Free Republic

TAMPA, FL (WFLA) – Driving on Florida toll roads is part of doing business for trucker Bill VanEpps. “Tolls are a huge expense, and it adds up to a lot of money at the end of the year,” Bill said. He noticed a lot of mistakes with his EPass account so he switched to SunPass in January. “I’ve discovered weekly mistakes,” Bill added. Between January and September, Bill found 42 mistakes by the SunPass electronic tolling system. “My rig is a five axle rig. I’ve been charged for as many as 7 at one time. I’ve been charged for as...

We've got a secret the rental car companies would prefer you didn't know. people camping in RV More The Cheapest Way to Roadtrip Might Surprise You 3 Ways to Avoid Costly Rental Car Insurance These Are the Most Hated Fees in America This won’t come as news to commuters and frequent road trippers, but drivers are encountering more and more toll roads, as well as higher and higher tolls on the existing ones. The latest example is I-10 in Texas, where plans called for the maximum toll during peak travel hours to shoot from $7 to $10 as of May...

While Miami-Dade residents were strike recently with new, rare fee hikes on vital east-west arteries, Gov. Rick Scott was rewarding his farming regressive supporters with $9 million to build and urge their toll-free roads. So while down south we compensate a way, a folks adult north who minister reduction to state revenues get a giveaway ride. Poor timing? Irony? A giggle to go with a slap to a pockets of Miami-Dade’s toll-payers? The governor’s proclamation from Tallahassee was all those things — and came by approach of press releases finished with difference of regard from a prolonged register of who’s...

Internet old-timers - those of us over age 25 - remember a time when the web was called the Information Superhighway. The debate over net neutrality has us thinking about another sort of highway: the Trans-Texas Corridor. The TTC, a proposed 4,000-mile toll road, rail and utility project, died a death of a thousand cuts in 2010. First proposed as a much-needed infrastructure investment, the well-intentioned project grew into a monstrosity of politically connected contractors, private property concerns and conspiracy theories. The biggest blow to TTC was statewide opposition to granting Spanish-owned developer Cintra a 50-year, multibillion-dollar deal to control...

Small wonder Congress has kept federal highway and transit programs teetering on the edge of insolvency for years, unable to find a politically acceptable long-term source of funds. The public can’t make up its mind on how to pay for them either. […] Among those who drive places multiple times per week, 62 percent say the benefits outweigh the costs. Among those who drive less than once a week or not at all, 55 percent say the costs of road improvement are worthwhile. Yet a majority of all Americans—58 percent—oppose raising federal gasoline taxes to fund transportation projects such as...

Ever driven down I-95 in Maryland, or the New Jersey Turnpike, and parted ways with $10, $20 in tolls? If the Obama administration has its way, highways across the country could someday be that way. In a major shift for how governments fund transportation projects, the administration wants to let states charge tolls on interstate highways. A federal ban currently bars states from doing so in most places, but the latest White House push could change that.

WASHINGTON — As America's road planners struggle to find the cash to mend a crumbling highway system, many are beginning to see a solution in a little black box that fits neatly by the dashboard of your car. The devices, which track every mile a motorist drives and transmit that information to bureaucrats, are at the center of a controversial attempt in Washington and state planning offices to overhaul the outdated system for funding America's major roads.

On Tuesday, the Texas House paved the way for the possible introduction of more tolls to state highways. Supermajorities in both chambers passed SB 1730, allowing the Texas Department of Transportation to enter into “a comprehensive development agreement with a private entity to design, develop, finance, construct, maintain, repair, operate, extend, or expand” a number of state highways. These “comprehensive development agreements” (CDAs) are partnerships between the government and private corporations, where the latter agrees to pony up money for road construction and maintenance in return for some sort of return on their investment, ie tolls or cash payments. If...

Vote's implications unclear but likely to be far-reaching. Citing an effort to save money and eliminate job duplication, Bexar County Commissioners Court voted Tuesday to undertake management of the day-to-day operations of San Antonio's only tolling authority. The vote will now bring the decisions of the Alamo Regional Mobility Authority “closer to an elected body,” said Commissioner Kevin Wolff, who made the proposal. The RMA board remains intact for now. The commissioners already appoint the entire RMA board, and the governor names the chairman. “If we would merge at the very least the operational aspects of the RMA today and...

HAIBO man, I mean really, it’s not fair. It’s not right. Haibo, angeke! (Hell no!) The thing is that we only earn so much money, and in my sector that isn’t very much at all, and we give so much of it to the tax man and the electricity man and the gas man and the pool man and the hair man and the mani-pedi man and the restaurant man and the education man and the church man and I can go on into a lot of et cetera. From whence comes this e-toll man, now? There is not space...

Both governors are willing to approve an increase, but are balking at the huge hikes the bistate agency has put forth, according to insiders. But finding a compromise has proved to be more difficult than anyone planned. PA Executive Director Christopher Ward dug in his heels yesterday, issuing a statement defending the drastic hikes of $4 to $7. "We had considered lesser increases," said Ward, saying the agency contemplated hiking tolls by just $2 before realizing it wouldn't produce the needed revenues.

State officials are soliciting ideas from private companies to build and operate a large section of the Grand Parkway, a long-planned Houston-area outer loop that has drawn criticism from environmentalists and urban planners. Read more: http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/7636418.html#ixzz1Qwy2u5gk

In the 1850s, on the steps of the Waco courthouse, Wallace Jefferson’s great-great-great-grandfather was sold. Today, Jefferson is chief justice of Texas’s Supreme Court. The governor who nominated him also nominated the state’s first Latina justice. Rick Perry, 61, the longest-serving governor in Texas history and, in his 11th year, currently the nation’s senior governor, says these nominations are two of his proudest accomplishments. French cuffs and cowboy boots are, like sauerkraut ice cream, an eclectic combination, but Perry, who wears both, is a potentially potent candidate for the Republican presidential nomination because his political creed is uneclectic, matching that...

Rick Perry may just be the guy. The country's longest tenured governor, from its second-largest state, is generating a lot of buzz in conservative circles as he contemplates entering the wide open Republican presidential primary. There are plenty of reasons that Perry is an attractive option: he is a no-nonsense decision-maker with solid conservative credentials. A man who not only speaks about family values, but lives them, Perry's power to persuade voters to see things his way is proven -- battle-tested in a state known for independent-minded citizens. But what serious political analysts on both sides of the aisle will...

Last Thursday, a federal judge dismissed a lawsuit in which union workers were seeking to prevent New Jersey from privatizing toll collector jobs on the New Jersey Turnpike, unless those workers got the "right of first refusal" to keep their jobs. But it gets even better: the suit argued that privatization violates workers' First Amendment rights. As part of New Jersey Governor Chris Christie's efforts to bring that state back from the brink of fiscal oblivion, privatization of some government operations has become part of the equation. In 2010, a governor's task force recommended that the New Jersey Turnpike Authority,...

Peninsula residents are upset about a proposal to charge commuters $6 each weekday to enter and exit San Francisco to the south, calling the plan "a slap in the face," "a crazy idea" and "ridiculous." Already dealing with some of the nation's highest gas prices and, in some cases, hefty parking fees, drivers crossing the San Mateo County-San Francisco border would pay rush hour tolls to fund local transportation upgrades and, in theory, reduce traffic jams, under a proposal by San Francisco officials. Officials said they would spend $60 million to $100 million to set up the electronic system, coupled...

AUSTIN (KXAN) - KXAN Austin News has uncovered dozens of cases in which unpaid tolls have turned into bills as high as tens of thousands of dollars. Toll roads first came to Central Texas four years ago. There are now a total of five tollways, including Texas Toll 130 in East Travis and Williamson counties. The bottom line is the toll bills were not paid, and they ended up becoming criminal cases. Although drivers can pay with cash at most tolls, use their TxTag or Pay by Mail as the signs say, some drivers contend the last option poses a...

Gov.-elect Scott Walker, hoarse from his election night celebration, was optimistic on Wednesday that Wisconsin’s high-speed rail project could be stopped and that highway construction projects will move forward under his administration. Just days before the election, state and federal administrators quietly signed a deal committing the state to spending all $810 million in federal stimulus money earmarked for the state to use on the Milwaukee-to-Madison high-speed rail line. While at first blush it would seem the signed commitments would end the discussion, Walker said that may not be the case. “I believe there are a couple of legal options...

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The operator of a South Carolina toll highway sought bankruptcy protection on Thursday in a rare filing by a municipal entity under Chapter 9 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code.Connector 2000 Association Inc filed for protection with the U.S. bankruptcy court in Spartanburg, South Carolina, with more than $200 million of bonds outstanding, court records showed.The nonprofit had been set up in 1996 by the South Carolina Department of Transportation to operate the 16 mile "Southern Connector" toll road in Greenville County, and build an extension to South Carolina Highway 153, records showed.Revenue, however, fell short of...

(CNSNews.com) – Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said Friday that Americans are “tired” of the congestion caused by motorized transportation, and instead are looking for other options such as bicycle lanes and walking paths, which the government will add to its infrastructure.  In this Jan. 28, 2010 file photo, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood listens to a question during a news conference at the Transportation Department in Washington. LaHood said Tuesday, Feb. 2, 2010, Toyota was slow to realize safety problems with its gas pedals that has led to the recall of millions of popular Toyota brands. (AP Photo/Luis M. Alvarez, file“People are sick...