Looks like the toll road drivers are getting screwed big-time, again (so much for their money just going for the highway - politicians know a gold mine when they see it). I can’t help but snicker at all of the people that moved out there from the DC area, knowing that they’d be hostage to those toll roads. Likewise, I feel sorry for the long-time residents out there that had nothing to do with it.
We don’t discuss it here, but one of Governor Perry’s biggest goals here was to build a HUGE toll road here in Texas (we’re having too much fun with illegals). It was to be massive, the largest land grab in US history (the right of ways were going to be 1200 feet wide, nearly a quarter mile). Fortunately he was (mostly) stopped. But I have to laugh when people call him a conservative.
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.