For generations, California drivers have taken for granted that state government would guarantee their seeming birthright to free use of a vast highway system.
But Orange County's experiment with toll roads, where drivers are paying from 25 cents to $2.75 for the privilege of driving to and from work more quickly, is fueling a new vision of the future.
With hundreds of millions of dollars in highway projects still unfunded, an increasing chorus of state transportation officials and elected leaders are viewing toll roads as a major part of the next era of highway expansion in the ever-growing state.
"It portends the way things are going to go," Assemblyman Larry Bowler (R-Elk Grove), a member of the state Assembly Transportation Committee, said of Orange County's two newest toll roads, the San Joaquin Hills Transportation Corridor and the California 91 Express Lanes. (A third toll road, the Foothill Transportation Corridor, is partially open and expected to be completed in 2003.) "People's minds are being changed by the experience of people in Orange County."
State Sen. Quentin L. Kopp (I-San Francisco), chairman of the state Senate Transportation Committee, agrees.
"I think there will be more toll roads," Kopp said, "because toll roads are a solution."
The problem they solve stems from recent changes in the state's economy. Historically, highway construction was financed by state and federal gasoline taxes, which drivers pay at the pump. In recent years, however, two developments have drastically altered the funding picture: The price of road construction has skyrocketed, and gas tax revenues have decreased significantly.
The dip in revenues began in the 1970s, according to Mehdi Morshed, a consultant for the state Senate Transportation Committee, when severe gas shortages sparked a major national effort to increase fuel efficiency. The effort succeeded; cars used to average 10 miles per gallon, now many get at least 22.
"All of a sudden," Morshed said, "for the same number of miles that people were driving, we were getting half the amount of revenue, while the cost of construction kept rising 8 to 9% a year. Revenues went down and expenditures went up. That's why we're in the soup."
