Gov. Andrew Cuomo hasn’t yet settled (or announced) a financing plan for the Tappan Zee Bridge reconstruction project. But Europe’s recent experience highlights the perils of relying solely (or significantly) on ever-higher tolls.
In Continental Europe, the FT reports that both commercial and household drivers are cutting back on their paid-road usage as they hunker down in the economic crisis. Traffic in thh three biggest markets, France, Spain and Italy, likely will fall this year, something that last happened in 2008.
From the article:
In the first quarter of this year, two of Europe’s biggest toll road operators – Spain’sAbertis and Italy’s Atlantia – reported 9 per cent falls in traffic. … The trend was underlined when toll road traffic volumes in France, which had shown more resilience since 2008, also contracted in the first three months of this year.
The article cites a toll-road executive who notes disproportionate drops in weekend traffic as leisure-trip drivers cut back.
The experience is a warning to New York politicians and potential toll-road funders: people’s willingness to pay road levies may more sensitive to the economy than the experts think.
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