As the pike turns

There's no justice in charging tolls for a new stretch of the Outer Loop, but there are some concrete results for commuters

Area motorists' free ride, such as it is, seems to be nearing an end. Last week officials accelerated plans for a turnpike in the heart of the Triangle. If it all comes to E-ZPass, the road and its tolls will be a mixed blessing.

The highway is to swing 18 miles southward from Research Triangle Park and Interstate 40 to Holly Springs. Dubbed the Triangle Expressway -- "Parkway" was preferred until recently -- it will be six lanes of fresh commuting. The end-to-end fare is expected to be about $2.

North Carolina, to put it mildly, has never signed on to the toll road concept, at least in the modern era. The closest most native Tar Heels got to a toll plaza was the late, unlamented Richmond-Petersburg Turnpike in Virginia. But many Northeastern interstates are lousy with tolls, and these days much of the loot is collected through the E-ZPass electronic system, with dashboard transponders linked to drivers' credit cards.

There are some compelling objections to the toll plan for the Triangle Expressway, which is basically the western leg of the far-from-complete Outer Loop, I-540, around greater Raleigh. Chief among them is that the existing portion of the Loop has no tolls -- so where's the justice in making western Wake commuters stand and deliver?

No justice at all, but there is a kind of cold logic, as outlined at Thursday's meeting of the Capital Area Metropolitan Planning Organization by Raleigh Mayor Charles Meeker. Although the road is already planned, funding shortfalls mean that it couldn't be completed for 25 years unless toll revenue speeds the bulldozers. Once it's built, Meeker noted, drivers "can ride the toll road and pay tolls if they want to, or else they can ride N.C. 55 and have less traffic than they would otherwise have."

The Capital planners (Apex Mayor Keith Weatherly dissenting) went along, and the fledgling N.C. Turnpike Authority is naturally primed for a premiere project. Next stop is the General Assembly, where an expected $18 million annual gap between toll revenue and overall costs will have to be addressed.

The horse, however, is out of the barn, or at least halfway out. Toll roads are just down the pike. They're a perfect expression of the current vogue in user fees, and the tolls can incorporate "congestion pricing," a free-market tool for easing daily traffic jams on crowded commuter roads.

Still, North Carolina has for decades gone in the other direction, making public amenities such as roads freely available to all -- for example, those without $2 to spare. And speaking of congestion, the Expressway/Parkway will ultimately spur more subdivisions, more roads and yes, more traffic, in the western and southwestern parts of the Raleigh area. A mixed blessing indeed.

At any rate, if the Expressway tolls for Tar Heels, it had better include the latest and best electronic technology, so drivers seeking an open road won't have to hit the brakes for outmoded toll plazas.