Congress Paving the Way for Tolls on Interstates - WHAT's NEXT?

WASHINGTON — With traffic congestion growing worse — and state and federal budgets as red as the brake lights from cars backed up on a Los Angeles freeway — Congress is moving toward relaxing a decades-old restriction on tolls on interstate highways.

The legislation, backed by the Bush administration, would give states greater authority to impose tolls to reduce gridlock.

These charges could be levied to raise money for new highway construction. Or motorists could be charged varying tolls during the day, with higher tolls in effect during rush hours to nudge drivers into making some of their trips during less busy times.

The toll provisions are part of a long-stalled $284-billion, six-year transportation spending bill that is expected to clear the House today. The Senate is expected to vote on its version of the bill within a few months.

More: http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-highway10mar10,1,6089522,print.story?coll=la-headlines-nation

...biggest destroyers of our roads. Hit those trucks the hardest.

sounds great but we buy all the stuff the trucks haul and sooner or later we pay regardless

...be produced locally and thus avoid the excessive transport costs. I say let's see the real costs of delivery to the market. Tax commercial fuel higher, raise license fees on long distance hauls and charge tolls on the interstate proportional to the wear and tear by the vehicles that use it.

sounds logical but in reality will it work----the ultimate outcome of taxing is to drive everyone back to the village and re-enter a feudal society----walk a mile and pay tax---walk another mile and pay tax to someone else---its a never ending story---tax, tax, tax---DARN, I think i need a free lunch

...tune of $1million per mile for 57,000 miles of interstate highway system from the mid 1950s through to the end of the 1970s. These new fees or taxes are to pay for all of the modifications and upkeep of the system now underway which in current dollars runs ten to fifty times the original costs. Here in Florida where all of the interstate roads were built in the 1960s, virtually every overpass bridge is too low for the current truck height standards that were passed during the last decade. So all of the interstate overpasses are being replaced with new ones which are being raised by as much as three feet in height. Cars and recreational vehicles have not warranted those modifications, only short and long haul commercial vehicles are requiring these new standards. They should be the sectors then who bear the burden of the costs for these modifications and new regulations for new interstate construction. Sure, the consumer pays part of that cost, but consumers are not the whole economy, so why pay the full shot?

from where i stand----nothing moves unless it is consumed by someone somewhere----but our problem may be one of jobs being sent to every country in the world but ours----the middle class has in our lifetime been fairly large and as a result there was always some MONEY HANGING FROM THE MONEY TREE---but---with the middle class disappearing and the poor not being able to pay many taxes---the rich with a tax rate of about 36% or so can basically figure themselves out of paying taxes---maybe its a better distribution of income we need---who knows---"WHO PAYS"--is as old as humans :toast:

...Wal-Mart does not have people waiting in line for trucks to arrive at their stores and deliver goods to waiting scrambling consumers. They have the goods in hundreds of containers on their back lots and let consumers know they have them cheaper than anyone else. Why are they cheaper? Because Wal-Mart fails to pay it's fair share of the marketing distribution costs by paying off politicians to keep their component costs, duties, excise taxes, labor costs to a minimum while other less powerful merchants are subject to the normal monopolistic market forces that keep their cost components higher. Privilege and influence vs. powerlessness!

You need to go back to B-school and bone up on your micro-economics as well as look at the social and political economic realities of a fascist economy friend.

i do suppose we all are never to old to learn new tricks---but---are you asking me to believe all those things on walmarts back lots got there without being moved by some type of transportation (when pigs fly)-----if all the people in the world stopped going to walmart today and headed to k-mart we would not be talking about a walmart problem---and by the way best as i remember economics is about building a better mouse trap and getting deeper cheaper---my philosophy is still the only way we can generate a profit is to take something and add value and sell it----we have been sold out by power groups---and as for fascist---they do seem to have enormous power but when the tables turn, i do visualize someone hanging from a bridge by a leg----things that are not natural will not stand the test of time and fascism is not a natural state of the economy

as cars idle at toll booths.

They don't want raise the gasoline tax, and so they're doing this.

...as Kerry suggested increase the taxes on fuel by at least $1.00 and the country would be forced to conserve and cut back on all unnecessary driving. I for one would go along with that, but politically it is a poison pill for any politician who wants to be elected.

I'd rather not pay a toll to use a highway I already pay taxes to use every time I fill my tank.

instead of causing more traffic and more idle time. There's enough of that already. There is the added benefit of promoting more gas conservation.

taught

You never even have to slow down. RFIDs, the watchers freind...

big brother tracking where I drive

:puke:

wait a minute... gropenator is already proposing that.

taught.

but I'll bet my bottom dollar they don't.

Each pump has a scale that the car sits on.. The more weight, the more tax..

People who drive small economy cars will pay half, and a sliding scale from there on up..

If Mom wants to drive a Lincoln Navigator to pick up the dry cleaning, then she can pay $5 a gallon :)

to the millions of small independent contractors that actually need pickup trucks and SUV's to haul their business wherever they need to be. That can't be done in a Toyota and these people are already squeezed by tight competition and high equipment expense.

Your design doesn't sound intelligent at all.

:)

see how understanding I am :)

and a bloated yet strangely inneffective military.

another bad idea to come out of texas.

Unless one is fond of dirt covered parking lots.

Sorta like taking a second job to pay the mortgage in order to buy the SUV.

Smoke and mirrors.

for their wealthy friends. Just like Reagan started taxing unemployment checks on the unemployed after his big tax cut.