The local authorities say the $1.8 billion project would drain the region's transit resources if not tolled.

"We need to start talking about what projects we would pull of the table," said Douglas Athas, Garland's mayor and Regional Transportation Council representative. "What I don't think a lot of people understand is all the projects that we wouldn't be picking and how many people would be impacted."



'Still be waiting in line'

RTC members will plead directly to the state commission when it meets Jan. 25. That meeting will serve as a follow-up to letters the RTC sent Jan. 3 to the Texas Transportation Commission, as well as Patrick and Abbott.



"The transportation needs of a rapidly growing region and state far outpace the available revenue," states the letter, which is signed by Rob Franke, the RTC chairman and Cedar Hill mayor. "The RTC has successfully utilized innovative finance tools such as tolled managed lanes to complete a dozen projects worth over $12 billion since 2005. These are projects that would still be waiting in line for pay-as-you-go funding to be made available."

At Thursday's meeting here, RTC members were told that without tolls, by 2040, the region would see an 80 percent increase in travel time, a 44 percent decrease in average speeds and a $50 billion annual increase in the cost of congestion.

RTC members including a Colleyville City Council member point to individual choice as an important difference between the managed lanes and a toll road, one the state leaders don't always acknowledge. Freeways built with tolled, managed lanes, like LBJ Freeway from Central Expressway to Interstate 35E, also have free lanes.

"I'm seeing a tremendous disconnect between our Legislature, leadership, the party in power and the people that are actually out there driving," Taylor said. "People are driving on toll lanes, and those numbers are growing."

Michael Morris, transportation director for the North Central Texas Council of Governments, said the former HOV lane on LBJ East has seen greatly increased use since it was converted to a tolled lane two years ago.

The stalled plan for LBJ East calls for two tolled, managed lanes in each direction. It would also include five highway lanes and frontage roads in each direction, without tolls.

Addressing a safety issue

Updating the freeway is a safety issue as well as a mobility issue, Morris told RTC members.

"We know that by using modern geometrics, especially with all the skewed ramps on 635, and put the interchanges at appropriate locations and put adequate capacity and reliability with continuous frontage roads, we can address that safety issue," he said.

Morris also said there were positive results last week when regional officials hosted a tolled, managed lane workshop in Washington, D.C.

"Everyone in the United States knows exactly where we are on this particular topic in our region," Morris told the RTC. "They're supporting us and watching us nationwide with regard to continuing to have these conversations and carrying out this particular initiative."