Posted on 12/07/2020 3:36:55 PM PST by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
Only two states, Kentucky and Connecticut, ever abolished tolls on their turnpikes.
Kentucky is the only state I’m aware of that kept the promise.
“It’s also become an easy way to employ the politically connected and hand out patronage jobs. Governors since the 1980’s have had tollway scandals. Political hires and contracts with friends of politicians from both sides of the aisle have been common at the authority.”
Well, as the Cintra shills (probably on their payroll) used to say to me 15 years ago here: “If you don’t like the tolls being imposed on our Texas Interstates, find other roads to drive on”.
Now we know why they wanted tolling so badly...
Reminds me also of the Red Light Camera Karens who said: “If you don’t want a ticket for running a red light*, then follow the law.”
They too were later caught paying bribes to politicians.
*by the way, ‘running a red light’ ticket, at least 90% of the time, consisted of not coming to a full stop, behind the line, when making a right turn.
“My niece got a bill for a toll charge, for a trip she never took. It was a small amount of money, but if they can’t even properly read the pictures they take, how many other people will be getting billed for thruway travel they never took?”
I had that happen 3 times here in Texas. It was a car from Nevada with the same plate number as mine. I think their M.O. was to not try to read the state off of the plate if someone in Texas had the same numbers/letter, but instead to simply send it to that Texas resident. I called twice, they cleared the tolls for me (and told me it was Nevada).
The 3rd time, I simply ignored it. And it went away. I figure what happened the third time was that they were getting ready to step up the collection iffort, but before they did that, they actually had a human look at it, and so I never heard back.
Thanks for sharing your experience with the system. I did sign up for the EZ-Pass despite only using the Thruway a handful of times during the year. They sent me a little gadget to put in my front window, and I had to put $25 in the account for them to draw from. I will be checking the account regularly to make sure I’m not charged for trips I never took.
I don’t find tolls repugnant in and of themselves, but if a tolling entity makes a promise to remove tolls, it should keep that promise.
I recommended the other thing in the OP because most of these entities seem to have no intention of keeping those promises, and you can keep the tolls for maintenance and improvement of the tolled roads, and so on. They should also run a clean shop, rather than using the agencies to hire the low-IQ relatives of politicians.
JMO.
Georgia abolished the toll booths on State Route 400, which goes from the northern suburbs of Atlanta into the city, but it took some protests and activism before that actually happened.
Also, the tolls were abolished on the Dallas-Fort-Worth Turnpike (Interstate 30) sometime in the 1970s, but it took public pressure to do that one, also.
In southern Virginia, the Richmond-Petersburg Turnpike (I-95 and I-85) abolished its tolls in the early 1990s. In that case, I think they realized that when interstate travelers could take the I-295 bypass around both cities, both the toll revenues and local commerce would dry up, so they dumped the tolls.
At least Texas usually gives drivers an alternative to paying the tolls nowadays, but there have been rumors of pro-toll sabotage, such as lowered speed limits and obnoxious traffic lights on the frontage roads.
When they opened up the southern section of Route 130 between Mustang Ranch and Sequin in Texas - the PPP running it collapsed from lack of revenues - US 183 ran parallel to the road as a frontage road system for a number of miles, but Texas attempted to lower the speed limit on that stretch of US 183 from 65 mph to 55. There was an uproar, and if I recall correctly, that particular stunt was reversed.
A number of toll agencies in TX, VA, KY and GA kept the promise. Unfortunately, they seem to be in the minority.
On the toll bridges over the Columbia, they would just “sell the bridge before it was paid off so the “new” owner could reap the profits.
I seem to recall that Illinois did this with the Illinois Skyway. They sold it for something north of $1 billion (IIRC), and now the new owner is raking in the cash.
Or better yet, don’t charge gas taxes at their service plazas.
The only toll road we regularly have to avoid is Loop 8. It has a nice service road and only a traffic light - that is timed every two miles or so.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.