[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

The North Texas Tollway Authority is Increasing Tolls on Highways (6/8)

[vooch]

maintaining highways is yugely expensive.

gas taxes don’t cover even 1/2 of maintaince costs.

driving ain’t free, be prepared to pay a lot more for driving.

[BradyLS]

Tollways are designed to generate revenue in perpetuity. The tollway in northern Indiana that was built long before I was born is still raking in the dough!

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

NTTA toll rates scheduled to increase July 1 (6/8)

[john drake]

Ha ha. Toll roads were to pay for themselves after 15-20 years and then magically be maintained out of other sources of public revenue. 50 years later...... Guess what, it’ll never happen, because almost every time a tax/toll/fee is enacted, it doesn’t go away, it gets larger and goes on forever. Why is that? Because governments and their services (and their graft, corruption, pensions, etc.) only get bigger. Especially when they convince the dumb voters “the other guy is paying for it.” Politicians lying to you about your taxes and how their spent? Who’d a thought.....

[Fiji Hill]

When the Oakland Bay Bridge connecting San Francisco with Oakland was built, the public was promised that the tolls would be phased out once the bridge was paid for. Although it has been paid for many times over, the tolls remain continue to increase.

Politicians can't bear to do away with a cash cow.

[cherry]

this is why one never, ever votes for taxes...especially those that give taxing authority “as needed” to govt statist...

[Seruzawa]

The fact that there is an interstate system at all provides the States with simply massive revenues. Tolls are just another excuse for an incompetent looter government to fill bureaucrat pockets.

Lots of govt employees on the FR these days defending their rice bowls.

[fella]

Tolls will go away just like the 1876 temporary tax on telephones has.

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

Penalties for unpaid tolls could plunge — but only on some tollways (5/18)

[Oshkalaboomboom]

GA400, a major commuting hub for people living north of Atlanta to get into the city, took down its toll booths so it does happen

GA400

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

Cesar Chavez toll lanes to be removed as early as September (6/5)

[a fool in paradise]

No, one of the Houston figures (a Republican judge) said that HE never agreed to that policy (it was in place before he came to the office) and would not abide by it.

Borrow against the money and use it as a revenue stream, and Rick Perry almost sold it off to a Spanish concern for the quick buck.

[NOVACPA]

We have the Dulles Greenway (euphemistically named, of course) here in Loudoun County.

We locals call it the Greedway...one of the highest cost per mile roads in the US. Tolls never go down, thanks to the politicians in Richmond, who always talk eminent domain and state takeover at election time, then pass bills to raise the tolls.

[jughandle]

NEVER. That was NJ’s original plan with the Parkway and Turnpike. Instead they just create new, easier ways to collect those tolls. Too much money to be made for the state...”political patronage pit” as a radio station here calls it.

[faucetman]

The New York State Thruway, was built in the 1950s.

“All tolls along the Thruway were supposed to be abolished when the construction bonds used to build it had been paid off. The last of the bonds were paid off in 1996” (Wiki).

Yes, we still pay tolls.

[FrankR]

They finally shut down the tolls on I-400, in Atlanta, but now it’s terrible, snagged with traffic. I’d gladly pay 50 cents to avoid the traffic snarls.

[Saltmeat]

Tolls are an elitist thing. They are a way of keeping the riff-raff off of their roads and out of their way.

[Kozak]

Ask the people in Illinois...

[red-dawg]

I drive to Houston 3 or 4 times a year, and I take the NW section of Beltway 8 from I-10 to I-45.
There are 2 toll plazas and an exit booth in that trip.
EVERY time I have driven this stretch, the traffic is bumper to bumper, and the entire pack of cars is moving at 70 mph.

You could walk from rooftop to rooftop, all while moving at 70.

One time I did a quick calculation/guess that there must be at least 50,000 cars a DAY travel that road, all paying for it.
A conservative estimate would be that this stretch of road collects close to $100,000 per day.
That might be $3 Million a month.