Tolling can be a tumultuous business.

It can be angry violent mobs gathering and breaking the toll gates and equipment. In Maryland where I live, this was common in the 19th century. Demonstrators did the same thing last year when the toll tunnel in Lyons France opened. And in Indonesia toll roads were a symbol of the Suharto regime for those seeking his ouster. In this issue we report a less violent but equally destructive assault on tolling in Miami FL and Hampton Roads VA - politicians pandering to people by saying tolls aren’t needed. “We’ll find the money elsewhere,” say these snake oil merchants.

Of course people will take the free road over the toll road if that’s the alternative. But tolls themselves are not necessarily unpopular when compared to taxes. The latest survey we have seen comes from Gannett papers NJ. 66% favored tolls, 23% the tax. When the alternative is stated as toll-road or tax-road, people will usually choose the turnpike. But there have to be people prepared to confront the charlatans and to tell it like it is.