@JJ - Glad that you feel that it hasn’t affected traffic. I just happen to believe that you’re wrong… But you’re entitled to be wrong, its okay…

@GetReal - Thanks for the advice. I’ve been looking for a job closer to home for years and can’t afford to live closer to the city. If you have a job for me, I would love it.

JJ@  If you commute 3/hrs per day (I assume 90mins to work and 90mins back), I’d suggest you just start looking for a new job closer to home or a new home closer to work.

@Rational thinking will lead the way -

talk about a condescending rick ! Get over yourself, Pal. And keep on believing that you can build your way into a better quality of life. It aint gonna happen.  Lived in NOVA for 31 years, and this is nothing more than the Fairfaxing of Loudoun.  Happened in the 80’s, and is happening again.  Enjoy higher taxes, clogged roads, higher crime, noise, no trees, and rude people.

A couple of people have commented that traffic on the Greenway and Dulles Toll Road are down. After construction changed a few of the Greenway ramps, traffic smoothed out. I’ve been commuting on both roads for 6 years and I still see traffic back-ups every day. My average commute has not dropped lower than 3 hours a day, so I haven’t seen an increase in tolls impacting traffic at all.

@Smith - Pretty sure that everyone means that its “free” in the sense that it doesn’t cost you anything extra. Because let’s face it, if you take the toll road you are not only paying the toll but you are STILL paying the taxes to pay for the “free” road that you are bypassing…

But my argument remains the same. The toll road is doing exactly what our Congress has done. Raise the rates (corporate taxes) up to the point where people (businesses) find it too costly to drive on (conduct business) so they find a less expensive, alternate route (move overseas). The higher the rate (tax) the more people (businesses) avoid it.

Its a vicious cycle and the toll road folks will end up with a nice pretty road with no traffic. Same as our country has ended up. Great place to do business but no companies are located here.

They should change the dulles tool road to dulles hotlane, since the price keeps going up and nothing we can do about it since VA politics is so corrupt. The toll road has been paid for 10 times over. If we had any real leaders in northern va, we’d succeed from virginia(and be called North va).

free road….I love it. What is this, the Matrix?? You drones are so plugged into the ‘construct’ that you don’t even realize how you’re being played/used/taxed.

Beautiful. The machine(s) are truly winning.

Since they jacked up the rates on the Greenway, there is no traffic. But don’t try thinking you can zip down RT.7. The traffic didn’t vanish, it just relocated to the free road.

There is no way to ignore that traffic is WAY down on those roads. I moved here in 2006 and used to sit in a traffic jam at the Dulles booth every day. Now I can zip right through no matter what time of the morning I go through.

But this leads us to the same thing that is going on with our congress. One side believes that higher and higher corporate taxes is the way to go while the other side believes that if you lower the rates then you will get more money due to increased volume. Toll road is that theory in action. Rates have gone up so traffic has diverted. Corporate taxes are the highest in the industrialized world, business has left the country…

This is ridiculous…how can people stand by and let his happen? Why should the toll road riders pay for a boondoggle that the Metro Extension is?? I refuse to use the Greenway ever…never have since it opened. I pay road taxes in each gallon of gas I buy that is used for roads, and am not paying double!

Hey Rational guy,

This is not about transit, it is about $$$$$$$

Bus transit is an option that is being ignored. Why? Because there is far less oportunity to pay off the big money players like out of state union bosses, land developers, No-bid Bechtel, and all the other pay -to-play gang that have keep Gerry “The king of pork Connally” where he is today. But with these mega-projects, the joke is on the payees.
Question:Where is “Bob is for Jobs” McDonnell when the unions are stealing VA jobs.
Answer: Telling the General Assembly to hand over $150M to MWAA who laughs at the idea of open audit and when the GAO says get your act together.
I’ll bet they don’t spend their own paychecks like OPM(other peoples money)
Throw them all out and make em take their pet projects with them.

Alright fools,

“MWAA became responsible for operating and maintaining the toll road in Nov. 2008 for a 50-year period, and wasted no time driving up tolls. The ownership is part of an agreement with the state government”

MWAA getting involved changed the “deal” (regarding the tolls for so many years to pay it off and then it will be un-tolled). MWAA is now using the DTR to pay it’s portion of the METRO extension. Sorry if I didn’t spell that out, I thougth that was clear and obvious but apparently some of you didn’t get the message.

Now with the obvious portion of things out of the way.

We’ll just disagree about “right vs. priviledge”. Someone who believes the world owes them things is someone a rational person cannot get through to…thus, I won’t waste either of our time.

The arguments about pressure on other roads…wha wha wha. We should be glad we DO have options like the toll roads. You know why we don’t have adequate, quote “FREE ROADS”?? The legislature and VDOT don’t send the right proportion of tax dollars back to NoVA. But they sell right-of-way to foreign companies to build tollroads, because to them, a road is a road, and they aren’t elected by NoVA drivers like yourselves b*tchin’ about toll roads and clogges “free” roads.

That’s what we got - so sack up and realize the BILLIONS that we, NoVA and Loudoun specically, are getting out of METRO extension. Yes, it’s going to cost hundreds of millions…but high schools cost $80M, Rt. 7 interchanges $35-40M…Metro will kick-start Moorefield and Loudoun Station, spur economic development we can’t imagine right now, and raise the rank of Loudoun beyond a far-flung bedroom county w/ the Airport in it.

You schm@cks cling to the 1990’s like a child and pacifier.

Also the tolls will subsidize the operating costs of metro in DC and MD (who conveniently control MWAA.)  Metro currently has ONE BILLION dollars of deferred maintenance (escalators that don’t work, broken trains, etc.) projected to be 6 billion by 2020.  So our tolls are supposed to pay for that?

Also look at what Loudoun is being charged for new trains as opposed to DC and MD.  Why is Loudoun paying for all these new trains, at a far higher cost than others?  WE are being forced to subsidize Metro, and their inept management. 

Maybe the toll road tolls should help subsidize the Post Office?  they need it too, that would keep our stamp prices low, and their inefficiency high… why are we giving toll road money to keep rail fees low? 

Rail riders should pay what it costs to ride the rail.  But then it might look like a good deal just to take a taxi, because rail is such a huge boondoggle, rail riders would not ride if they had to pay the actual cost of what rail costs to construct and maintain… (especially with all the special deals and perks for cronies!)

Again, go to Loudoun Opt Out website for the truth.

Janet Clark said she will support NO increase in tolls during her campaign.  Where is she now?  How come the tolls are going up anyway?  I feel cheated!

Rational thinking person, you are not…

The whole point is the tolls are going up to pay for the cost of building and operating metro, which will only have 2.5 miles in Loudoun…

The tolls are NOT paying for the maintenance of the dulles toll road (the Greenway is privately owned)—the tolls on the dulles toll road are being paid with the money put for OTHER projects, that unelected MWAA choses, like a new 7 million dollar conference room at National Airport for them to meet in (since there’s is not nice enough?) and cushy deals for union contractors at the airports and cushy construction deals where there is no accountability for costs or where the money goes, all done in secret “private” meetings… when Virginia is a right to work state…we are wasting lots of money on living wages and other things we are not required to spend money on…

Plus raising the tolls pushes traffic out onto the local network.  The toll roads are supposed to be a Viable option, and if they raise the tolls to more than $10 each way as projected, no one will use the toll road, and it will make other traffic worse, hurting not only the commuter but local businesses where no one can get to their place of business..

The raising of the dulles toll road tolls are in essence a tax, and we cannot un elect MWAA for wasting our money and giving hand outs to their friends…spending the money not on our roads, like it was intended….

There is no reason for the tolls to go up like they have, it is billions in dollars of tolls, that are not being used on the toll road, which was paid for long ago… the tolls were supposed to end when the Dulles Access road was paid for, but instead, Kaine “gave” the toll road to MWAA (he could have sold it for 6 billion dollars, but he gave it to an unelected board…) who has extended the tolls, and raised the tolls, and taken billions away from the State… for their own pet projects…

Cronyism and Out of Control Spending—this is what is wrong with MWAA and our federal government and we need to stand up for what is right!

Wake up all Mr. So Called Rational Thinker!  Loudoun Opt Out!  Visit our website!

rational thinking, you need to educate yourself.  We all pay our taxes and the taxes pay for the roads that are non-toll roads.  This doesn’t equate to a priviledge, but a right of use.  If I pay my taxes which go to pay for roads, I have a right to use them.  Another point, the toll road was only supposed to have a toll for a limited period to pay for the construction of the road and then the tolls were supposed to be eliminated.  This is how this project was set up unlike the greenway.  Instead, Frank Wolf transfered the cost of Dulles metrorail to the MWAA which now is coming back to bite him in the ass and he is trying his best to blame everyone else.  Either way, we aren’t supposed to be paying for this road after a certain point.

IT TURNS OUT YOU ARE THE DUMB ONE NOW DOESN’T IT.  YOU SHOULD KNOW YOUR FACTS BEFORE YOU SPEAK.

Are you folks that dumb?

A. DTR and the Greenway are road OPTIONS - you elect to use them. Or not. They are attractive due to their direct-ness and efficiency in getting you from point A to B.

B. It is not your RIGHT to use any road, but rather a priviledge.

C. DTR and the Greenway are the only roads that are upfront about what it costs to use them. Rt. 7, 28, etc. etc., you pay for those through your taxes, year in year out. DTR and Greenway don’t get any tax funding, and that’s why they rely on user fees. Would you really prefer that every road be tolled, and you pay every time you go from one road to the next?? No. These toll roads are not efficient in that manner - I’d rather see them go public and drop the tolls, but then, we’d all have to have our taxes increased to pay for them.

D. NOTHING IS FREE - get over your delusions of this for crimmany sake.  If you want to drive over dirt jeep paths, there are states like South Dakota for that. Cya, enjoy.

Good job Matt,
Fair and balanced.

But…..there is more to the story. First, keep in mind, MWAA will do whatever it wants whenever it wants with tolls. Not much gov Bob or Frank can do to change that until Joe public gets really ticked about this.
The MWAA gameplan is ever so simple. “Don’t stir up too much discontent for a few months til the counties and VA are locked in. Then it is our problem. It will be MWAA’s way or the highway   (no pun.) 
WaPo article from late July by MWAA’s Board member Rob Brown sum it up well, and little has changed. Rob Brown is a straight shooter.

“No other transit mega-project in the United States is 100 percent locally funded. In fact, most have combined state and federal assistance of at least one-third of costs.”

“It should hardly be a shock, then, that the tolls needed to support Dulles Metrorail will be eye-popping. To be sure, the secretary’s process, by reducing Phase 2 costs (and shifting $400 million of costs to Fairfax and Loudoun), will have some mitigating effect on tolls. But even at the $2.8 billion cost the secretary has found acceptable, today’s $2 toll is projected to be $13 in 20 years, $17 in 30 years.”

You heard it right from MWAA-EYE POPPING…Don’t blame Janet Clarke yet, but it will be her baby soon.

We need to Opt Out or we are in for an ugly ride.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-dulles-metro-station-wasnt-the-problem-the-toll-road-increases-are/2011/07/26/gIQAgCC3hI_story.html

Cronyism and Out of control Spending = Loudoun’s Big Dig, with loudoun taxpayers and toll road commuters paying for this heavy rail project, only heavy rail project that the fed govt has not financed in the history of the US.

Dramatically increase tolls so MWAA can funnel money in lucrative over priced contracts to friends, and locate rail stations next to contributors and supporters land…. they benefit, we the taxpayer just pays for their dramatic increase in property value, and all the wasted hundreds of millions to no bid friendly contracts, with no control on spending..

The tolls are projected to go up to more than $10 each way within 5 years.  No public hearings are required to raise the tolls—MWAA has sole authority as an unelected body not subject to open meeting rules or FOIA.  They do what they want in secret.  That is why Bob Marshall has introduced a bill (HB2) to make MWAA have open meetings and be subject to FOIA if any state money is used in Dulles Rail.

Why would this paper promote the idea that this is the last toll hike, or that anything MWAA does is “public.”  Maybe the paper’s owner would like the electrical contracts?  would be sweet?

MWAA is planning on paying for 75% of the phase 2 Dulles Rail project by raising tolls over the next few decades, and tolls will be used to maintain and operate the rail as well.  So commuters who cannot use the rail must pay for it?  Higher tolls equals more traffic on our already stressed local “free” network… raising the tolls is a crony deal, to funnel money for lucrative contracts to special insiders in no bid contracts to construct the rail, and phase 1 is already over budget.

The total cost is about 7 BILLION, not the figure the paper published… and yes, they have taken about a Billion out, but that is only because the Counties are now agreeing to pay for more—they just pushed some of the project onto the localities…

OUr Atty General Cuccinelli said it best “Dulles Rail is a Rip Off.”

See Loudoun Opt Out website for more factual detail that is accurate (unlike this biased paper.)

I see less an less people on the toll road. On the weekends it is empty. Soon no one will be on it.

Occupy the toll road!  Oh wait…that would cost a lot of money. 
Seriously- this is an absolute disgrace.  For my money I want a guarantee that I won’t sit in traffic for an hour on the Toll Road.  If I’m going to sit in traffic, I’ll just do it on Rt. 7 or other roads.

Janet Clark promised us the tolls would never go up!  So much for integrity.