For Whom Interstate Roadways Would Toll (Hill considers highway tolls)

[Khephra]

For Whom Interstate Roadways Would Toll
Hill Reconsiders Free or Fee Policy
By Dan Morgan
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, July 7, 2004; Page A17


After decades of rejecting tolls on highways built with federal money, Congress is edging toward a decision to give states broad authority to levy tolls as a way to relieve traffic congestion and raise funds for road building and transportation.

The proposal, contained in the Senate version of a six-year transportation bill being negotiated with the House, has set off a fierce behind-the-scenes lobbying battle involving a host of powerful groups.

Opposing the Senate language are the AAA, the American Trucking Associations, the American Farm Bureau and the American Highway Users Alliance. Supporting the changes are coalitions representing state highway departments, road building groups, the U.S. Conference of Mayors, leading environmental organizations such as Environmental Defense and the Reason Foundation, which advocates free-market solutions to economic and social problems.

"This would basically remove the limits that have been in place for many years and could represent a sea change in how we go about financing improved transportation in states across America," said Michael Replogle, transportation director for Environmental Defense.

more.............

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A32197-2004Jul6.html

[RC]

1. Another move to benefit the rich

and keep the poor in their place.

[NashVegas]

2. Pros / Cons

Pro: last major road trip I took, the toll road (NYS Throughway) was the only one that wasn't ridiculously tied up w/construction headaches or crumbling.

Con: If we still get taxed for it ...

Pro: this could encourage use of public transportation.

Con: if it spreads too much, gonna suck.

[spinbaby]

4. What public transportation?

There's none where I live. And isn't that gas tax supposed to be paying for roads?

I'm all for toll roads if the money is used to build public-transportation alternatives, but we all know that's not going to happen.

[SpiralHawk]

3. Toll Booths could double as nifty Homeland Security posts

Helping BushCo to keep an eye on the proles.

[Wright Patman]

7. Ding, ding, ding

We have a winner.

[Coventina]

8. Exactly my thought!

Not to mention, it making it just a little more difficult for the working class to be able to move around, in search of better opportunities.

[noonwitch]

5. I'm leery of it, yet every time I drive on the Ohio Turnpike, I notice

what a good road surface it is, as opposed to the average Michigan interstate (except the Michigan autobahn, ie I-696). The same with the Indiana Toll Road.

1-75 between Detroit and Grayling is awful on trips up north, especially around Flint and Saginaw. The same goes for 1-94 and most of the freeways in Detroit. The streets in Detroit are in terrible shape, but that's not really the state or the federal government's responsibility.

[keithyboy]

6. I've been screaming about highway tolls since Reagan....

All those "tax cuts" that Republicans give must be made up by states who lose Federal funding as a result of the assault on the treasury caused by tax cuts and wars. Everytime there is a tax cut, low-middle income workers and the working poor pay the price. Unlike the rich who do not have to travel to work to get income, the working poor either takes public transportation or drives to work. Many drive to work from the inner city to areas outside the city and must use state and inner state highways. NJ is a perfect example of what I am talking about. The Republican governors (Whitman) were eleceted on the mantara of lower taxes. so they lower income taxes or property taxes only to have to make up the difference by raising highway tolls. In NJ and nearby Phila. people must use the highways a and bridges that are tolled. Right after the so-called 'tax cuts' the tolls went up by 50% and with the Bush tax mantara the tolls are actually 200% higher than they were. This really takes (pardon the pun) a toll on workers who must drive to work. Public transportation costs usually rise with the toll tide.

Nothing in this country is done for the masses...just the wealthy. Your health system, your Congress, your Court....

[Beaker]

9. flat-taxers probably love the toll-road concept.

it's an extrememly regressive tax.

and on a similar note-we should do what finland does in regard to traffic tickets- the fines should be based on the offenders income...I'd love to see a system for pegging tolls to income as well.

[splat]

10. so quickly they forget...

As part of a plan to remove all Toll plazas from Connecticut roads after some fatal crashes involving 18-wheelers on I-95 (Conn. Tpke.), the Greenwich, Milford, Charter Oak Bridge and all other tolls on Connecticut roads were all removed by 1989.

[uncle ray]

11. kind of makes our gas seem cheap now, huh?

personally i drive a lot, cars are my "thing", but i would not mind paying more for gas...provided we get something in return.

[trof]

12. I can see it now...

"Grandpa, do you have any one dollar credits? Mom's car doesn't have one of those bar code stickers."

"Lemme see Jack. I think I have a couple. Jack, do you know when grandpa used to drive there WERE no toll booths?"

"No kidding?"

"No kidding. You could cruise along for hundreds of miles, just stopping for gas. And gas was only three dollars a gallon back then. It was nice."

"Wow, the good ol' days were pretty good, hunh?"

"Yep, pretty good."

[donsu]

13. next we will be having privately owned highways, corp. owned highways

nt

[Mari333]

14. I take the back roads anyway.

It might take more time, but its the only way to go these days.

[schultzee]

15. The PRIVATIZING PIGS will soon have everything private and

create a BIG MEXICO or Guatamala here. The poor can just starve to death.

Linda

[Fovea]

16. Bing bing bing bing!

Another winner!

Yes, the uber rich like patron/peonage systems.
I wonder why they hate the middle class? Could it be
progressive tax rates?

[GoddessOfGuinness]

17. How is this going to relive congestion when

1) Vehicles will need to filter through tollbooths and
2) Mass-transit options are horrifically underfunded, where they even exist.

[Melsky]

18. get used to electronic tracking

Here in California, there are many toll roads. You can only drive on some of them if you have a fastrack device in your car, which automatically knows when you go on a toll road and debits your account.

Of course they would never use this to er...spy on us, right?

[Snow]

19. Okay, freight experts, help me here.

I'm thinking this would cause a lot of truckers to take to the non-interstates - like the old US highways, and so on. Thereby causing rapid deterioration of those roads. If the problem is deterioration, is it a problem of true neglect, or accelerated crumbling due to heavy truck volume? I used to live in Omaha and drove regularly to Minneapolis. Often on I-80 through Iowa there would be two to three times as many trucks on the road as cars. It doesn't seem to me this has always been the case. I'm of the opinion that something has happened to change the economic advantage from freight trains to long-haul trucks. Anybody have knowledge of what that is? If we could swing those incentives back to trains, it'd help the highway problems, i suspect.

[Democat]

20. They are trying to sell off the highway systems to corporations!

Just watch.