No “Toll Impact Study” Results in Required Environmental Assessment

The  latest, 3/24/11 Downtown, Midtown, Martin Luther King Highway Extension Environmental Assessment does not adequately address the cost of  toll's impact on the Portsmouth and greater Tidewater communities.  The assessment is in need of a "Toll Impact Study"  that is made available to the affected communities. Such a study is relevant to Federal Highway Aministration's (FHWA) Environmental Justice requirements and needs to be performed before such potentially damaging charges go into effect.

 

The Federal-aid Highway Act of 1970:“requires consideration of the anticipated effects of proposed transportation projects upon residences, businesses, farms, accessibility of public facilities, tax base, and other community resources.” 

According to the Federal Highway Administration website's "Facts Page," social impacts have to be evaluated as do health and environmental impacts.  “All reasonably foreseeable adverse social, economic, and environmental effects on minority populations and low income populations must be identified and addressed. I do not think this was adequately accomplished in the required Environmental Assessment.

The assessment was originally located here: http://driveert.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/Environmental-Assessment-Downtown-TunnelMidtown-TunnelMLK-Extension-Project-March-2011.pdf

Unfortunately, the latter, Elizabeth River Tunnels, link is no longer active. I'm working on locating it.

I believe most significant impact the project will have on Portsmouth and the region will be the tolls.  Each person traveling to work on the opposite side of the Elizabeth River will have to pay an extra $1000 in tolls. Its not uncommon for families to work and go to school in Norfolk.  Two parents working and on child going to school in Norfolk will cost the family an extra $3000 per year.  Some people will have to quit jobs or move.

Toll costs were not addressed in the Environmental Assessment as toll charges were not yet determined. Once announced, there was a huge public outcry, from impacted citizens, against tolls.  According to social justice laws, the community should have been involved in the toll decision. The community consistently condemned the tolls as: unfair placing an undue burden on the backs of a minority and low income community, detrimental to the community’s economic vitality in terms of decreased real estate values and forcing businesses to close for lack of customers, disruptive to the availability of medical, educational, and religious services;  a barrier to obtaining and maintaining employment; and isolationist as it segregates the low income, minority Portsmouth community from the more affluent, eastern, greater Tidewater communities of Norfolk and Virginia Beach.

Toll related, adverse social impacts that should have been a more completely addressed in the Environmental Assessment include the following FHWA website quotes:
http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/environment/environmental_justice/facts/

"Destruction or disruption of community cohesion or a community's economic vitality."
(Portsmouth restaurants, retail businesses, and museums will see less tourists from Norfolk and Virginia Beach as EZ pass users will have to pay an extra $3.68 and out of town tourists without EZ Pass $7.36. Both are significant to selecting restaurants. In our competitive market, this puts Portsmouth at a serious disadvantage.) 

"Destruction or disruption of the availability of public and private facilities and services."
(Many Portsmoutheans will have to pay more to access medical services, participate in church and religious functions,  and  attend school and universities  in Norfolk and beyond  to Virginia Beach.  For low income individuals, this may mean missed medi cal appointments, treatment, and access to prescription medications. For parents with a sick child in Kings Daughter’s Hospital, the extra  $7.36 per visit can mount up quickly.)

"Adverse employment effects."
On  2/25/13, I surveyed Craigslist’s job list. There was 1940 job postings in Norfolk and 2434 job postings  in Virginia Beach for a total of 4374 jobs on the east side of the Elizabeth River and only 452 job postings in Portsmouth.  The availability of jobs is on the other side of the river away from Portsmouth. To force people pay an additional $1000 a year per person in tolls to access those jobs is unfair. It places an excessive burden  on the entire Portsmouth community as well as a significant low income population and other protected classes to include the elderly, disabled, and single mothers.  This tremendously important social justice issue was addressed in the Environmental Assessment in terms of the 2 years of tunnel construction jobs.  No mention of how many jobs would be created were provided.

"Increased traffic congestion, isolation, exclusion, or separation of minority or low income individuals within a given community or from the broader community."
The tolls are on all three Elizabeth River Crossings.  They will isolate Portsmouth, a minority city with significant low income population, from the more affluent broader community of  Tidewater to include Norfolk and Virginia Beach.  The tolls separate and segregate.  Because EZ Pass costs twice as much as the regular toll, low income individuals from outside the area who do not have EZ Pass and are not in the system will pay twice as much for the toll as more affluent individuals who can afford EZ Pass. Hence, the tolls will force some low income people to pay more which is disparate impact and a Civil Rights infringement that can lead to litigation. 

According to the Baltimore Sun, discrimination plaintiffs not served in a timely manner at Denny’s Restaurants were awarded between $15,000 to $35,000 each.  (Baltimore Sun,  May 25, 1994, http://articles.baltimoresun.com/keyword/secret-service-agents/recent/4)  Could the Elizabeth River Crossing or EZ Pass face a similar problem?

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A Toll Impact Study needs to be performed and its results published for the affected community and Environmental Justice professionals to review.  The tolls should not go into effect until this is completed. 

A Virtual Toll Wall

The imposition of substantial tolls on only and all of the Elizabeth River Crossings between Portsmouth and Norfolk VA seems to be a measure that creates a harmfully unequal, segregationist, potentially discriminatory, isolationist, barrier to trade "Toll Wall.”

Unequal Treatment

All Three Portsmouth River Crossings Tolled Creating a Toll Wall

Currently, Portsmouth has no tolls on its river crossings. However, a new tunnel needs to be built to accommodate increased traffic flow, and the State of Virginia has decided to place tolls on all three river crossings in Portsmouth to pay for it. As a result of these tolls, Portsmouth, a predominantly minority City , according to the 2010 census, will be effectively segregated from Norfolk and beyond to Virginia Beach.

Virginia Seems to be in Non-compliance with Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Executive Order 12898 As It Pertains to Federal Assistance to Highways?http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/environment/environmental_justice/overview/

As I understand it, both the Downtown and Midtown Tunnels have received federal funds or assistance. As such, Virginia should abide by the above Civil Rights requirements. I contend that the required Environmental Assessment to be incomplete and misleading as the tolls and EZ Pass administration fees create the disparate impact on minorities, low income populations, and woman with specific religious concerns.

The Environmental Assessment Downtown Midtown Tunnels Appendix A stated that all of the Portsmouth to Norfolk, Elizabeth River crossings would employ EZ Pass with no toll booths. I spoke with a VDOT representative who explained that the cars that did not have an EZ pass would have a picture taken of their license plate. As I understand it, people not having EZ Pass to include: those below the poverty level (lacking funds or means to pay for multiple uses in advance by credit card, money orders, and like means as they likely do not have a credit card), Canadians, and visitors from western states would receive a bill from EZ Pass with an extra “administrative” processing fee. I received a reply to my email requesting information as to toll and EZ Pass costs and obtained the following.

“For motorists who do not have an EZ Pass transponder, a video photograph will be taken of the vehicles license plate and the owner of the vehicle will receive an invoice in the mail for the toll and a toll recovery fee, which according to Virginia statute, cannot exceed twice that of the base toll rate. So, for example, if you receive an invoice in the mail for a non-peak toll of $1.59, the amount due cannot exceed $4.67 ($1.59 toll plus the toll recovery cost).”

Drivers with no EZ Pass to include: Portsmouth citizens as well as distant driving tourists would potentially have to pay $9.34 round-trip. They would be burdened with exposure of a fine or incarceration if they did not receive the toll/processing fee bill in the mail or failed to respond with payment in a timely manner. All of this places an undue burden resulting in disparate impact on Portsmouth’s poor, underserved, and substantial minorities.

Additionally, the Environmental Assessment failed to address the toll’s potential to “wall out” business from our already fragile downtown economy. The tolls will isolate Portsmouth effectively creating a major barrier to trade. As such our businesses are likely to be severely harmed by the imposition of these tolls and processing fees as both are deterrents to making the crossing into Portsmouth from Virginia Beach and Norfolk. I believe the state and private partnership may be potentially responsible for this harm if tolls are allowed to go into effect. Portsmouth is a city with very limited financial means to fight the segregationist discrimination being thrust upon it.

Tolls Create a Separate, Harmfully Unequal, Barrier to Trade that Will Negatively Impact Portsmouth

The imposition of tolls on the minority Portsmouth population will result in segregation that goes beyond separate but equal as it embraces the 1940s mentality of separate and harmfully unequal. My recent search for available jobs on Craigslist showed approximately 1000 jobs in Norfolk compared to only 225 jobs in Portsmouth. Our citizens will be denied job opportunities available in other cities because the extra $900-$1000. per year in commuter tolls will make it more difficult, if not impossible, for some to attain or retain work beyond the “Unequal, Segregationist, Isolationist Toll Wall.” Furthermore, these tolls will potentially result in downtown business closings, lost jobs, decreased residential and business real estate values, resulting in decreased taxes for the city.

Unprecedented Policies

The Downtown Tunnel has already been paid for by tolls. This is the only transportation facility in the state that will “charge a toll without adding any capacity for more vehicles.” (Virginian Pilot 1/24/20`2 p.1) The Midtown Tunnel toll will be put into effect before the tunnel is even completed. This too is a first for the state.

The new Gilmerton Bridge, currently being built between Norfolk and Chesapeake, will have no tolls. This further supports the notion that Portsmouth is being treated unequally and unfairly by the state. I believe this is occurring because the city does not have the resources to oppose the injustice precisely because it is a minority city with a substantial underserved, poor population.

Discrimination Related to Gender, Religious Beliefs, and Access to Medical Care

The imposition of tolls on all river crossings extends discrimination to female “Portsmouthians” preferring maternity delivery procedures in a non-Catholic hospital and as such speaks to discrimination based upon religion (non-Catholic religious orientation) and gender (women with childbirth concerns.) Women who are concerned about delivering a baby in a hospital with Catholic values, choosing the life of the baby over the life of the mother if such a choice must be made, should be able to select a non-sectarian hospital, such as Norfolk Sentara located through the tunnel in Norfolk, instead of Maryview Hospital, the only hospital in Portsmouth, without penalty of tunnel or bridge tolls.

In conclusion, placing tolls on all three river crossings between Portsmouth and Norfolk may well be racially segregationist, harmfully unequal, and from a gender/religious standpoint, potentially discriminatory.

Potential State Liability for Discriminatory, Segregationist, Isolationist Practices?

As a lay, concerned citizen, I believe the city, affected citizens, and businesses should be eligible for compensation from damages should the tolls go into effect. The state should have had the foresight to allocate money for this necessary project prior to the current long, deep recession.

The cost of this error should not be borne by Portsmouth’s minority, underserved, and/or poor citizenry.