By Jeremy Duda | Arizona Capitol Times
Arizona likely won’t be ready to unveil pay-to-drive lanes on Valley freeways until long after the fate of a proposed ballot measure aimed at putting the brakes on toll roads is decided.
No Toll Roads in AZ PAC filed a proposed ballot measure with the Secretary of State’s Office on July 29 that would bar the state from converting existing freeways or lanes into toll roads. The committee, organized by a group of car hobbyists, needs 259,213 valid signatures of registered voters in order to put its proposed amendment to the Arizona Constitution on the November 2014 ballot.
But if the Maricopa Association of Governments decides that managed lanes, as the pay lanes are known, are the right way to go, its formal recommendation might not come for a year or more. And once a recommendation is made, the toll lanes probably wouldn’t come online for four or five years after that, said Bob Hazlett, a senior engineer at MAG.
