Before tolled express lanes are approved for Interstate 66 (“Board may support I-66 toll proposal,” July 5), the state of Virginia and Fairfax County must complete a thorough cost benefit analysis of the newly built tolled lanes on the Beltway (Interstate 495). The lanes are sparsely used during non-rush hours when the toll is low but their use is unnecessary. During rush hours when they are needed, they carry very little traffic, probably due to the high cost of using them. The cost to the commuters in Virginia and the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area for building the lanes has been substantial, including hours lost in traffic during five-plus years of construction, loss of acres of public property that was needed to build on- and off-ramps and water-detention ponds, and increased water runoff due to loss of forested land. The analysis should also include the hidden cost to drivers of a permanent traffic bottleneck at the intersection of I-66 and the Beltway created by the reconfiguration of the off-ramps. Certainly, the project would have been completed sooner, would have less land and building materials, and caused less water runoff had the design not been predicated on the need to collect tolls. Finally, had Virginia added conventional lanes to the beltway, traffic congestion would be lessened, which is why the lanes were added in the first place. The citizens of Virginia must demand a thorough accounting of this project before succumbing to the false economy of building tolled express lanes on I-66 or elsewhere.