You might need to grab an EZ Pass if you don’t already have one. The free ride might soon be over on some Connecticut highways.
A Connecticut transportation planning group is mulling a new $1 million report that identifies options for a possible high-tech system of highway tolls for the state.
The study, compiled for the state's Transportation Strategy Board, examines ideas, including new toll express lanes on expanded highways, tolls at the states' border crossings, truck-only tolls on limited access highways and converting the existing HOV or commuter lanes to express toll lanes.
Toll roads were eliminated in Connecticut in 1985, two years after a collision at the Interstate-95 toll plaza in Stratford that killed seven people.
The report also looks at ways to tax drivers based on the number of miles they travel, something governors from several states including Massachusetts, Rhode Island, are considering.
Oregon has a similar program and installed GPS receivers in 300 vehicles. The device did not transmit a signal, which would allow real-time tracking of a driver's movements, but instead passively received satellite pings telling the receiver where it was in terms of latitude and longitude coordinates.
The federal government is considering such a program, and in North Carolina, a panel suggested in December the state start charging motorists a quarter-cent for every mile as a substitute for the gas tax.
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Connecticut’s Transportation Strategy Board is expected to decide next month on how to proceed with the report. It hopes to make some recommendations to the General Assembly this session.
A state trucking association here already opposes the idea of resurrecting tolls.
Elected officials who support toll roads said they would only do so if they can cut the gas tax in Connecticut.
The public will have a chance to speak up at a public hearing on Feb. 23 at 10 a.m. at the Legislative Office building.
