Road tolls are one of the great injustices imposed on Lynn and other North Shore residents and a state hearing scheduled Wednesday at 6:30 p.m. on North Shore Community College’s Lynn campus gives drivers a chance to sound off.
Scheduled for two hours in room 303, the hearing is intended to explain electronic tolling changes. But state officials running the hearing should keep an eye on any and all Lynn area state legislators who are fed up with seeing the North Shore get the short stick on state transportation resources.
As they are apt to point out, it is easy to look at a Greater Boston region map and conclude the North Shore is effectively held hostage by tolls. Any direct route to Boston passes over the Tobin Bridge or into one of the tunnels and the Tobin and tunnels mean tolls.
North Shore communities, like their counterparts around Boston, are served by commuter rail. But the subway system that generously serves communities south and northwest of Boston barely touches the North Shore with Blue Line service terminating in Revere.
The South Shore driver headed for Boston doesn’t worry about paying tolls and the western suburban driver who doesn’t want to jump on the Massachusetts Turnpike can drive Route 128 or Route 9 to Boston.
Those options are not available to North Shore drivers who must loop around 128 or take a rambling ride through Revere, Everett and Cambridge if they want to dodge tolls.
State Sen. Thomas M. McGee has raised a ruckus about toll inequities for years and proposals for toll discounts make perfect sense in light of the public transportation deficiency faced by North Shore commuters.
In well thought-out arguments about the North Shore’s transportation shortcomings, McGee points out how regional economic growth is stymied by an underdeveloped and aging transportation infrastructure relying on older roads, even older bridges, and a 20th century mass transit network.
State officials hosting Wednesday’s hearing should be asked what North Shore drivers are getting in return for the tolls they pay. Planned Copeland Circle-Route 1 improvements have yet to materialize. A Blue Line extension remains a concept and the Lynn ferry got torpedoed after two successful seasons.
Where does all that leave the North Shore commuter who contributes to Massachusetts’ economy by earning a living and paying taxes? Answer: Paying tolls. North Shore drivers don’t have a problem paying their fair share. But how about making the share fair? A better topic for Wednesday’s hearing is how can tolls collected on the Tobin and in the tunnels be dedicated to long overdue North Shore transportation improvements.