What are you willing to pay to skip all the traffic and get around town quicker?
Virginia drivers are regularly paying more than $30 to go nine miles between 7:45 a.m. and 8:45 a.m in the morning from area such as Falls Church to Arlington.
But those drivers aren't necessarily beating traffic. In fact, they could be throwing their money right down the toilet.
The WUSA9 Verify team took a road trip after one our viewers asked if the I-66 toll lanes were actually saving people time.
Toll price frustration with those new toll lanes on I-66 in Virginia. It's been as high as $50 bucks, for a one way commute. Commuters have vented their frustration on Twitter. One person said "Im quitting my job and moving to North Carolina." And another said "Virginia supports the haves over the have nots." This person said "tolls hit 57.75, more reason to not live in Virginia."
Is it ever worth that much? Three of our verify viewers wanted that answer, so we took a Verify road trip and put it to the test.
We went to Falls Church where the three team met three commuters.
Virginia commuter, Gwonda Gaskins leaves her place in Manassas around 6:15 a.m. headed for Wilson Boulevard in Arlington, Va. She usually pays the toll to ride on I-66. Her commute is usually about an hour.
Gaskins told the Verify team, it's not worth it and its not saving me any more time.
So our Verify team along with three commuters took three different routes: Route 29, Route 50 and the I-66 lanes.
We all left from Falls Church at the exact same time, at 7:31 a.m., and headed to the exact same spot, Gwonda's workplace on Wilson Boulevard in Arlington.
How much would it cost and how long would it take us to go just over 11 miles?
It actually took us 20 minutes to get to the location in Arlington, taking the I-66 tolls, costing $19.25 with only a little bit of a slowdown.
All three commuters on the three different routes arrived within ten minutes of each other. Commuter Jeff on Route 50 arrived at 8:01 a.m. Gary on Route 29 got there 10 minutes prior at 7:51 a.m.Gwonda on I-66 rolled up first at 7:47 am.
The Verify team asked the I-66 commuter, for $19.25, was it worth it? No, it wasn't worth it to me.
By the time we were ready to leave, the toll price had nearly doubled.
There's a VDOT app called 66 Express Lanes, that lets you see how much the toll is past and present, from various locations and also lets you select the specific and time and date to see that particular price.
At 8:05 a.m. when we checked the VDOT app, the price went up to $36.25.
