Nice to Meek's you....Transform66 Inside the Beltway Transit and TDM Program
Corresponding Author: Dan Goldfarb, Northern Virginia Transportation Commission
Presented By: Dan Goldfarb, Northern Virginia Transportation Commission
Abstract
In the Northern Virginia suburbs of Washington, D.C., one of the most congested and restricted highways is the segment of Interstate 66 (I-66) running from the Potomac River to the Capital Beltway. The facility is limited to High Occupancy Vehicles (HOV), those with two or more occupants, eastbound in the morning and westbound in the evening. After years of study, the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) and the Virginia Department of Rail and Public Transportation (DRPT) developed a coordinated plan that will expand travelers’ access to the corridor, provide reliable travel times, and offer new and improved travel choices.
In order to improve person throughput and mobility in the corridor, VDOT decided to modify the usage restriction from HOV to a High Occupancy Toll (HOT). While vehicles with two or more occupants will continue to use the facility at no cost, those with one occupant will soon be able to pay a toll to travel on the freeway. The tolling will be electronic and require a transponder. Revenue from the tolls will pay for toll operations, with excess funds earmarked to support transit and TDM programs in the corridor. The Commonwealth of Virginia designated the Northern Virginia Transportation Commission (NVTC) to administer a multimodal program to allocate these funds among nine jurisdictions and eight transit operators in Northern Virginia.
NVTC initiated a call for projects and evaluated applications according to the Meek’s agreement as well as the goals and objectives outlined in the Memorandum of Agreement between the Commonwealth and the Commission. The goals focused benefit to the toll user, congestion relief, diversion mitigation, and cost effectiveness. NVTC developed a project ranking scheme and worked with Commissioners to build a comprehensive, multimodal set of project components to be implemented by day one of tolling.
NVTC staff balanced competing political positions and jurisdictional rivalries to develop a successful program. This presentation will provide an overview of the process, insight into the project evaluation framework, and lessons learned.