Tobin toll dodgers crowd city

Commuters who use Everett as a shortcut to avoid paying the $3 Tobin Bridge toll are turning Broadway into a rush-hour ''parking lot," causing more accidents, and creating more potholes, according to Mayor David Ragucci.

Ragucci plans to ask the state to compensate Everett for bearing the brunt of the spillover traffic.

''Everett isn't the problem, it's the folks coming from the North Shore who don't want to pay the toll from the Tobin Bridge," Ragucci said. ''It has been $3 for about a year, and we've noticed an increase in traffic after that."

The Massachusetts Port Authority, which runs the bridge, increased toll costs to $3 from $2 last April to help pay off its share of the Big Dig and bridge maintenance.

''Trucks avoiding the Tobin Bridge because their [toll] prices are higher than $3 destroy our streets, and the amount of cars coming to our streets [also] destroy them," Ragucci said. ''We have our insurance rates tied into the amount of accidents that we have. Everett drivers are the ones who pay."

Commuters taking the Route 99 shortcut is not a new problem, but Ragucci said the toll increase has made the problem worse. He has requested help from the state before without any results, but this year Ragucci said he would press harder.

''We plan to talk to our state representative and our state senator," Ragucci said. ''We're going to be setting up another meeting to talk about this."

Danny Levy, spokeswoman for Massport, said Massport officials are aware of the cut-through traffic in Everett and that they are ''absolutely willing to work with local officials." Although she could not specify an amount, Levy said Massport does notice a loss in toll revenue from commuters who cut through Everett or Chelsea.

Ward 1 City Councilor Peter A. Napolitano said Broadway has become a more popular alternate route for commuters because they have become familiar with it since the Big Dig project diverted traffic onto Route 99. The traffic also affects Route 16 and Main Street. South Everett, on the Charlestown line, is also feeling the effects of bottleneck traffic.

''We're in horrific shape down there, especially the truck routes," Napolitano said, adding that time and constant truck vibration have damaged water pipes and collapsed sewer lines. ''That's where the city is getting its hits and not getting any mitigation back."

Some help may come to Route 99 this spring, as the Massachusetts Highway Department, which is in charge of Route 99, begins a project to computerize all of the traffic lights, Napolitano said. The project, which has been four years in the making, aims at changing the lights in a pattern that may facilitate traffic flow there. City officials are also looking into widening bus stop areas, to allow for Everett Square buses to pull over without creating a traffic jam, Napolitano said.

But Napolitano added that if state legislators are able to make a direct connection between congestion in the area and traffic from the Tobin Bridge, then he would be in support of receiving compensation funds.

A study by Boston-based think tank MassInc and the Donahue Institute at the University of Massachusetts released last October showed that Everett had one of the worst commuting times in the state. The study, which compared commuter data from the 1990 and 2000 US Census, showed that the average Everett commute time increased from 23 minutes to 35 minutes. But city officials say that spillover traffic from the Tobin is just one of many factors for the longer commutes.

Board of Aldermen President Jason Marcus said he, too, would like to see Massport compensate Everett, or better yet, reduce the cost of the Tobin toll.

''If the state gives us money, it won't fix the problem, but we need to get money for our pain and suffering," Marcus said. ''It's an unsolvable thing, unless they lower the tolls. And the chances of that are zero."

Marcus, who has experienced the traffic in the area, but avoids it by coming to work at 6 a.m., said he will request in a future meeting that the aldermen support a measure that would seek mitigation money from Massport.

''Everett as an alternative route is a bad thing. We're taking the brunt of all that traffic and it's causing us a lot of trouble," Marcus said. ''Too bad we don't have a toll of our own we can split with the state. We have massive jam-ups, people doing u-turns on [Route] 99 and causing a ton of accidents. It's a headache that's impossible to solve right now."

Katheleen Conti can be reached at kconti@globe.com