Thanks for pointing out how I'm getting screwed every day. At least it wasn't as bad as when I lived in Leesburg and commuted to Tysons - I only have to take the Toll Road now and not the Toll Road and the Greenway. (The Greenway is the really pricey segment.)
That said, I'm a long-time resident. My parents got pushed to the outer suburbs years ago because they couldn't afford to buy a home in this area with only one income as prices skyrocketed. So, instead, they got punished twice: once because they could only rent (the tax code privileges home "owners" with mortgage debt), and twice because they had to commute long distances closer in to the city.
The transportation system here in Northern Virginia is a charlie foxtrot - now you know why I hate the DC area and at some point in the next few years will leave.
“Thanks for pointing out how I’m getting screwed every day. At least it wasn’t as bad as when I lived in Leesburg and commuted to Tysons - I only have to take the Toll Road now and not the Toll Road and the Greenway. (The Greenway is the really pricey segment.)”
You’re welcome. I’ve watched the saga and read up on it’s history. From what I could tell, there was some nutcase lady that thought if she built a private toll road beyond Dulles, the people would come. She built it, the road went broke (people will move to an area with bad roads, but they generally will not move to an area that is locked off by a toll road...especially an expensive, private, toll road.
I really started following these things because here in Texas, part of Governor Perry’s original plan was to start tolling our interstate freeways (among lots of other plans with toll roads, some still being imposed on us, unfortunately). He later dropped it...when it was starting to get in the way of his political career, but it started really worrying me. The people in North Indiana got the shaft also when the Governor Daniels sold off the state toll road (I-80) to a private company...which is now starting to turn the screws on the drivers up there (Mitch’s base is Southern Indiana).
I just hate to see the country come to this, given a gas tax increase of a dime pretty much covers all of the deficits that they have to deal with.