a new Administration taking office in January, Congress is not expected to take any action on the DOT proposal, although it may serve as an initial starting point over debate of the next surface transportation reauthorization legislation.
Already, the proposal has received a lukewarm response on Capitol Hill, with House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman James Oberstar (D-Minn.) stating the document “offers nothing to ensure a sustainable, long-term, intermodal, national transportation system.” In a written release, Oberstar also said, “The Administration’s plan, presented during its waning months, calls to mind the concept of Mortmain, the dead hand, reaching out from the past to affect the future.”
Over 70,000 businesses
have sprung up at interchanges across
For more information, contact Stephen Beaulieu.
Click here to read the full DOT proposal.
