Free Republic

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...

WASHINGTON -- The cost of traveling is going to increase next week for drivers who use certain local bridges or toll roads. Maryland is raising tolls on most tunnels and bridges starting Nov. 1, with the exception of the new Intercounty Connector (ICC). The increases will vary. For example, cash rate tolls on the Harry Nice Bridge from Maryland into Virginia will climb from $3 to $4, while the cash rate on the Chesapeake Bay Bridge will rise from $2.50 to $4. The toll increase also comes with a new system for penalizing those who don't pay. Harold Bartlett, executive...

Increases to the gas tax, vehicle registration fees and the titling tax were among the options discussed to raise transportation revenues during a lengthy Senate Budget and Taxation Committee hearing Wednesday. The panel is examining ways to increase funding by $800 million a year for road projects, an issue that's likely to be one of several budget-related priorities in the 2012 General Assembly session. The legislature will also try to take another bite out of Maryland's persistent $1 billion structural deficit. Wednesday's meeting was the third in a series of interim hearings on potential tax increases to close various budget...

Inside the Beltway, George Will is considered quite a columnist. That sure doesn't carry over when he ventures north of I-495.Why is he writing nonsense like this about Chris Christie? Taxing the rich is popular, but Christie told New Jersey: “If I let my foot off their throat on the millionaire’s tax, they’re coming after you with the gas tax.� That is, the 24-cent increase in the tax the Legislature can’t get past him. Does this guy ever do any research at all?  The Democrats have not tried to get a 24-cent-a-gallon gas tax through the Legislature.  The bill in question, A-2718, was...

When Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. won election as governor in 2002, he was faced with a tricky problem. He had campaigned on a pledge to build the long-delayed Intercounty Connector in suburban Washington. The highway project would cost a fortune, far more than the state could afford out of its Transportation Trust Fund, and the Republican Ehrlich had taken a hard line against new taxes. He had to come up with some way to pay the $2.6 billion it would eventually cost. The answer? He would make it a toll road. And to give his policies a semblance of geographical...

For whom do the tolls toll? They toll for area motorists, who are threatening to avoid the toll plazas as the state continues to propose substantial fee hikes at its bridges and tunnels. Maryland Transportation Authority officials came to Severn River Middle School yesterday to hear how Anne Arundel County residents felt about a plan to raise $77 million by increasing the tolls at the Bay Bridge and other crossings. Passenger cars at the Bay Bridge would pay $5 by October and $8 by 2013. Vehicles with three or more axles would be paying $24 to $60 at the crossings...

Did you enjoy the gridlock last week? Summer traffic trying to reach the beach can lead to some pretty hairy back-ups. Pretty soon, you'll be able to pay even more for the privilege of sitting in traffic. The O'Malley administration is socializing a plan to hike the gas tax between 42 percent and 100 percent, and raise the round-trip tolls on the Harbor Tunnel, Key Bridge and Bay Bridge to $8 - regressive taxes on hard-working Maryland families. There have been news stories about crumbling infrastructure, an empty Trust Fund and the need to pay bond holders. This PR campaign...

(UPDATE 2:06 p.m.) The Maryland Transportation Authority took one step closer toward making it dramatically more expensive to utilize state tunnels and bridges after its board formally recommended Thursday the largest toll increase in state history. Under the proposal, tolls for passenger cars on the Bay Bridge would, beginning Oct. 1, increase from $2.50 to $5 and eventually would increase to $8 on July 1, 2013. In addition, the cost for a one-way toll on the Fort McHenry Tunnel, the Harbor Tunnel and the Key Bridge would jump from $2 to $3 on Oct. 1 and then $4 on July...

AUSTIN — The ceremony was brief and drew few mourners, but the Trans Texas Corridor is finally dead. The Senate unanimously passed a bill that strikes from state law any language, reference and authority once connected to the massive highway envisioned to slice a swath through Texas. The same measure already has passed the House. There are some minor differences that still need to be reconciled, but the bill is expected to go to Gov. Rick Perry, who will have to decide whether to join in the final rites for his once-prized project. Legislators did keep a provision that was...

ALBANY - Every time you drive through that E-ZPass lane it costs you. But the Waste Watchers have learned not everyone pays. Thousands of state workers and retirees are getting a free ride. Tolls that are never collected. Money that never goes back into the Thruway budget. And the biggest perk? Retirees hired before 2005. They get a free E-ZPass for life. The Authority only tracks the use periodically. So if employees run personal errands or share the pass with friends, it represents more in uncollected tolls. "It sounds like a loosey-goosey system where the numbers aren't tracked very closely,"...

Pinky Khoabane: There's probably nothing worse than being repeatedly violated. And frankly, that's exactly how I feel about the news that you and I will have to fork out a couple of thousand rands each month on toll fees just so that we can use Gauteng's highways: 66c per kilometre is the figure mooted. It would seem that the abuse began the moment the World Cup was announced to take place in South Africa. A bunch of unscrupulous, greedy businessmen began turning the wheels of corruption, overcharging the taxpayer billions to build roads and stadiums. The Competition Commission has uncovered...

The authorities that run San Francisco's iconic Golden Gate Bridge announced that next year, they will remove the crossing's human toll takers and replace them with electronic sensors. The switch has been sold as a triumph for efficiency and traffic flow but is potential budget disaster for tourists who now risk stumbling into fines or having to pay more money for e-pass equipment. Cities and states across the world have been moving to sensor-based tolling systems, from TxTag in Texas to E-ZPass in 14 states, without regard to the burden it places on tourists who either don't understand the system,...

According to OPEGA, MTA gave out a grand total of $454,238 in “sponsorships” and “donations” to many groups that have nothing to do with the mission of the MTA. Some other groups on the receiving end of this toll-payer funded spending spree: $3,255 to GrowSmart Maine, a lobbying group who’s biggest accomplishment is helping to secure $67 million in bonds for Lands for Maine’s Future and “community development.” $27,000 to the Maine Preservation Foundation that, among other things, seeks to “provide grants to educators to introduce preservation in the schools.” (It just so happens that the Executive Director of MTA,...

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...

With a lagging economy, high unemployment, and aging transportation systems, Americans debate the best ways to invest in their infrastructure and stimulate economic activity – from high-speed rail and congestion pricing, to cutting pork and tapping private capital. High-speed rail is a big part of the answer During the Great Depression, businesses and governments agreed that transportation modernization was essential to restoring prosperity. The 1930s saw the emergence of the freeway (the first one opening in Los Angeles in 1940) and the airport as important modes of transportation. Together with the National Interstate and Defense Highways Act of 1956, these...

With money tight, Dallas Area Rapid Transit executives want to convert area carpool lanes to paid toll lanes, and with board approval the agency could be operating the first so-called managed lanes in North Texas by 2012. DART manages 84 miles of carpool lanes, also known as high-occupancy lanes, on area highways. It's a fast-growing and sometimes controversial network that regional transportation officials routinely praise for boosting carpools, reducing traffic and improving air quality. Now, DART officials say the lanes could be used more often if solo drivers were given the right to buy their way into the lanes in...

WASHINGTON - Anybody who uses the Dulles Greenway can tell you his commute is a costly one. Rep. Frank Wolf, R-Va., wants to change that. Wolf wrote a letter to Virginia Transportation Secretary Sean Connaughton, urging Connaughton to support state legislation to roll back the tolls along the Dulles Greenway. "I have said it before and will say it again, this is highway robbery," Wolf said. "The Greenway is perhaps the most expensive toll road per mile in the country. This is a quality of life issue for those people living along the Greenway or who use it on a...

E-ZPass customers will get price break over those paying cashA toll increase on the Pennsylvania Turnpike in January likely will make it the most expensive long toll road in the nation. The turnpike commission on Wednesday approved a 3 percent increase for users of E-ZPass electronic fare collection and 10 percent for cash customers, effective Jan. 2. That will raise the cash cost of driving the turnpike to 8.5 cents per mile, highest of the 11 U.S. toll roads of 100 miles or longer. Currently, the Pennsylvania and New Jersey turnpikes are tied at 7.7 cents per mile. Shorter toll...

Engineers’ assessment is that traffic will require more capacity by 2030PORTLAND — An eight-lane bridge across the Columbia River would be too small to accommodate future traffic demand unless there is a major increase in the number of drivers deciding to take the bus or avoiding rush hour altogether, according to an engineering firm hired by the city of Portland to consider a smaller Interstate 5 bridge. Concerned about the mammoth size of the 10-lane Columbia River Crossing currently being proposed, the city wanted to look at a slimmer version. The engineering firm delivered its assessment Friday during a meeting...

PITTSBURGH (AP) — Pennsylvania's roads are getting worse. A new report released Monday by the American Society of Civil Engineers says the state's roads get a D-minus grade. That's down from the D the engineers gave Pennsylvania's roads in a 2006 report. The grade for the state's transit systems also went down, from D-plus to D-minus, while its bridges stayed at a C. The ASCE says the state's bridges would be worse off if it weren't for stepped up efforts, including the use of $390 million in federal stimulus money for repairs. But there could still be tough times ahead....

One of Houston Mayor Annise Parker's most visible goals since taking office in January has been to shake up the agency that oversees buses, rail and other forms of transit in and around the city. Parker's criticisms of the Metropolitan Transit Authority (known as Metro to those who speak Houston) have been music to the ears of Republican Gov. Rick Perry, who is trying to hold off a November challenge from Parker's predecessor, Democratic gubernatorial candidate Bill White. Through press statements and Web videos and under the predictable mantra of "Metrogate," Perry's team has packaged Parker's criticisms with a series...

A toll road developer has offered to tear down and rebuild 10 miles of Interstate 35W from downtown to far north Fort Worth to relieve one of Tarrant County's biggest bottlenecks with a combination of toll and nontoll lanes. The proposal by NTE Mobility Partners, submitted this week to the Texas Department of Transportation, would allow motorists to pay their way out of congestion on toll lanes that would extend from Interstate 30 near downtown to North Tarrant Parkway, south of Alliance Airport. For motorists who can't or don't want to pay tolls, the project would include reconstruction of existing...

Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell (R) has asked federal officials to allow tolls on Interstate 95 near the North Carolina border to pay for repairs he said are needed on the interstate, the Associated Press reported. American Trucking Associations and the Virginia Trucking Association both strongly oppose the proposal and will be taking appropriate steps to address it, ATA said Tuesday. The tolls of $1 or $2 for each axle would generate $30 million to $60 million annually, McDonnell wrote in a letter to Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, AP reported. McDonnell was elected last November. Virginia would be the only state...

N. Texas highway improvements come with a toll: Expect construction snarls for 5 years, stiff tolls after that Dallas-area traffic has been among the worst in the nation for years, and for many commuters it's about to get a lot worse before it gets better. Call it growing pains, or just one big mess, but construction has either already started or soon will on no fewer than a half-dozen of the most heavily traveled – and already backed up – traffic corridors in North Texas, as the region embarks on what may be the most aggressive road-building program in the...

As India aspires to a double digit annual economic growth, infrastructure development is the new priority. Prime minister Manmohan Singh has underscored the need to double infrastructure spending from $500bn (£325bn) to $1 trillion in the next five-year plan if the country plans to lift millions out of poverty. Roads and highways are a particular focus of attention and the government's high-profile highways minister Kamal Nath has set himself a tough target of 20km of roads a day from June, meaning 7,000km a year and 20,000km of work in progress. It could easily be the biggest and the most ambitious...

SEPTA, local labor leaders, and other proponents of I-80 tolls are putting Sen. Arlen Specter (D., Pa.) in the hot seat, demanding that he push Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood to approve the tolls. Specter, seeking reelection this year, has declined to support or oppose the tolls, which are very unpopular in northern Pennsylvania. "I would like to see Specter go see the president and get this done," said Patrick J. Eiding, president of the Philadelphia Council of the AFL-CIO. "It's that important. And he's in a position where he can do that." Pasquale "Pat" Deon Sr., the Bucks County Republican...

Bay State lawmakers are declaring a new border war, charging that a New Hampshire plan to snag Massachusetts motorists in an Interstate 93 toll trap is unfair, fiscally irresponsible and just plain unneighborly. New Hampshire Gov. John Lynch’s administration is pushing a proposal to put up toll booths in Salem, N.H., to fund the $780 million cost of the widening the roadway between there and Manchester. But State House lawmakers are lobbying their colleagues on both sides of the aisle to sign a bipartisan petition to block the move and to urge Gov. Deval Patrick to step into the fray.

LOST REVENUE • Could finance transit projects, road and bridge repairsState Rep. Tony Guerrera, D- Rocky Hill, is the latest among Connecticut lawmakers to propose restoring tolls to finance the repair and maintainance of the state's aging highway infrastructure. We agree with Mr. Guerrera that a new revenue stream to help solve Connecticut's woeful transportation problems is desperately needed. We also agree with him that more money is needed to help pay for transit projects. High-speed rail, light rail, more commuter train routes, busways and the like would decrease the bedlam of congestion on highways, cut harmful emissions and give...

Dr. William Anderson’s superb article concerns a subject some of the Shooters and I have been kicking around recently. Our focus was on why governments shouldn’t build roads at all, part of which is that it is always inefficient to filter money through some bureaucracy. Between waste, the misallocation of funds to pay for the departments and personnel, inferior products, social engineering, and the inevitable corruption when tax dollars are being scattered around “public” roads are a very poor solution to the problem of how to move traffic from points A through Z. As is always the case, unfettered private...

Prince William County decided not to join Arlington County in its lawsuit against high-occupancy toll lanes on Interstates 95 and 395, citing what it characterizes as race-baiting and class warfare in the suit. The county considered joining the suit because it shared concerns about the HOT lanes’ proceeding without a proper environmental study and their effect on traffic, but Board Chairman Corey Stewart, R-At large, said the board unanimously agreed Arlington’s suit raised too many concerns. “The board had a closer look at the suit and there are allegations in there about Pierce Homer, the secretary of transportation, and about...

The social and economic costs of lost productivity and wasted fuel from traffic-choked streets are estimated to be $87 billion a year, according to the Texas Transportation Institute’s 2009 Urban Mobility Report. So far, federal, state and local efforts — focused mostly on expanding road capacity — have been largely unsuccessful at slowing the growing congestion on U.S. roads. Transportation experts now advocate a different approach, changing the emphasis from increasing supply to reducing demand. To reinforce smart growth policies, plug mounting transportation funding gaps and achieve immediate traffic relief, London, Stockholm, Singapore, Milan and three cities in Norway have...

A group of lawyers is trying to stage a modern-day Boston Tea Party against what they see as unfair Massachusetts Turnpike tolls. Attorney Jan Schlichtmann...is leading a group arguing Massachusetts has been acting illegally by using money from the east-west Turnpike to pay debts for the north-south Big Dig project. Schlichtmann and the others argue the tolls amount to a user fee that can only be used to maintain the roadway on which they were incurred

[Mass.] Pike drivers might get a free ride for an entire day or several hours during traffic-heavy holidays such as Thanksgiving and Memorial Day, according to a report on the Easter traffic debacle released today. The report, which blames understaffing and a fragmented “wave through” policy for the seven-mile backup on the Massachusetts Turnpike April 12th, called for a study into creating “toll free days.” “A review should be completed to determine whether it is possible to have entire toll free days or extended toll free periods during expected high traffic delays,” an official wrote in the report. The toll...

The proposed toll road along US 290 East discriminates against low-income and minority populations in Austin, according to a complaint filed with the Federal Highway Administration. Texas RioGrande Legal Aid (TRLA), the leading provider of legal aid in Texas, in conjunction with the SOS Alliance and the Center on Race, Poverty and the Environment, filed the complaint on behalf of three Travis County residents and the Bluebonnet Neighborhood Association. Filed against the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT), Central Texas Regional Mobility Authority (CTRMA), and the Capital Area Metropolitan Planning Organization (CAMPO), the complaint argues that the toll road project violates...

Massive Easter traffic backups caused by no-show Turnpike toll takers have hatched new levels of driver rage - and Pike managers are promising Memorial Day could be just as bad. Traffic was snarled for hours and backed up for miles on the Massachusetts Turnpike Friday and Saturday. But the worst was Sunday, when it backed up from Allston as far as Sturbridge. It was all because an untold number of toll takers called in sick, and managers were forbidden to call more in on overtime. At one point, the Allston-Brighton tolls were left with just one lane inching past a...

Two years ago, lawmakers went to war with Gov. Rick Perry over his push to privatize Texas toll roads, but their efforts to stop the idea largely failed. As they return Tuesday to launch the 2009 legislative session, lawmakers will be faced with a choice of either raising taxes – which both Perry and Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst have called a bad idea – or giving private companies a greater role in paying for, and operating, a fast-expanding network of toll roads. The two-year moratorium on private road deals that passed in 2007 slowed but didn't kill Perry's plan to...

A truck driver — in a burst of James Bond-like ingenuity — rigged his license plate to evade cameras at the George Washington Bridge allowing him to avoid $1,200 in tolls, authorities said today. Allan Flores, 50, of Jersey City, was arrested and charged with theft of services and deceptive business practice by the Port Authority Police, authorities said.“Our commercial vehicle inspections unit, despite what appears to be a clever method of avoiding tolls, has done an excellent job staying one step ahead,” agency spokesman Pasquale DiFulco said. “And toll violators would be well advised to know that we are...

E-ZPass users and operators of large trucks will pay more for the use of the state's toll facilities under a series of changes proposed by the Maryland Transportation Authority to offset declines in revenue and increases in the cost of maintenance, Transportation Secretary John D. Porcari said today. Under the proposal given preliminary approval by the authority's board, users of the E-ZPass electronic toll collection system will be charged $1.50 a month for bill processing even if they don't use a toll facility during that month. New and replacement transponders -- the electronic devices placed in vehicles to record tolls...

Confronted with a struggling transportation fund, lawmakers in Texas soon are expected to wage battle on various methods to help generate $14 billion for roads and bridges throughout the state. Another bill is intended to sideline the planned Trans-Texas Corridor. A report released this week from the Texas Department of Transportation says that the state will need to come up with $313 billion by 2030 for road and bridge maintenance and for congestion solutions. The report’s unveiling happened a couple of weeks before the Texas Legislature is set to convene its 2009 session. Lawmakers say they already were committed to...

The decision on granting a hearing challenging President-elect Barack Obama's U.S. citizenship is still pending. The "Washington Times" reports that the U.S. Supreme Court held a private conference Friday morning to discuss whether to take up a lawsuit but it was not on the list of court orders for the day. According to the "Times" a Supreme Court spokesman said the decision to hear the case will most likely be announced next week.

The Greater Toronto Area needs a gazillion dollars to fund Metrolinx, a mega mega transportation system of light rail, commuter trains, subways, highways, roads, and bicycle paths designed to reach every ward in an 8,000 square kilometre operating region approaching six million people. It will cost more than governments can afford, say its government backers. The answer, the backers say, is a toll road system that extends across the GTA and finances the transit megaproject. I have a better idea. Install the GTA-wide toll road system and scrap Metrolinx. Once roads are tolled, the population growth that is now projected...

(11-23) 18:07 PST -- The idea of making San Francisco the first city in the nation to combat congestion by imposing a toll on motorists who drive on the local roads is "totally doable" from an administrative standpoint, a top city transportation official deemed. But clearing the necessary political and public opinion hurdles is another matter altogether. Charging people more for anything is always a tough sell. Talk about reaching deeper into people's pockets when the economy is in the tank is even more difficult. "We're going to have to get buy-in," said Jose Luis Moscovich, executive director of the...

An elaborate modeling of housing prices and traffic congestion in cities across the US concludes that financing roads with comprehensive congestion priced tolls rather than taxes rather would provide major benefits in reducing housing prices and sub-optimal densities - 'sprawl' - as well as reducing the familiar delays and uncertain travel times. Moving to tolls or other direct road use charges will significantly improve overall welfare, economic efficiency and standards of living, the study says. Authors are Ashley Langer University of California Berkeley and Clifford Winston, Brookings Institution. The study is reported in Brookings-Wharton Papers on Urban Affairs 2008. ......

Texas politicians who support toll roads won't have Sal Costello to kick them around anymore. Costello and his family moved to a small town in Southern Illinois this summer. He announced it on his blog Sunday, quietly, an adverb seldom associated with Costello in the past. Costello, if you're new around here or have forgotten, was a Southwest Austin graphics designer who in 2004 made a warp-speed trip from obscurity to notoriety after politicians pushed through a plan to build seven more toll roads. The plan included putting tolls on three roads that were already under construction using nothing but...

If you’re having trouble figuring out what Gov. Deval Patrick’s really trying to do with the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority, just keep in mind the ABC’s of Beacon Hill budgeting: Anything But Cuts. While your wages have likely remained flat the past five years, state government spending has gone up 8 percent each year. During the past year, while the private sector was losing 1.4 million jobs, USA Today reports that state and local governments added 160,000 - the second-fastest growing sector of the economy. So when you hear that Patrick is “getting rid of the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority,” you should...

(BUT tolls within 128 to be raised??) Gov. Deval Patrick is planning to dismantle the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority to improve efficiency and try to mollify public complaints about planned toll hikes, two government officials said Monday. (snip) One government official said dismantling the Pike "would keep a promise to the taxpayers, (snip; but...) According to the plan, tolls likely will be raised inside Route 128 to pay off debt associated with Big Dig. Toll booths outside Route 128 will be eliminated, except in West Stockbridge near the New York border and in Sturbridge, close to the Connecticut border.

Go ahead. I already find myself perpetually crooked over the table, living in this city. I should have rock-hard abs as often as I bend over. Mr. Bloomberg, I only ask that you are quick about it, so that I might go back to walking around Brighton Beach, Brooklyn on my never-ending mission to locate signs written in English. You have hurled a large medicine ball of saliva at the people of New York, shoving that huge middle finger of yours in the faces of the electorate by eliminating term limits – because only you could save the Apple from...

Savor the occasional cause for optimism that top leaders can value teamwork over turf in the contentious area of transportation financing. Take the years of squabbling over how Texas can scrape up billions of dollars to catch up with road-building needs. Suddenly, there's positive movement, first from Gov. Rick Perry last week. He told this newspaper's transportation writer, Michael Lindenberger, that he would not use his veto to obstruct a move by lawmakers to index the lagging motor-fuels tax to inflation. "If it is the will of the people, and of the Legislature, I suspect I would go along with...

Having tolls removed from a major route in British Columbia, Canada, has taken some of the sting out of the cost of operating a trucking business in that province, but there’s still plenty of sting to go around. In late September, the government removed a $20 truck toll and $10 passenger vehicle toll from the Coquihalla Highway, which connects the city of Hope to Kamloops, B.C., in the Canadian West. Provincial officials said that truckers were pleased with the move, and they were. “Given the price of fuel, truckers are very happy with this,” Bridgitte Anderson, spokeswoman for British Columbia...