Commuters will pay - or move

If an urban planner suggested daily financial penalties as a way of guiding where people live and work, he'd be accused of the worst kind of social engineering. He'd be pilloried or mocked - and rightly so.

Sustainable community development is undoubtedly a laudable impulse, but a free society doesn't get there by charging residents a daily monetary penance for noncompliance.

But the same people who see soshulizm in every tax or government regulation see little wrong with tolls that will directly force major changes in the ways the people of Hampton Roads live and work. It's a user fee, they argue, which is fine so long as they don't have to pay it.

The tolls that will arrive at the Elizabeth River tunnels next year will pay for a new tube at the Midtown and some work at the Downtown. They'll also ensure a tidy return for investors who know that drivers have no alternative but to use their monopoly. It allows the anti-tax crowd in Richmond to brag about a transportation project built at no cost to the folks in Bristol or Alexandria, who get their roads without a daily bill.

But this is also a social experiment, whether unintentional or the simple side effect of ideology, that makes the Green Line in Virginia Beach, or the Unified Development Ordinance in Suffolk, look like small beer.

Portsmouth is protesting so vehemently about the $1.84 rush-hour tolls for cars because the region's poorest city knows it's the biggest loser in this. The population of Hampton Roads, and the jobs, are largely on the other side of the Elizabeth River. Portsmouth's people - and, to a significant extent, Suffolk's - will find themselves $1,000 poorer each year for the privilege of living in their cities and working elsewhere.

Residents of Virginia Beach, Norfolk and Chesapeake can avoid the toll altogether by not using the Downtown and Midtown. Those cities have almost 900,000 people and most of the region's jobs; the tunnels aren't a necessity for them.

That's one of the reasons that resistance to the Elizabeth River Crossings deal has been so modest there. The tolls will balkanize Hampton Roads, sure, but they will eventually make Virginia Beach, Norfolk and Chesapeake more attractive to businesses and people.

One of the fundamental tenets of smart growth is to concentrate people and work. If you live near your job, it saves time and money. It allows municipalities to build less expensive infrastructure.

It's why Virginia Beach, for example, wants to redevelop along the boulevard. It's why Norfolk now owns a light rail system. But this region wasn't built on smart growth principles. It was built around the automobile and cheap gas. They allowed Virginia Beach to sprawl practically down to Pungo. They made it possible to live in Cavalier Manor and work in Norfolk.

That kind of lifestyle will soon be significantly less attractive. If expensive gas has been somewhat offset by more efficient cars, tolls that start high and rise with each year can't be offset. Salaries won't climb that quickly. The tolls will be punishing and only grow more so.

So people will try to avoid them. Incrementally, at first, skipping a dinner out. Driving around. Eventually, the changes will become more dramatic. If they live on the other side of the Elizabeth from work, people will try to find a house nearer the office. They will move. Or leave the region entirely.

Smart growth advocates - and I'm one - applaud people living nearer their work, and more concentrated development. It's better for the planet and for people. But few of us would dare suggest charging people a daily penalty to encourage it.

For such an audacious proposal, you'll have to look to the elected leaders in Richmond.

Donald Luzzatto is The Pilot's editorial page editor. Email: donald.luzzatto@pilotonline.com.