FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Chris Berry, District #5, Lee County Commission
              (239) 335-2225

COMMISSIONER ALBION TO SPEAK AT NATIONAL TRANSPORTATION CONFERENCE

FORT MYERS, Fla. (May 23, 2003) - Lee County Commissioner John Albion has been asked to speak about Lee County's experiences at a national transportation conference focusing on pricing strategies for toll systems.

The workshop - "Providing New Transportation Choices Through Innovative Pricing Strategies" - is being held June 4 at the Grand Hyatt Washington in Washington D.C.

Other speakers include the Assistant Secretary for Transportation Policy, U.S. Department of Transportation, and the Director of Transportation Policy Studies for the Federal Highway Administration.

In the mid-1990s, Commissioner Albion was instrumental in Lee County receiving a $20 million grant from the Federal Highway Administration to implement a value pricing system on the Midpoint Memorial and Cape Coral bridges.

The result is LeeWay, the county's discount tolls system, which offers reduced tolls to bridge patrons who make their trips in off-peak, instead of peak, hours. This concept evens traffic flow and saves the county money in prolonging capacity improvements to roadways.

Since August 1998, Lee County drivers have saved more than $2 million using the discount tolls system.

Other topics at the conference include the London cordon charges, parking-cash out, how HOT lanes benefit transit, the relationship between pricing and air quality, and mileage-based user fees.