Posted on 02/03/2011 7:03:02 PM PST by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
(Updated at 10:35 a.m.) Arlington County has emerged victorious from its $1.5 million legal battle with the state over the plan to build High Occupancy Toll lanes on I-395.
Virginia Transportation Secretary Sean Connaughton announced today that the state is no longer pursuing its I-395 HOT lanes plan, which the county blocked by filing suit in 2009. VDOT is also canceling plans to upgrade the Shirlington and Eads Street interchanges.
Just hours before the project’s demise was first revealed by the Washington Post, County Board Chairman Chris Zimmerman sent a five-page letter to two top Virginia lawmakers further explaining Arlington’s effort to block the HOT lanes project.
Zimmerman questioned the wisdom of handing the state’s existing HOV lanes over to a foreign company for decades while getting what he described as relatively little in return. Zimmerman argued that the I-395 HOT lanes plan was poorly-designed, could exacerbate traffic congestion and could cause “great harm to the people that we and you represent in Northern Virginia.”
Addressing the lawsuit’s critics, Zimmerman wrote that “carrying on overheated diatribes through the news media is not conductive to conciliation.” He disputed the oft-repeated charge regarding the lawsuit’s insistence that minority populations would be adversely affected by HOT lanes, saying that “Arlington has never called anyone racist.”
Per the charge that Arlington was acting unscrupulously by suing two government officials in their personal capacity, Zimmerman noted that the officials “are of course provided legal representation through government general liability coverage.”
Even though Arlington’s HOT lanes fight is likely coming to a close, the lawsuit may continue to cost the county in the form of ill will in Richmond. As we previously reported, one Fairfax County lawmaker has effectively killed a bill that would renew Arlington’s hotel tax surcharge, which provides about $1 million per year for tourism promotion. Del. Tim Hugo (R) cited the costly HOT lanes suit as evidence that Arlington didn’t need the extra tax revenues.
Time to put down that bottle dude.
Jefferson favored toll roads. He built a few.
He wasn't supposed to have to make decisions.
Plum BS, get the half ass politicians to run saying they want to sell the highways and see how many of them get elected.
“You do realize that this socialist highway operation is coming to a big screeching halt with new technology at hand that will give us precise measurements of what roadways you use.”
I guess it depends on one’s definition of Socialism. I consider the ability to drive where I want, when I want, without being tracked (generally), as freedom. I consider the future that you seem to look forward to more like something out of “1984”. But what’s what’s a little freedom between friends, ehhh.
Bs
I’d prefer you pay your fair share of the costs for the roads. Time to get your hand out of my wallet!
Turned out it was exceedingly popular in Indiana to LEASE the Indiana segment of the Tri-State ~ particularly since that is now paying for massive highway improvements throughout the rest of the state.
“Guy is in over his head.”
No, but it’s easy to believe that. In fact, for most people, they need to believe that. For if they believe that this is intentional, then they have to deal with the (true) fact that we actually elected a person who hates this country.
I went to college with these types, they are far from dumb. They’ve spent their entire adult life planning this - I was at some of their teach-ins, they were talking exactly like Obama decades ago.
Everything is going just fine for Obama, per his goals.
“I’d prefer you pay your fair share of the costs for the roads. Time to get your hand out of my wallet!”
I sure do - I pay the gas tax when I drive. And here in Texas we don’t ROB people from out of state with insane tolls for our pet projects (yet), as we’ve managed to stop our governor’s scheme (pretty much).
More, bs, let the former halfass governor. Of indiana run for president saying he wants toll roads. You see how fast the toll BS went away on the route 69 and the I65 bridge . If the clowns want to run on selling the roads of america to foreigners, let them get out front and run on it.
These is a limit to how fast the ITR concession company can raise its rates. That limit is 2 percent, the inflation rate, or the rate of GDP increase, IIRC. The company, of course, can use the largest of the three.
You’re right, of course, so I’m even with my nemesis - neither of us were truthful...
1/7 might be federal but what percentage is a direct result of government?
If you reduce the size and power of government, much of the "industry of government" would go away. How many lobbyists, law firms, "non-profits", etc. are in downtown DC because that is where the trough is. Stop feeding them with the power to influence and all of the money and traffic would disappear.
The HOT Lane proposal would have added one lane to the current 2 all the way from Dumfries to the Pentagon, giving a total of three. The tactics used to shoehorn that 3rd lane into the limited space available between Woodbridge and the Pentagon (narrower shoulders, 11-foot lanes) were admittedly questionable.
I assure you if we got rid of all the government we could get rid of we'd still have congestion.
Most of this is a result of the State of Virginia not having built the roads needed in this area. Instead our tax money went to Southside to build roads that were mostly not needed, and still aren't needed. All we got in Northern Virginia were the Interstate and US highways ~ or what we could leverage in with bonds.
It's not the federal employee traffic, or even the government hog trough related activity that's a problem ~ just lack of highway, and this HOTLANE proposal was just more of the same.
What do you mean you don't rob people?
The I-65 bridge? You mean the one at Louisville? That's a minor issue on that route. I-65 between Indianapolis and Louisville is congested 24/7 ~ which is something most folks have missed unless they fly SW Air to get to Louisville, then rent a car to drive North on I-65.
The stretch from Seymour to Columbus is even crowded these days, and I've been there when there was 2 inch of solid ice on the road and that highway was hauling ~ something about that Wal-Mart regional service center in the area. Those places attract and generate significant amounts of traffic.
If the Toll Road deal can pay to fix up I-65, I say GO TO IT.
But I have to ask you why the Feds are trying to force high speed rail systems on States that don't want them, and whose local residents opose them.
It looks like ya’ll might benefit from the billions of dollars of Federal funds offered to many States who have already refused, because we don't need/want high speed rail.
I am trying to understand why the Feds want to force California and Florida to build a system of high speed rail that is neither wanted or needed in either state, when it might make sence to build it where you live.
Scratching my head, in endeavoring to comprehend why it would be a priority to build a high speed rail line from Tampa to Orlando, since nobody would ride it....
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.