The only people who pay for a toll road are those who CHOSE to use it and pay the price. You can always chose to use the pre-existing free roads, that may be longer or slower or more crowded, but they are free. So anyone who doesn't want to pay the toll doesn't pay for the road. And your claim of a 'virtual monopoly for travel between city A and B' is nonsense. Did you even bother to read the article? I-35 will remain free, and there are several other free route options in that corridor. How do you travel from A to B right now, because those routes will still exist and won't be tolled. Only the new routes will be tolled, or new mainlanes that don't exist right now. But if you want to legally drive at 85mph, you'll have to pay a toll.
Hardly oppressive to have choices.
And guaranteed to stay crowded and longer so that government can take tax money from tolls collected and not spend the money on public roads. The example of the 91 freeway toll lanes in California was breathtaking, where they actually blocked side roads in order to force people to either sit in traffic, or paid tolls. After all, who would pay tolls if the free lanes weren't jammed?
And your claim of a 'virtual monopoly for travel between city A and B' is nonsense.
No one is stupid enough to pay tolls unless free roads are kept jammed and decrepit. That gives a "virtual" monopoly to a private company to operate the sole decent road from city A to city B.
Only the new routes will be tolled, or new mainlanes that don't exist right now.
"New" mainlines. Isn't that a genuine monopoly?
But if you want to legally drive at 85mph, you'll have to pay a toll.
You could drive 85mph legally tomorrow if they changed the signs. Many, perhaps most, do it illegally today, so what's the difference?
Hardly oppressive to have choices.
A choice between a deliberately screwed up public road and a private road isn't a choice, and I guarantee you public roads will be screwed up either deliberately or by benign neglect. No doubt money is already being allocated away from public roads right now to prepare the sheep to pay the money.
Bottom line, I suppose I should like this idea. Oklahoma, where I come from, and France have had way too many toll roads for decades that have screwed up their economies. It's high time Texas screwed up their economy too.