More toll roads? That’s not the North Carolina way | Opinion

North Carolina has a lot of nicknames. The Tar Heel State. The Old North State. But one a lot of people forget about is the Good Roads State.

It started as an aspiration and became a point of pride. In the early 20th century, we became a national model for road building, one of the first states to take highway construction seriously as a public investment.

Governors bragged about our smooth highways as much as our beaches and mountains. The moniker was a promise that no matter where you lived or worked, the state would make sure you could get there.

Lately, though, fulfilling that promise is taking a toll — literally.

The N.C. Department of Transportation is about to launch its next 10-year plan, and everywhere you look, new toll roads are in the works: from Independence Boulevard in Charlotte to the Cape Fear Memorial Bridge in Wilmington.

The last long-range plan included 18 different toll projects across the state, with another $3.2 million dedicated to studying more.

Some mean new lanes with a toll; others are brand-new roads. A few would turn previously free thoroughfares into toll roads.

Why the sudden obsession? Mostly money, or rather, the lack of it. Inflation has driven up construction costs, and in fast-growing areas, buying right of way is staggeringly expensive. At the same time, highway funding is under strain.

Highway funding in North Carolina is complicated, but here’s the short version: we don’t use income taxes. We rely on special taxes like the gas tax, vehicle registration fees and the occasional bond. As cars get more efficient, drivers pay less gas tax. And sudden economic shocks — remember COVID? — can send revenues plunging.

That means the NCDOT has to be scrappy. The federal government will offer zero-interest loans for big projects, but only with proof you can pay them back. The simplest way to show that? Slap on a toll.

There’s a school of thought that says this is the fairest way to fund roads — charge the people who use them. And for brand-new highways that give drivers a real choice, maybe that works.

But expanding an interstate everyone relies on? Replacing the only bridge into town? That’s not a choice. That’s punishment.

“You’ve got everyday North Carolinians who look you in the face and say, ‘The biggest issue my family faces is prices,’” Rep. Mike Schietzelt of Wake County told me. “My answer can’t be, ‘Great. Now I’m going to charge you a toll to leave your driveway.’”

I called Schietzelt because he helped pull the plug on a toll proposal for Capital Boulevard in Raleigh. The road has been free for more than a century, and neighborhoods and businesses have grown up around it with few other options. “The thought of changing that,” he said, “kind of feels like pulling the rug out from underneath them.”

That said, Schietzelt isn’t against every toll. For new highway construction, it might be inevitable.

“At some point we’re going to have to get creative. Not just North Carolina — every state is going to have to get more creative,” he said. “Does that mean that we’re charging more user fees like tolls? Maybe.”

Nash County Rep. Allen Chesser, who co-chairs the legislature’s transportation appropriations committee, told me largely the same thing. He says more tolling is likely in the future — especially for new construction — because it can speed up timelines and save money. “The longer you wait, the more expensive the project gets,” he told me.

Still, he draws the same bright line: Tolling a region’s main commuter artery without a viable alternative isn’t the way North Carolina does business. Not in the Good Roads State.

Do we still deserve the title? Chesser thinks so — but he’s wary. On a recent family trip to Busch Gardens, he drove a stretch of I-95 in Virginia where signs warned drivers of “rough pavement ahead.”

“I want to ensure that North Carolina never becomes a state that has to put those signs up on the interstate,” he said.

We still have better roads than our neighbors, but we can’t toll our way into keeping that title.

North Carolina’s aversion to debt has served us well. But when it becomes paralysis, it forces false choices.

There are other tools worth exploring, like borrowing responsibly for large projects or pushing for a fairer share of federal highway dollars. They won’t bring quick ribbon-cuttings, but they’ll keep us from charging drivers again and again for the same stretch of pavement.

The NCDOT is now taking public comment on its long-range plan. That’s our chance to say tolls should be the exception, not the assumption.

North Carolina doesn’t need more toll roads. It needs to remember who it is — and who its roads are meant to serve.

Contributing columnist Andrew Dunn is the publisher of the Longleaf Politics newsletter, which offers thoughtful analysis of North Carolina politics and policy from a conservative perspective. He can be reached at andrew@longleafpol.com

This story was originally published August 10, 2025 at 5:00 AM with the headline "More toll roads? That’s not the North Carolina way | Opinion."