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Jun 5, 2008 6:10 pm US/Central
Some Want Toll On Highland Park Residential Street
DALLAS (CBS 11 News) ―
There could be another toll road coming to North Texas in a couple of years… but this concept would be unlike any other. Some Highland Park city leaders want to charge drivers a toll for traveling along a sometimes highly congested stretch of Mockingbird Lane between Hillcrest and the Dallas North Tollway.
Leaders call it a congestion pricing proposal. Congestion pricing is the practice of charging motorists more to use a roadway, bridge or tunnel during periods of the heaviest use. Its purpose is to reduce automobile use during periods of peak congestion.
Three year old Clay Staunton loves to play with cars. And he can do just that in his parents Highland Park front yard now that the street he lives on has closed off the 18,000 cars and trucks that once traveled through.
But when this town's stretch of Mockingbird Lane reopens, some question if toll booths should greet drivers at both ends?
Clay's mom, Heather, could get on board. "To be honest I think it would be a good idea," she said. "Just because, with it [Mockingbird Lane] being closed our kids can now ride their bikes out front. Normally with the traffic flow they can't."
Town officials confirm, at this point, there are discussions about making Mockingbird a toll street. If those traveling on the residential thoroughfare aren't residents of the town they would be charged a fee.
Lisa Stephens moved to a house on Mockingbird Lane a year ago. "We've gotta do something. I don't know that you can turn it into a major North Dallas Tollway," she said. "But it there's a way to regulate it [traffic] through here then I think that's great."
Officials with the Town of Highland Park say the talk of a Mockingbird Lane toll is just that, talk and that the issue hasn't even been discussed with the town council.
Some say making part of Mockingbird Lane a toll would be a challenge since Love Field Airport sits just to the west and White Rock Lake to the east and both attract a lot of traffic.
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