What's the deal with all the toll roads in Texas.

Will we some day need to pay a toll just to drive to the store.

When does it stop. I drive a lot around Texas and have to go out of my way sometimes to bypass the growing toll roads in Texas.

Well Texans are finally starting to get upset and protest this growing trend:

Original SA Express News
Austin protest targets toll road 'tyranny'

Web Posted: 03/02/2007 11:44 PM CST

Gary Scharrer
Austin Bureau

AUSTIN — A protest against toll roads highlighted a rally on the Capitol steps Friday, but the Texas Independence Day holiday put folks in the mood to raise hell about other grievances as well.
Many also complained about a national animal identification tag. Some grumbled about the state's loss of control of its borders. A few warned about the coming "North American Union." And some excoriated the United Nations for wanting "to take your gun," exhorting anyone within earshot to "get us out of the U.N."
The "liberty or death" chant of a thousand or more protesters marching up Congress Avenue to the Capitol conveyed a decidedly serious intent on an otherwise sunny Friday afternoon.

more: www.mysanantonio.com...

I think the only thing that will stop the Government from trying to control every aspect of our lives is for the People to stand up and say ENOUGH We will take no more


More on this:

Original SA Express News
Hundreds of toll foes turn out for state Senate panel's hearing

Web Posted: 03/02/2007 12:36 AM CST

Patrick Driscoll
Express-News

AUSTIN — Hundreds of frustrated people from around the state converged on a hearing held by a Texas Senate committee Thursday and clamored for a rollback on the state's rush to place tolls on new road lanes.
A somber cadre of Texas Department of Transportation officials — shadowed by lawyers and advisers — held its ground amid jeers and members told the Senate Transportation and Homeland Security Committee why they want to partner with private firms to build toll roads.

more: www.mysanantonio.com...


[edit on 5-3-2007 by Royal76]

Its greed and financial incompetence, plain and simple. They (both Democrat and Republican Governors) used monies earmarked for highway construction/repair for other things, like art exhibits, tourism campaigns, and the like for the last 20 years.

Imagine the traffic jams once people have to stop at toll booths!

I'm not necessarily against toll roads per se, but build a new highway for that purpose; don't slap a toll on a pre-existing road that's already been paid for with taxes, that's double-taxation!

That the idiot of Texas Rick Perry, who I voted against is trying to make them all toll roads. He's the one who tried to start a state income tax. If that passed I would move to Florida the last state to not have one.

I believe the tolls are privately owned, so while the state makes roads with tax payer money . . . the tax payer has to pay to use them to private companies running them. . .

What it gets me the most is that texas has so much oil but the population of the state do not seem to get anything for free.

(AP) Roads and bridges built by U.S. taxpayers are starting to be sold off, and so far foreign-owned companies are doing the buying.

On a single day in June, an Australian-Spanish partnership paid $3.8 billion to lease the Indiana Toll Road. An Australian company bought a 99-year lease on Virginia's Pocahontas Parkway, and Texas officials decided to let a Spanish-American partnership build and run a toll road from Austin to Seguin for 50 years.

satollparty.com...

Now there's talk of bringing back the idea of making parts of 281 and 1604 in San Antonio toll roads.
It's bad enough paying for gas now, with all having to pay to use the roads i have to go.

We have the same problem here in Pennsylvania. The sad part is that our tolls seem to increase every year, yet our roads and highways are consistently rated as some of the worst in the country. Kinda makes you wonder where all that money goes...because it sure as heck isn't going towards fixing our pot-hole riddled highways.

Gota love it when other countries own your highways....

The TTC in Texas is a F***ing joke!!

I think we have one of these in Ontario too!! 407

Toll roads will become more and more around the world, in one form or the other.

As alternative fuels and other means of transportation will become available, they will charge you for travalled distance in the future.

Here in The Netherlands, they just tried to pass a law like that. Kilometer belasting (Mileages Taxation) Everyone a small device in the car/truck/motorcycle etc and tracked by satellites and get billed by distance.

Fortunately it is on hold now, but history teach us that on hold means one way or the other it will return most of the times.

As alternative fuels and other means of transportation will become available, they will charge you for travalled distance in the future.

They already do in Canada....