Posted on 07/02/2011 5:44:55 AM PDT by BobL
“What would you propose that Texas do to to begin a long range plan to improve and provide the necessary transportation facilities for say the next 50 years?”
1) Eliminate the gas tax diversion to ‘education’.
2) Increase the gas tax by 5 cents per gallon, each year, over the next 5 (or more) years. By the end of 5 years, we’ll be caught up to where we were in the early 1990s, where we were expanding FREEWAYS...instead of handing over highways to foreign entities.
3) SERIOUSLY increase Park and Ride facilities. They’ve been gutted in our STUPID attempt to build rail here in Houston. Those systems work GREAT, with buses picking up people every 5 minutes (during rush hour) and going to where people ACTUALLY WORK...instead of where the rail lines lead them.
Bottom line - we should make transportation as CHEAP as possible here in Texas, rather than use it as a ‘revenue engine’ (to borrow the term from government people) for other projects. Getting things and people moved EFFICIENTLY should be the priority...but if people have to pay well over 20 cents per mile (in addition to vehicle and fuel costs) just to move around, then we might as well break up our state.
The Bush isn’t state-owned, and it has been anything but a disaster.
Cintra, on the other hand - yeah, not great.
“The Bush isn’t state-owned, and it has been anything but a disaster.”
Agree, but it is (regional) government owned and run, and therefore accountable to taxpayers (and drivers).
I am still not seeing this as the second coming of the TTC. It has a couple of aspects similar to it, but it’s more than 80% different in detail and execution.
Even if you deported every illegal in Houston, the growth of legitimate business and commerce in Houston means that more roads need to be built. Preferably ones that are elevated and don’t flood every time it rains, unlike 50% of the ones already there. :P
Here’s an idea: take the gas tax money currently diverted to the DPS (around $700M/yr, IIRC), and use THAT to build the parkway for free.
You could call it WaWa Acres or AM/PM Estates or Circle-K Corners.
“Here’s an idea: take the gas tax money currently diverted to the DPS (around $700M/yr, IIRC), and use THAT to build the parkway for free.”
That’s what really sucks. The land owners were going to give the right of way to the state to build the GP as a Freeway. But once the state decided to make it a ‘revenue engine’ (toll road talk), the owners told them to take a hike and PAY for it.
$700M is a lot of money and likely could have built the entire project, if the land was free and it was a freeway. And the $700M you mention was just one year’s budget.
So, as it is, we end up with getting screwed (again) with a white elephant (if we’re lucky), but most likely, once Cintra does the math, nothing at all.
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