Readers Supportive of MoDOT Tolling I-70 Between St. Louis & Kansas City
In the poll last week readers supported having drivers pay tolls on I-70:
Q:Â Should MoDOT toll I-70?
- Yes, tolls are a great way to make only users pay for the road 38 [36.19%]
- Yes, but Missouri should also increase the state gas tax 31 [29.52%]
- No, once tolls start they will never end 13 [12.38%]
- Perhaps, need more information 10 [9.52%]
- Other: 8 [7.62%]
- No, will lead to more toll roads in MO 5 [4.76%]
- Unsure/No Opinion 0 [0%]
As is often the case the other answers also provide additional viewpoints:
- MoDot should consider more than just I-70 for tolls
- yes if the toll pays for removing I-70 from Downtown
- increase gas tax first
- No, we should increase the gas tax instead
- no, new leadership needed
- I like the free road, but toll roads are probably better for the environment.
- We need a comprehensive transportation plan that pays for transit too.
- Add as a poll answer
- OK if no new lanes
What I failed to distinguish between is who manages the tolls — MoDOT vs a private corporation.
– Steve Patterson
In the previous post, Steve said “Raising the gas tax 3-5¢ per gallon would mean the person that uses 10 gallons per week would pay another $15-$26 per year. This might prompt co-workers to look at carpooling or for drivers to combine trips to use less gas but it’s not going to force everyone to use mass transit, but those who drive across state might decide to consider Amtrak.” I agree, to a certain extent. In the same post, Tpekren said “the problem . . . is that gas tax revenue is declining in part to more efficient vehicles where as the number of roads keeps expanding and deteriorating and growth marches on. The reality is that gas taxes only cover half the cost to maintain and build our nations roads. At some point you have to pay the piper.”  I agree, as well, in concept – the taxes aren’t actually declining, they’re just not growing as rapidly as they should to keep up with inflation, population growth and improvements in fuel efficiency. The three areas where I disagree are the concept of adding tolls to existing roads (not new ones), the concept that the state should be funding local mass transit systems and the concept that we “can’t” raise or set fuel taxes to cover the true cost of maintaining our road network.
We pay fuel taxes to maintain ALL state highways. A toll is just a new tax, no different than a “user fee”. Focusing on a few major corridors to impose tolls would simply result in double and inequitable taxation. Any money tolls would generate would simply replace fuel-tax dollars that had been previously paid and allocated differently. Why should someone driving from St. Louis to Columbia or Kansas City pay a toll, while someone driving from St. Louis to Springfield or Cape Girardeau not?! Just because I-70 is older? Or will tolls be coming to I-44 and I-55 to cover their maintenance needs, as well? And why not toll the Blanchette Bridge, I-270, I-170 or I-64? They all have recently received or will be receiving major investments.
Local mass transit is a regional issue and a regional resource and needs to be funded regionally, by those who benefit from it. Metro, even one that’s 3-4 times the size it is today, offers very little to someone in Rolla, Cuba or even Lee’s Summit. It primarily benefits local commuters. You’re living in a fantasy world, if you expect someone to drive in from Joplin and to park their car at a Metro park-and-ride and then ride transit around St. Louis – they’re gonna drive, and they’re sure not going to vote for higher gas taxes! We need to get the voters in St. Charles and Jefferson counties on board, and quit expecting Jefferson City to bail us out.
Finally, highway funding – in urban areas, the costs are evenly split between keeping up with suburban growth and the demands for maintaining aging infratructure. In rural areas, the costs come primarily from heavy trucks beating the roads to death, followed by ongoing safety improvements from widening and rebuilding – capacity / congestion is rarely the issue. While the trucking lobby has been successful in keeping diesel taxes low, arguing economic growth and jobs, the reality is one 80,000 pound semi does as much actual damage as 1,000 commuter vehicles do. The problem, especially in urban areas, is that 1,000 commuter vehicles take up a whole lot more real estate than one semi does. The ideal answer, and one where Oregon is just starting to test the waters, is charging everyone for when, where and what they drive (VMT), be it powered by gasoline, diesel, biodiesel, natural gas, propane, hydrogen or electricity. We just have to balance the big-brother tracking concerns against the reality that a Toyota Prius Nissan Leaf takes up just as much space on I-270 during rush hour as a Ford Super Duty or Cadillac Escalade does – no one deserves a free ride!
In the previous post, Steve said “Raising the gas tax 3-5¢ per gallon would mean the person that uses 10 gallons per week would pay another $15-$26 per year. This might prompt co-workers to look at carpooling or for drivers to combine trips to use less gas but it’s not going to force everyone to use mass transit, but those who drive across state might decide to consider Amtrak.” I agree, to a certain extent. In the same post, Tpekren said “the problem . . . is that gas tax revenue is declining in part to more efficient vehicles where as the number of roads keeps expanding and deteriorating and growth marches on. The reality is that gas taxes only cover half the cost to maintain and build our nations roads. At some point you have to pay the piper.” I agree, as well, in concept – the taxes aren’t actually declining, they’re just not growing as rapidly as they should to keep up with inflation, population growth and improvements in fuel efficiency. The three areas where I disagree are the concept of adding tolls to existing roads (not new ones), the concept that the state should be funding local mass transit systems and the concept that we “can’t” raise or set fuel taxes to cover the true cost of maintaining our road network.
We pay fuel taxes to maintain ALL state highways. A toll is just a new tax, no different than a “user fee”. Focusing on a few major corridors to impose tolls would simply result in double and inequitable taxation. Any money tolls would generate would simply replace fuel-tax dollars that had been previously paid and allocated differently. Why should someone driving from St. Louis to Columbia or Kansas City pay a toll, while someone driving from St. Louis to Springfield or Cape Girardeau not?! Just because I-70 is older? Or will tolls be coming to I-44 and I-55 to cover their maintenance needs, as well? And why not toll the Blanchette Bridge, I-270, I-170 or I-64? They all have recently received or will be receiving major investments.
Local mass transit is a regional issue and a regional resource and needs to be funded regionally, by those who benefit from it. Metro, even one that’s 3-4 times the size it is today, offers very little to someone in Rolla, Cuba or even Lee’s Summit. It primarily benefits local commuters. You’re living in a fantasy world, if you expect someone to drive in from Joplin and to park their car at a Metro park-and-ride and then ride transit around St. Louis – they’re gonna drive, and they’re sure not going to vote for higher gas taxes! We need to get the voters in St. Charles and Jefferson counties on board, and quit expecting Jefferson City to bail us out.
Finally, highway funding – in urban areas, the costs are evenly split between keeping up with suburban growth and the demands for maintaining aging infratructure. In rural areas, the costs come primarily from heavy trucks beating the roads to death, followed by ongoing safety improvements from widening and rebuilding – capacity / congestion is rarely the issue. While the trucking lobby has been successful in keeping diesel taxes low, arguing economic growth and jobs, the reality is one 80,000 pound semi does as much actual damage as 1,000 commuter vehicles do. The problem, especially in urban areas, is that 1,000 commuter vehicles take up a whole lot more real estate than one semi does. The ideal answer, and one where Oregon is just starting to test the waters, is charging everyone for when, where and what they drive (VMT), be it powered by gasoline, diesel, biodiesel, natural gas, propane, hydrogen or electricity. We just have to balance the big-brother tracking concerns against the reality that a Toyota Prius Nissan Leaf takes up just as much space on I-270 during rush hour as a Ford Super Duty or Cadillac Escalade does – no one deserves a free ride!
Mass transit should be an integrated state wide system. Then a person in Joplin will not bother to drive their car to St. Louis. In Finland, that is exactly what happens. The oil cartel has not bought the government of Finland, and surprise! they actually implement and support programs that benefit the citizens, not corporate insiders. The land area and population of Finland is similar to Missouri. Car ownership in Finland is nearly half the United States. Auto’s are not needed and transit is extremely efficient. It is a better approach than trying to try to charge everyone when, where and what they drive.
More importantly this approach addresses energy usage and environmental concerns not addressed with big brother tracking of individual vehicles. The key is to create and design a transit system (a movement system actually) that make auto’s optional.
I would not give MoDot another penny until 3 things happen.
1. Direct existing resources into creating movement system alternatives to road building and the automobile (many countries besides Finland have succeeded in creating such systems, it is not a mystery on how to do it). This is fundamental if we are to leave anything of the planet for our children and grandchildren.
2. Set a 10 year moratorium on building new roads. Focus entirely on what it is going to take to maintain and fund existing roads and alternative movement systems. Missouri is 5th in the amount of road miles while near the middle in population and land area in the 50 states. That coupled with the fact MoDot apparently doesn’t even have enough money to maintain roads now built demonstrates an absolutely irresponsible manner of handling of tax money. In any case with Missouri 5th in the nation with roads, it is unlikely many more are needed.
3. Get rid of all upper and middle management at MoDot. Coaches and their staff are fired regularly for nonperformance in sports. The same should apply to MoDot, they have failed the citizens of Missouri miserably, new leadership is needed and desired.
I actually somewhat agree with your three points, especially the second one. And not knowing all that much about Finland, other than it being cold and the home of Nokia, I did check Wikipedia, and what I read shows that “Despite low population density, the Government spends annually around 350 million euro in maintaining 5,865 kilometres (3,644 mi) railway tracks. Rail transport is handled by state owned VR Group, which has 5% passenger market share (out of which 80% are urban trips in Greater Helsinki) and 25% cargo market share.” (Wiki also listed 75% of the country’s households as owning private vehicles.) So while transit has a higher utilization in Finland than here, I wouldn’t call it a transit nirvana. Outside of Helsinki, yes, the state railroad carries more freight than our railroads do, but the rural residents seem to favor the SOV, much like they do here.
Part of the discussion has to be the reality that “In the 1970s and 1980s, Finland built one of the most extensive welfare states in the world.” Welfare states require high fees and taxes, which I understand Finland imposes on its citizens, especially its wealthy ones. And when it comes to taxes, it all boils down to whether one is a net consumer of government services or one of those “jobs creators”. We live in state that likes our low taxes, and we’re living in an environment where higher taxes is a dirty word. We apparently would rather pay for our own vehicles than to pay the government to run buses and trains for us, as an alternative. And this has more to do with perceived (and actual) convenience than with real dollars.
If I want to go to Hermann, I can take Amtrak, and yes, there are a few wineries and one brewpub within walking distatnce of the train station, but that’s it. Should MoDOT fund a circulator bus to access the other dozen or so wineries in the area? Or, should a private operator see a need and fill that need? Bottom line, it gets back to that whole welfare state argument. I like having options and I like being independent. Transit works best where there’s higher densities, since you can then justify running a bus or train frequently enough to make it a viable option. But in rural areas, as the demise of the Greyhound and Continetal Trailways routes show, paved roads and pickup trucks seem to offer the best solution for the vast majority of the people who choose to live “that way”.
Mass transit should be an integrated state wide system. Then a person in Joplin will not bother to drive their car to St. Louis. In Finland, that is exactly what happens. The oil cartel has not bought the government of Finland, and surprise! they actually implement and support programs that benefit the citizens, not corporate insiders. The land area and population of Finland is similar to Missouri. Car ownership in Finland is nearly half the United States. Auto’s are not needed and transit is extremely efficient. It is a better approach than trying to try to charge everyone when, where and what they drive.
More importantly this approach addresses energy usage and environmental concerns not addressed with big brother tracking of individual vehicles. The key is to create and design a transit system (a movement system actually) that make auto’s optional.
I would not give MoDot another penny until 3 things happen.
1. Direct existing resources into creating movement system alternatives to road building and the automobile (many countries besides Finland have succeeded in creating such systems, it is not a mystery on how to do it). This is fundamental if we are to leave anything of the planet for our children and grandchildren.
2. Set a 10 year moratorium on building new roads. Focus entirely on what it is going to take to maintain and fund existing roads and alternative movement systems. Missouri is 5th in the amount of road miles while near the middle in population and land area in the 50 states. That coupled with the fact MoDot apparently doesn’t even have enough money to maintain roads now built demonstrates an absolutely irresponsible manner of handling of tax money. In any case with Missouri 5th in the nation with roads, it is unlikely many more are needed.
3. Get rid of all upper and middle management at MoDot. Coaches and their staff are fired regularly for nonperformance in sports. The same should apply to MoDot, they have failed the citizens of Missouri miserably, new leadership is needed and desired.
I actually somewhat agree with your three points, especially the second one. And not knowing all that much about Finland, other than it being cold and the home of Nokia, I did check Wikipedia, and what I read shows that “Despite low population density, the Government spends annually around 350 million euro in maintaining 5,865 kilometres (3,644 mi) railway tracks. Rail transport is handled by state owned VR Group, which has 5% passenger market share (out of which 80% are urban trips in Greater Helsinki) and 25% cargo market share.” (Wiki also listed 75% of the country’s households as owning private vehicles.) So while transit has a higher utilization in Finland than here, I wouldn’t call it a transit nirvana. Outside of Helsinki, yes, the state railroad carries more freight than our railroads do, but the rural residents seem to favor the SOV, much like they do here.
Part of the discussion has to be the reality that “In the 1970s and 1980s, Finland built one of the most extensive welfare states in the world.” Welfare states require high fees and taxes, which I understand Finland imposes on its citizens, especially its wealthy ones. And when it comes to taxes, it all boils down to whether one is a net consumer of government services or one of those “jobs creators”. We live in state that likes our low taxes, and we’re living in an environment where higher taxes is a dirty word. We apparently would rather pay for our own vehicles than to pay the government to run buses and trains for us, as an alternative. And this has more to do with perceived (and actual) convenience than with real dollars.Â
If I want to go to Hermann, I can take Amtrak, and yes, there are a few wineries and one brewpub within walking distatnce of the train station, but that’s it. Should MoDOT fund a circulator bus to access the other dozen or so wineries in the area? Or, should a private operator see a need and fill that need? Bottom line, it gets back to that whole welfare state argument. I like having options and I like being independent. Transit works best where there’s higher densities, since you can then justify running a bus or train frequently enough to make it a viable option. But in rural areas, as the demise of the Greyhound and Continetal Trailways routes show, paved roads and pickup trucks seem to offer the best solution for the vast majority of the people who choose to live “that way”.
Just because you own a private vehicle does not mean you use it. The data I found on car ownership is different than wikipedia, A different site is http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/IS.VEH.NVEH.P3, it says car ownership is a little more than 50% per 1000 in Finland.
I am not calling anything nirvana or utopia, but next to St. Louis and Missouri practically anywhere is a utopia. That is a real problem, in all real measurements the United States is falling further behind all other industrialized countries. America has leadership positions in prison population, income disparity, spending on military, number of people without health care, etc It doesn’t take much to beat Missouri.
Nor is it surprising Americans don’t understand what a comprehensive, successful transit system looks like, few have experienced one. Wineries around Augusta in fact would be served by transit in Finland. There is more than enough traffic, even if there was not, Finland uses transit as a tool for planning and economic development. This is unlike St. Louis, which waits on the the mythical capitalist to come save the day.
Welfare: America has a negative view of welfare as lazy, no good people. The word has different meanings. In fact Finland epitomizes democratic ideals along the lines of of the Preamble to the Constitution which says “promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity” (many other countries besides Finland follow the Preamble more closely than America. It is precisely why America shows up so poorly when compared to other countries around the world).
This is a far different meaning of welfare than the free for all, cut throat, every man for himself approach so heavily promoted today in America.
So Finland has universal health care, free education through college, transit that works for everyone and meanwhile creates a foundation that insures the whole population shares in prosperity. A prosperity that everyone has helped create.
MoDot represents corporate interests, as does pretty well all of government, elections are nearly meaningless with major media in on the joke. Look at the results, do you think America, Missouri or St. Louis is where it should be? I see policy failures all around, kissing the asses of the Paul McKee’s of the world (a 100 million in tax credits? what a joke) while fucking over everyone else.
MoDot is completely dysfunctional and needs a major overhaul. Of course major media in St. Louis and the state will stick their head up the ass of their corporate masters and discuss none of this.
Just because you own a private vehicle does not mean you use it. The data I found on car ownership is different than wikipedia, A different site is http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/IS.VEH.NVEH.P3, it says car ownership is a little more than 50% per 1000 in Finland.
I am not calling anything nirvana or utopia, but next to St. Louis and Missouri practically anywhere is a utopia. That is a real problem, in all real measurements the United States is falling further behind all other industrialized countries. America has leadership positions in prison population, income disparity, spending on military, number of people without health care, etc It doesn’t take much to beat Missouri.
Nor is it surprising Americans don’t understand what a comprehensive, successful transit system looks like, few have experienced one. Wineries around Augusta in fact would be served by transit in Finland. There is more than enough traffic, even if there was not, Finland uses transit as a tool for planning and economic development. This is unlike St. Louis, which waits on the the mythical capitalist to come save the day.
Welfare: America has a negative view of welfare as lazy, no good people. The word has different meanings. In fact Finland epitomizes democratic ideals along the lines of of the Preamble to the Constitution which says “promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity” (many other countries besides Finland follow the Preamble more closely than America. It is precisely why America shows up so poorly when compared to other countries around the world).
This is a far different meaning of welfare than the free for all, cut throat, every man for himself approach so heavily promoted today in America.
So Finland has universal health care, free education through college, transit that works for everyone and meanwhile creates a foundation that insures the whole population shares in prosperity. A prosperity that everyone has helped create.
MoDot represents corporate interests, as does pretty well all of government, elections are nearly meaningless with major media in on the joke. Look at the results, do you think America, Missouri or St. Louis is where it should be? I see policy failures all around, kissing the asses of the Paul McKee’s of the world (a 100 million in tax credits? what a joke) while fucking over everyone else.
MoDot is completely dysfunctional and needs a major overhaul. Of course major media in St. Louis and the state will stick their head up the ass of their corporate masters and discuss none of this.
A
Truckers Reaction to Missouri Truck Toll Lanes
Â
As a
truck driver of 39 years, let me tell you what will happen as soon as the State of Missouri opens those shiny new $2 billion
truck toll lanes that they keep talking about building. Citizens living on Hwy
36 should get used to a dramatic increase in truck traffic. I ran a dedicated
lane from Indianapolis to Kansas
City. The difference in mileage from I-70 versus I-74,
I-72, and Hwy 36 was 20-40 miles depending on where I picked up and delivered.
The toll, on a 200 mile toll road, would greatly exceed the 5 gallons of fuel
it takes to go around I-70. From Indianapolis to Denver,
Hwy 36 is the shortest route and only about 60 miles out of route from St Louis to Denver. So kind of like the Field of Dreams if you build it drivers will come…to
northern Missouri. MODOT has finished Hwy 36 so
it is now 4 lanes from Illinois to Kansas. Will truckers go around a toll road.
Yes, an example would be to ask Indiana and Ohio what happened after dramatic toll increases
shifted the trucks to parallel roads. Unlike Hwy 36, the parallel roads in
Indiana and Ohio are heavily traveled with numerous traffic lights. From Indy
to St Joe (501 mi) there is one light—in Cameron, Mo. So who’s going to pay for a toll road when
it’s not being used?
Tom Newman
OOIDA Life Member
Altamont, IL
Â
Tom Newman
OOIDA Life Member
Altamont, IL
A
Truckers Reaction to Missouri Truck Toll Lanes
Â
As a
truck driver of 39 years, let me tell you what will happen as soon as the State of Missouri opens those shiny new $2 billion
truck toll lanes that they keep talking about building. Citizens living on Hwy
36 should get used to a dramatic increase in truck traffic. I ran a dedicated
lane from Indianapolis to Kansas
City. The difference in mileage from I-70 versus I-74,
I-72, and Hwy 36 was 20-40 miles depending on where I picked up and delivered.
The toll, on a 200 mile toll road, would greatly exceed the 5 gallons of fuel
it takes to go around I-70. From Indianapolis to Denver,
Hwy 36 is the shortest route and only about 60 miles out of route from St Louis to Denver. So kind of like the Field of Dreams if you build it drivers will come…to
northern Missouri. MODOT has finished Hwy 36 so
it is now 4 lanes from Illinois to Kansas. Will truckers go around a toll road.
Yes, an example would be to ask Indiana and Ohio what happened after dramatic toll increases
shifted the trucks to parallel roads. Unlike Hwy 36, the parallel roads in
Indiana and Ohio are heavily traveled with numerous traffic lights. From Indy
to St Joe (501 mi) there is one light—in Cameron, Mo. So who’s going to pay for a toll road when
it’s not being used?
Tom Newman
OOIDA Life Member
Altamont, IL
Â
Tom Newman
OOIDA Life Member
Altamont, IL
Â
Tom Newman
OOIDA Life Member
Altamont, IL
Â
A
Truckers Reaction to Missouri Truck Toll Lanes
As a
truck driver of 39 years, let me tell you what will happen as soon as the State of Missouri opens those shiny new $2 billion
truck toll lanes that they keep talking about building. Citizens living on Hwy
36 should get used to a dramatic increase in truck traffic. I ran a dedicated
lane from Indianapolis to Kansas
City. The difference in mileage from I-70 versus I-74,
I-72, and Hwy 36 was 20-40 miles depending on where I picked up and delivered.
The toll, on a 200 mile toll road, would greatly exceed the 5 gallons of fuel
it takes to go around I-70. From Indianapolis to Denver,
Hwy 36 is the shortest route and only about 60 miles out of route from St Louis to Denver. So kind of like the Field of Dreams if you build it drivers will come…to
northern Missouri. MODOT has finished Hwy 36 so
it is now 4 lanes from Illinois to Kansas. Will truckers go around a toll road.
Yes, an example would be to ask Indiana and Ohio what happened after dramatic toll increases
shifted the trucks to parallel roads. Unlike Hwy 36, the parallel roads in
Indiana and Ohio are heavily traveled with numerous traffic lights. From Indy
to St Joe (501 mi) there is one light—in Cameron, Mo. So who’s going to pay for a toll road when
it’s not being used?
Tom Newman
OOIDA Life Member
Altamont, IL
Tom Newman
OOIDA Life Member
Altamont, IL
A
Truckers Reaction to Missouri Truck Toll Lanes
As a
truck driver of 39 years, let me tell you what will happen as soon as the State of Missouri opens those shiny new $2 billion
truck toll lanes that they keep talking about building. Citizens living on Hwy
36 should get used to a dramatic increase in truck traffic. I ran a dedicated
lane from Indianapolis to Kansas
City. The difference in mileage from I-70 versus I-74,
I-72, and Hwy 36 was 20-40 miles depending on where I picked up and delivered.
The toll, on a 200 mile toll road, would greatly exceed the 5 gallons of fuel
it takes to go around I-70. From Indianapolis to Denver,
Hwy 36 is the shortest route and only about 60 miles out of route from St Louis to Denver. So kind of like the Field of Dreams if you build it drivers will come…to
northern Missouri. MODOT has finished Hwy 36 so
it is now 4 lanes from Illinois to Kansas. Will truckers go around a toll road.
Yes, an example would be to ask Indiana and Ohio what happened after dramatic toll increases
shifted the trucks to parallel roads. Unlike Hwy 36, the parallel roads in
Indiana and Ohio are heavily traveled with numerous traffic lights. From Indy
to St Joe (501 mi) there is one light—in Cameron, Mo. So who’s going to pay for a toll road when
it’s not being used?
Tom Newman
OOIDA Life Member
Altamont, IL
Tom Newman
OOIDA Life Member
Altamont, IL
Tom Newman
OOIDA Life Member
Altamont, IL
Tolls are a horrible way of raising money, especially when the tollbooth is owned by a private foreign company like Cintra of Spain. Do yourself a favor and see who’s making a boatload of money at the inconvenience of intentionally induced motorist misery all over the country. Google the Spanish company, Cintra. The whole goal of toll roads is not to improve transportation at all- it’s to make the toll road the only viable choice to travel (Monopoly) and steal money from the public and funnel it to campaign contributors. Research Cintra, the Trans Texas Corridor, and Rick Perry’s campaign fund contributors and the public outcry in Texas against toll roads. Noncompete clauses make sure that no road other near the toll road can be improved. Taxpayer money is used to bail out the foreign company that leases the road for 99 years when its overly rosy projections for profits aren’t met by a long shot. For example, noncompete clauses made sure that the speed limit on Interstate 35 was not increased so that on SH130, a Cintra owned competing toll road in Austin Tx, profits were maximized. (but construction on I 35 was not banned because this creates congestion to artificially drive toll road profits.) Stop this maddness before it begins and encourage your legislators to index the gas tax to inflation. 3c added to the gas tax will pay for pothole repair but won’t pay for an incompetent politician’s futile run for the presidency like a $1 toll PER MILE will. And who cares if we all pay small amounts for roads we don’t use? There’s such thing as car insurance premiums and homeowner insurance. We don’t all wreck our cars or have our house burn down but when it happens, it’s nice to have it paid for. Same goes for highway repair. Mobility is a right not a privilege of the rich which it will be if we have toll roads.
http://www.examiner.com/transportation-policy-in-san-antonio/perry-his-cronies-the-shelley-cintra-giuliani-connection
“P3s (public private partnerships, like Cintra toll roads) involve public money for private profits (including gas taxes and
other public subsidies), contain non-compete clauses that penalize or
prohibit the expansion of surrounding free routes, and put the power to
tax in the hands of private corporations that result in toll rates as
high as 75 cents per mile ($13/day or like adding $15 to every gallon of gas you buy)”
Tolls are a horrible way of raising money, especially when the tollbooth is owned by a private foreign company like Cintra of Spain. Do yourself a favor and see who’s making a boatload of money at the inconvenience of intentionally induced motorist misery all over the country. Google the Spanish company, Cintra. The whole goal of toll roads is not to improve transportation at all- it’s to make the toll road the only viable choice to travel (Monopoly) and steal money from the public and funnel it to campaign contributors. Research Cintra, the Trans Texas Corridor, and Rick Perry’s campaign fund contributors and the public outcry in Texas against toll roads. Noncompete clauses make sure that no road other near the toll road can be improved. Taxpayer money is used to bail out the foreign company that leases the road for 99 years when its overly rosy projections for profits aren’t met by a long shot. For example, noncompete clauses made sure that the speed limit on Interstate 35 was not increased so that on SH130, a Cintra owned competing toll road in Austin Tx, profits were maximized. (but construction on I 35 was not banned because this creates congestion to artificially drive toll road profits.) Stop this maddness before it begins and encourage your legislators to index the gas tax to inflation. 3c added to the gas tax will pay for pothole repair but won’t pay for an incompetent politician’s futile run for the presidency like a $1 toll PER MILE will. And who cares if we all pay small amounts for roads we don’t use? There’s such thing as car insurance premiums and homeowner insurance. We don’t all wreck our cars or have our house burn down but when it happens, it’s nice to have it paid for. Same goes for highway repair. Mobility is a right not a privilege of the rich which it will be if we have toll roads.
http://www.examiner.com/transportation-policy-in-san-antonio/perry-his-cronies-the-shelley-cintra-giuliani-connection
“P3s (public private partnerships, like Cintra toll roads) involve public money for private profits (including gas taxes and
other public subsidies), contain non-compete clauses that penalize or
prohibit the expansion of surrounding free routes, and put the power to
tax in the hands of private corporations that result in toll rates as
high as 75 cents per mile ($13/day or like adding $15 to every gallon of gas you buy)”
Taxes are required for government to provide services. That said, I’m not a fan of a for-profit company managing the tolls.
Tolls are a horrible way of raising money, especially when the tollbooth is owned by a private foreign company like Cintra of Spain. Do yourself a favor and see who’s making a boatload of money at the inconvenience of intentionally induced motorist misery all over the country.
http://www.examiner.com/transportation-policy-in-san-antonio/perry-his-cronies-the-shelley-cintra-giuliani-connection
“P3s (public private partnerships, like Cintra toll roads) involve public money for private profits (including gas taxes and
other public subsidies), contain non-compete clauses that penalize or
prohibit the expansion of surrounding free routes, and put the power to
tax in the hands of private corporations that result in toll rates as
high as 75 cents per mile ($13/day or like adding $15 to every gallon of gas you buy)”
Tolls are a horrible way of raising money, especially when the tollbooth is owned by a private foreign company like Cintra of Spain. Do yourself a favor and see who’s making a boatload of money at the inconvenience of intentionally induced motorist misery all over the country.
http://www.examiner.com/transportation-policy-in-san-antonio/perry-his-cronies-the-shelley-cintra-giuliani-connection
“P3s (public private partnerships, like Cintra toll roads) involve public money for private profits (including gas taxes and
other public subsidies), contain non-compete clauses that penalize or
prohibit the expansion of surrounding free routes, and put the power to
tax in the hands of private corporations that result in toll rates as
high as 75 cents per mile ($13/day or like adding $15 to every gallon of gas you buy)”
Taxes are required for government to provide services. That said, I’m not a fan of a for-profit company managing the tolls.
At Interstate Specialized, we have the knowhow, experience, and equipment to go the distance for our customers. Sometimes your trucking needs may be as uncomplicated as a standard haul. Other times they may take a different turn and involve more complex issues – like over-sized loads or even special handling. Whatever you need, we’ll meet the challenge. Delivery schedules are met and loads reach their final destinations safely.