Posted on 09/28/2007 5:05:19 PM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
The Texas Department of Transportation is installing traffic signals designed to increase congestion and drive toll road traffic.
The Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) is using traffic signals to create the level of frustration to a point where the public is forced to accept toll roads. Earlier this month in Austin, TxDOT added an extra traffic signal on State Highway 71 to coincide with the opening of the third segment of the State Highway 130 toll road. Residents interviewed by News 8 Austin complained that the change made already bad traffic much worse on nearby free roads.
"At its worst it's about a two-hour wait," Daniel Villegas said. "Traffic just accumulates and accumulates."
Likewise, those driving on US 183 Liberty Hill are diverted onto a frontage road with a new traffic signal that generates significant congestion that can only be avoided by taking the 183A toll road.
"It has become obvious to me that this whole toll road system has less to do with improving mobility and more to do with lining the pockets of private toll road investors and property developers along the old and new routes," resident Malcom Terry wrote in a complaint to the Central Texas Regional Mobility Authority in February. "We were sold a bill of goods."
Often state agencies enter into "non-compete" agreements with private companies that operate toll roads. The provisions of these agreements require not only that nearby competing free roads remain unimproved, but also that various obstacles such as lowered speed limits and traffic signals be used to generate additional congestion, as happened on the Colorado E-470 and Sydney, Australia's Cross City Tunnel.
Source: New traffic lights a nightmare for commuters (News 8 Austin (TX), 9/27/2007)
So sayeth theNewspaper.com...
Trans-Texas Corridor PING!
I don’t doubt this at all.
TXDot is evil I tells ya!
When the government starts working against the people...
Ahmanidiot has a doctorate in traffic engineering - maybe Texas DoT could make him an offer.
In the Raleigh-Durham NC area, highway 55 was recently improved to 4 lanes. But, they have put in so many unsynchronized lights, the congestion is worse.
Lucky for us, they are willing to finish the nearby, incomplete 540 beltline as a toll road.
Now it all makes sense.
This manufactured congestion has an unintended consequence. It causes emergency vehicles to be slowed down, too, causing unnecessary deaths for those needing an ambulance, the fire brigade, or immediate help from the police. The scheme smacks of something very smelly within certain high governmental positions within and without the state. Unfortunately, oversight is lacking and, no doubt, some of those charged with oversight are corrupt as well.
Governmental fraud if you ask me.I wonder how many other states are pulling this stunt.
Good enough place to bump this thread
Another ‘unintended’ consequence is that these traffic light and tollway games waste energy and increase pollution. The PC Police should be tossing these Tollway Tax Maniacs into the Highway Hoosegow.
And here is the real kicker. Our tolls in Houston have just gone up, again. Also, what they have done is close down the number lanes one uses to pay with coins, so at the toll plaza’s backups occur 24/7. This is truly the government trying to get the people to act a certain way. What way is that you ask. By closing down the change lanes, it forces users of the toll roads to by something called an ez-tag. Granted one pays less for each use of the toll road this way, but it also cuts down on the number of employee’s the toll road authority needs to have on staff. Eventually, they will all be unmanned that the owners of the toll road will have serious profits. Not that Im against profits, but the idea proposed for most toll roads is that when they are paid for, the rates go down. Won’t happen here. The rates continue to sky rocket. Minimun 1.50 when you are on the toll road. What’s really crappy are the places you have to pay a toll to exit.
The tollway was built because getting from Tampa to Brooksville/Spinghill area was darn near impossible in a timely fashion.
For some reason almost nobody uses the tollway simply because it cost almost $7.00 from start to finish one way!
If you don't mind paying highway robbery, it's an easy trip because it's empty road
But with a E-pass, it is probably cheaper when adding up the fuel expense of "stop and start" traffic.
Yes, you do get a discount using E-pass.
Stop and go traffic is not the problem on the regular roads that run parallel to the tollway, they are all two lane highways with lots of trucks on them so you tend to move pretty slow.
I’d rather get the EZ tag than come to a stop behind some bozo who drives up the plaza and says to himself “well, I guess it’s time to start thinkin’ about seein’ whether I’ve got any change for this here toll booth”.
Happens everyday. Then they honk and expect the toll taker to walk two lanes over and give them change.
I try to stay off the toll roads as much as possible and I refuse to get an EZ tag.
Do you actually have one of these devices? If so, does it work everywhere you go? Do most municipalities use lights affected by these devices? Thanks in advance for your answers; this device might be worth its weight in gold to me.
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