Tolls on the Interstates

I really don't know how much more of this I can take. Our business is tourism related and part of our plan was to travel once the kids got out of the house and sell while we were on the road. First gas prices went up, now this.

And all we have to do is roll back those goddamned tax cuts and we wouldn't be having any of these problems. When in the hell will the freeptards wake up to the truth of the Republican Party?

"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."

http://www.lightupthedarkness.org/blog/default.asp?view=plink&id=514

First it's a consumption tax, now it's tolls for the interstates on top of the highway tax we already pay each time we buy gas.


The Republicans aren't opposed to taxes. They're opposed to taxes for rich people.

"The Republicans aren't opposed to taxes. They're opposed to taxes for rich people."

Thanks! I'm going to start using that!

Wait til they stick those little instruments in our vehicles & start charging by the mile! I don't know anybody who would go for that & a few Reps (fundies even!) that I know were hopping mad when that was in the paper. All I have to say to them was that we have to pay for this war somehow, heh heh. Back-door taxes!

WHEN first announced, Gov. Rick Perry's $175 billion, 4,000-mile transitway proposal seemed more visionary than practicable. Now that the project is on the verge of transforming itself from political rhetoric to concrete reality, opposition from a nonpartisan range of interests has taken on a sudden urgency. The opponents are discovering just how much they don't know about the biggest transit project to hit Texas since the creation of the interstate highway system.

The plan to allow a foreign consortium, Spain's Cintra, the right to build and operate massive tollways across the state for a half century has created an unlikely coalition of opponents. They range from Republicans concerned with property rights to small-town officials fearing the loss of highway commerce to environmentalists worried about the toll the concrete rivers will take on the state's ecology. And don't leave out agricultural interests appalled by the potential paving over of millions of acres of arable Texas land and the splintering of hundreds of farms and ranches that eventually will fall in the corridors' path.

www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/editorial/3077309

The plan involves a superhighway from the Oklahoma border to Mexico, with wide rights-of-way to include rail lines, cable, etc. Plus lots of room for "franchises"--hotels, restaurants, etc. Eminent domain will be used to obtain the land needed. There's obvious corruption, with at least one of Perry's advisors being a former Cintra employee.

But--as the article says--even many Republicans are mad at him for this.

the trans-texas corridor must be stopped or the public highways are toast.

remember that sometimes bad things develop in texas.

But this latest scheme is getting flak from all sides, Republicans, Libertarians & environmentalists.

Edited to change "Lab" to "Laboratory"--don't want to insult any big, slobbery dogs....

Give-away of large swaths of land for private profit.

I remember putting some ones aside for the tolls. Ones my ass baby, you're gonna need tens.

and that bridge in baltimore?

us US30 it crosses Ohio ends up in Wheeling W.VA. not far from Washington Pa. I refuse to take Ohio turn pike any more. They were suppose to take the toll off when it was paid for but they didn't, said they would use for maintenance.The last time I was on it it was ridiculous, more pothole than the back roads in my small town.Yeah Taft!!!

I had no idea the tolls were so high. I guess you can get a reduced fare or something for the poor soles who have to drive it everyday, but shit that's ridiculous. I don't think I did 40.00 worth of driving on that road. Then repeat the return trip so it cost me 80.00 in tolls for one trip.

first tolls, then travel documents.

Can you say Germany 1939?

Two years ago I road-tripped from Nashville ---> Upstate NY, going up through KY/Ohio and back down the secondary coastal roads (mostly).

Of all the interstates I took, the NYS Thruway from Buffalo to Albany was, by far, the least stressful. Other highways were either crumbling or in the midst of construction to fix crumbling. NYS Thruway did have some construction projects, but at least they didn't try to narrow the lanes to try to keep two or more moving at all times (the biggest stress factor was driving through a construction zone with 4 inches between my vehicle and the one passing or being passed).

So, yeah, tolls suck. But if the benefit is safer driving conditions, I'll take it.

....making your poor citizens pay .1% of their weekly salaries on tolls and your rich citizens pay .00001% of their weekly income on tolls.

However, I suspect the managers of toll roads just *might* have more motivation to keep their roads in better shape than freeways.

If the road is falling apart, less people are going to want to use it.

Please forgive me for sounding like a Randian. I'd never want to see the whole nation turn to a system of toll roads. But. Just as it would be unfair to make poor citizens pay a higher percentage, is it right to tell people who *are* willing to pay a toll for a better-preserved, safer road, 'sorry, no dice?'

I just don't think it is.

The sole source of highway funding came from these tolls (i.e. all highway taxes are rolled back). The technology exists (EZ-pass) to allocate the costs to those who use the roads. If the repukes are demanding self-sufficiency for Amtrak and Transit, then i want the roads and friggin airlines to be self-sufficient too.

While that may represent a regressive tax, it would not bother me so much if it created transportation equity. I.e. poorly subsided trains and transit wouldnt have to compete against highly subsidized roads. Of course, thats not their goal, so it just totally sucks.

It is strange how the fed fuel tax, which built the interstate system, somehow today is not able to just maintain the same system it built.

The fed fuel tax has not dropped, in fact it brings in far more now than it ever has due to higher prices at the fuel pump. Yet we are supposed to believe that somehow this fed fuel tax is insufficient to met the needs of just maintaining the system it built. And now we need to also pay a toll to use the system already built.

I think what we are seeing is a diversion of the fed fuel tax into a huge pork barrel of political payoff money to into various local supporters of the political hacks now in power.

Should the roads now be maintained by toll fees as the original fuel taxes are diverted to political ends? Hell no. Put the people stealing the fed tax money in jail and keep the use of the 'kings' roads free to the users, as originally set-up.

Edit: I might add, what money was used to unstall all those nifty cameras we see on the highways in the major metropolitan areas? Do these cameras add one single thing to the ability of the roads to handle traffic? Or are these cameras just another form of pork to reward those security firms supporting the political hacks? Gasp, is it possible that those security firms are also owned by the political hacks?

Just doing a Freeper imitation :)

there's always been a toll on the pa turnpike, the nj turnpike, and the mass pike as long as i can remember.

these are all interstates.

several things about tolls may be changing, but it's not clear what the status quo prevents that is now going to change.

there are not as many elsewhere. Unheard of in CA.

They're behind the Orange curtin:

http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2005/02/16/news/state/0_14_302_16_05.txt

These were toll roads prior to the start of the interstate system, when they were made part of it.

I thought it was "Trolls" on the highways!

:dunce:

Put this device in your car and it pays the tolls for you.

Disadvantages are as follows:

1) Your movement can be tracked by the government,
2) If you take too little time between toll booths, you can get an automatic ticket for speeding.

Advantages:

1) Tolls are 50% cheaper than paying cash.

Nice, huh?

:scared:

It costs 40 cents to go through an Illinois Tollway toll booth with the iPass and 80 cents if you pay cash.

Of course, they can only track your movements on the Illinois tollway system and only generally, like when you were in what booth, but they can also automatically generate a ticket if you speed between toll bnooths.

Otherwise I wouldn't have a driver's license.

One month with shorfalls in the budget could lead to a dramatic alteration of the current position.

It'd be about as popular as proposing a sales tax in Oregon. Ain't gonna happen.

If lord god Bush* says it will help them, then by god it will help them. Has he ever lied to them? Of course not....He is a man of Christ and a LIE would be the last thing ever attributed to him....besides Bill Gates needs a little more cash so it can trickle down on us....I don't understand why we would even think about spending money on highways though when there are so many new war toys we should be buying instead.... Some furner may want to hurt us you know. we need to hurt them first... Lord god bush* has said we shall act Pre-emptively and kill all the bad guys so we will never be afraid again... All praise lord god Bush*......

Bush and the Feds aren't seeking to place tolls on the interstates- they're advocating that states have to option to- big difference.

Any politician who puts tolls on I-% or I-84 in Oregon can kiss his or her careers goodbye. So it ain't gonna happen here, that's for sure.

And, just see what happens if someone tried to do it on 1-90 in Montana.

to take our roads (the ones we and our parents paid for) and give them over to the hands of private interests (some not even American). This has been in the works for decades. Much of the infastructure has quietly been put in place(think smart highways in Cal that they used to talk about in the 80's). They've picked Austin as the test bed, because if they can overcome opposition there , the rest of the country will fall easily. What this artical is , Is now they're announcing it . They put the control grid in place , then they announce it. This will effectivly turn every car into a Taxi , and you pay to private even foreign intrests. Think UN sustainable development, it's all laid out. They are announcing the electronic straight jacket piecemeal...but it's very real. I read someone upthread comlpain about how they can't fix the roads with the taxes they currently collect. That money was used to build all those sound walls everywhere, think they give a crap about all those people up next to the freeway...hell no , those walls are so people can't weasle escape routes...

I live in Wisconsin, which doesn't have toll roads. A good deal of tax revenue goes to maintain and build new roads. I used to live in Ohio, which did have toll roads. The income tax rate of Wisconsin, including at the lower income levels is higher than Ohio. I think that might have something to do with toll roads. Of course since Wisconsin isn't on the way to anything, toll roads would obviously hurt tourism. My point though is why should the tax payers living in the state (including people with low incomes) pay for nice convient high speed roads which the may or may not use? Also, a large part of toll revenue does come from the trucking industry, which pays higher tolls because of their heavier vehicle.

And the price to drive on them is not cheap, I think my father spent about 100 bucks on a day trip from Yokohama to Nikko.

One thing you notice is there is never a traffic jam on the highways there and second most people would take the money and buy a train ticket.

It's pretty hard to get to most places in the United States by train.

Which comes first, if the cost for highways increases then it's more likely that public transportation will expand and be easier.

So people can get to work. If they can't afford to get to work, they wont be using the roads, will they?

Implement decent pub trans and THEN raise highway tolls to discourage road use and encourage carpooling.

Europe's $4 a gallon gasoline, Japan's $100 a day toll roads...

And Good old Murka, where you couldn't take a train anywhere outside the "Northeast Corridor" to save your ass, and European and Japanese toilet swabbers make more than your average American Hourly Worker...

I get so damn tired of reading what the poor Germans, Brits and Japanese pay for their energy with NO corresponding discussion on what their salaries are, so we can more accurately compare just how fucking GREAT we have it in Dumbya Shrubby's Murka...