Delaying its final recommendations on how to address toll inequity, a Turnpike Authority study group asked for more time to look at 37 options - from creating tolls on Interstate 93 to raising tolls on the western end of the Mass Turnpike - during a board meeting yesterday.
The toll equity working group, which the board created after hearing angry suburban Boston and Worcester commuters protest January toll hikes, has shied away from endorsing any recommendations, instead presenting the board with a "laundry list of options."
Reinstating the tolls on Exits 1 through 6 and Exit 16 in West Newton, increasing tolls on the rest of the western section of the Turnpike, raising rates for commercial vehicles and re-examining carpool and Fast Lane discounts were among the suggestions for spreading Big Dig debt and road maintenance costs throughout the state. Tolls on the western end of the Turnpike now begin with Exit 7 in Ludlow.
Transportation Secretary and board Chairman Bernard Cohen said all options, including those that require legislative approval such as tolling I-93 or getting rid of the 40 cent Boston resident tunnel discount, which costs $5.3 million each year, will be given equal consideration.
Cohen said he has also asked authority staff to look at congestion pricing - increased toll rates during peak driving hours - as an option.
"I want to have as complete a picture of what our options are as possible as we make these tough decisions about how to re-balance the way in which we charge for people to use the Turnpike. ... As far as I'm concerned they're all on an even playing field," he said after the board meeting.
Authority Executive Director Alan LeBovidge told board members it would be relatively easy to study traffic flow on I-93 and the Zakim bridge to determine potential toll revenue.
Later in the day after an unrelated press conference, Gov. Deval Patrick skirted questions about whether I-93 tolls are a possibility, saying the administration is concentrating on finding savings.
"When (the study) is complete then we will digest that information and go from there," he told reporters when asked whether toll equity was no longer a priority. "You don't have to read the tea leaves folks, we will tell you when we have some information and when we have a decision."
In more certain terms, Patrick spokesman Kyle Sullivan told the Daily News, "Tolls throughout I-93 are not an option the administration is prepared to consider at this point."
Earlier this month Patrick and Cohen touted $14 million in savings that resulted from cutting several administrative staff positions, not filling nonessential staff vacancies, converting cash lanes to electronic toll lanes, and relying less on expensive outside consultants.
Board member Mary Z. Connaughton, a Mitt Romney appointee from Framingham, said savings can only take the authority so far.
"I don't know how you address the issue of toll equity without some kind of an increase somewhere," she said yesterday. "The most equitable way is to toll all of the major roads into the city, but I understand the politics around that are extremely difficult."
Connaughton said another fair solution would be to increase the gas tax and get rid of all Pike tolls except in the Boston tunnels. She said the board is more likely to reinstate the western Turnpike and Exit 16 tolls. .
During the meeting, Connaughton also asked the board to make good on what she said was a 50-year-old promise to plant bushes around a Framingham resident's home in order to block the view of Pike traffic.
Gleason Street resident Louis Rufo, who was forced to move from his original home when the Pike was built, could not be reached for comment yesterday. He has also been an advocate for sound barriers along the highway.
State Sen. Stephen Baddour, D-Methuen, and state Rep. Joseph Wagner, D-Chicopee, chairmen of the Legislature's Joint Transportation Committee, did not respond to requests for comment about the committee's willingness to work with the authority on costly discounts and programs that the Legislature requires the Pike to provide.
(Daily News staff Lindsey Parietti can be reached at lindsey.parietti@cnc.com.)
