Commuters using the Dulles Toll Road are paying some of the highest tolls in the region just to sit in traffic anyway. Is the toll a justifiable infrastructure investment, or are we being gouged while VDOT laughs all the way to the bank?
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Add your commentFun fact nobody talks about: the original toll was supposed to be TEMPORARY. It was meant to pay off construction bonds and then be removed. That was in the 1980s. We're still paying. The bonds are long paid off. Where does the money actually go now? Anyone? Bueller?
I pay $8.40 round trip every single day just to merge onto a parking lot at the Reston Town Center exit. EIGHT FORTY. That's over $2,000 a year and I still get to work late. Someone explain to me how this is acceptable.
The real rip-off is that they raised rates specifically to fund Silver Line construction, which is great, I support transit, but now that Phase 2 is open the tolls didn't come down even a little bit. Not a single cent reduction. We paid for that thing and we're still being charged like we didn't.
I've been driving this road since before half of you moved to Reston. Back in the day the toll was like 35 cents. Thirty-five cents! And yeah traffic was manageable and you could actually get to Dulles without aging visibly. Now it costs $4+ each way and takes 45 minutes to go 12 miles. Progress!
what kills me is the EZPass transponder rental fee on top of everything else. they charge you to use the device that lets them charge you more efficiently. the audacity is honestly kind of impressive. corporate poetry.
Biggest rip-off in NoVA? Nah. That award goes to Dulles Airport parking. $34 a day in the main garage. At least the toll road gets me somewhere. The airport garage just holds my car hostage.
Worth every penny? Sure, if your penny is made of gold and you enjoy funding a Silver Line that somehow still doesn't go where most of us actually need to go. I moved here from Chicago two years ago and even by big-city standards this toll situation is embarrassing.
I actually looked this up so let me correct something I keep seeing in these threads — VDOT doesn't operate the toll road. It's managed under a Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority agreement. So directing anger at VDOT specifically is misplaced, though I totally understand the anger itself lol.
my wife and i moved here from Raleigh last spring and we literally had a whole conversation before signing our lease about whether we'd be near the toll road. we ended up choosing our apartment partly to AVOID it. when a road factors into your housing decisions that's a problem
Anyone who says this is worth it has never tried taking Leesburg Pike as an alternative. Go ahead. Try it. I'll wait. Come back and tell me the toll road isn't worth it after you've aged 10 years on Route 7 during rush hour. The toll road is the lesser of two disasters.
okay unpopular opinion but i genuinely don't mind the toll. the road itself is well maintained, it's smooth, lighting is good, on-ramps are clean. compare it to 66 which is free in spots and looks like the surface of the moon. you get what you pay for people
Rip-off? Disagree. My commute from Herndon to Tysons is genuinely faster on the toll road versus surface streets, especially during winter weather. The express lanes option also gives me flexibility. I think people forget what this corridor looked like before modern toll management. Pure gridlock 24/7.
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