tolls

2013-05-20: The North Carolina House of Representatives voted 113 in favor, none opposed May 16 to a bill that limits tolls on interstates to added lanes. This would halt the state DOT's plans to finance $4.5 billion of rebuild of the 182 miles of I-95 from the Virginia to the South Carolina order by fully tolling the interstate.

Like it or not, get ready to pay tolls on our Interstates and Parkways (here in Connecticut.)  Transportation officials in Hartford say there’s just no other way to raise badly needed money for over-due infrastructure repairs.  Tolls may not be popular, but neither are collapsing bridges.

In the last decade’s debate on highway tolling, here are the five biggest lies that opponents have used to stall the return of highway tolls:

For contrived sincerity while declaring black is white, day is night, or war is peace our US president has a worthy competitor in Virginia governor Bob McDonnell (Republican.)  McDonnell told Timothy Carney of the Washington Examiner of the huge new tax-&-spend transportation bill that he had  "exhausted all the conservative means he could to fund roads, including tolls and spending cuts."

2013-01-28: A sweeping bill to put tolls on Connecticut highways has been filed in the Connecticut state house. HB5125 is elegant in its simplicity. Titled "An Act Establishing Tolls on Connecticut Highways" it provides "That the general statutes be amended to establish tolls on Connecticut's highways."

2013-01-22: There's a disconnect between public officials and the public over tolls. Poll after poll after public opinion poll shows tolls are the most politically acceptable way of paying for major road improvements. Yet politicians, reporters, and lobbyists hardly even consider it. Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell even managed in his recent proposal for road financing with a 16% hike in the state sales tax not to mention tolls once.

National capital transportation policy observer Kenneth Orski thinks that the federal highway program is likely to continue to be funded only at levels to support maintenance and states and metro regions are going to have to advance 'megaprojects' with project finance. Such p[rojects normally involve tolls, often with P3s.

He says federal highway bills are likely to continue to be short-term affairs, suitable for helping state DOTs pay for operations but too unpredictable and underfunded to support major capacity expansion and rebuilds.

2013-01-10: Crises in federal and state budgets offer an opportunity to rethink how transportation in America is managed and funded. And there's an opportunity to simultaneously improve performance, while reducing the burden of taxes - so long as legal and regulatory obstacles to tolls and other forms of road pricing are removed.

2012/12/07: Phil Andrews' Montgomery County district of Rockville and Gaithersburg lies squarely athwart the western end of the MD200 tollroad also known as the Inter County Connector (ICC.) The year old tollroad (it began tolling Dec 5 2011) is a boon for Andrews constituents but he caught some headlines this week echoing pretty well many of

Major legacy of the Islamist downing of the World Trade Center towers September 11 2001 seems likely to be in severely stressing the finances of the PANYNJ and the economy of New York City.

2012-08-24: Most toll rates on the 120 mile Houston area toll system operated by Harris County Toll Road Authority (HCTRA) are rising September 8. Mainline toll rates with the EZ TAG transponders will got up a dime to $1.40 (about 8% higher) while cash toll rates go up a quarter from $1.50 to $1.75 (a 17% increase) for cars.