Miami's Toll Roads Are Huge Scams That Must Be Eliminated

The Miami New Times ^ | March 19, 2018 | Luther Campbell

[a fool in paradise]

>> Anyone who doesn’t want to pay can take surface roads.

Not always. When Gov. Good Hair Rick Perry was looking at selling Texas’ tollways to Spain, there was a “non-compete” clause to prohibit construction of free feeder roads alongside the tollways.

[a fool in paradise]

>>That would explain the middle school level of writing.

It’s a New Times publication (akin to Village Voice Media).

AKA an alt-left hippie sex-drug weekly paper (the kind that used to be financed by massive escort and strip joint ads in the back).

With the investigation of Backpage.com, that revenue stream has dried up and those publications no longer publish print editions, they are strictly online entities.

[JimRed]

Are you kidding? We’ve had the GSP since 1949.

Some sections up north may have been opened earlier, but the opening of all 165 miles was in 1955. I remember riding our bikes on the not-yet-finished roadway when I was maybe 11 or 12 years old.

[mewzilla]

Emmaus has an awesome yarn shop. Conversational Threads. :-)

[a fool in paradise]

>>Toll roads are not scams. There’s no free lunch. Somebody has to pay for constructing and maintaining highways.

They ARE scams. In Houston, the original agreement was the Beltway 8 tollway would operate as a free highway after the debt was paid off. Instead they continue to borrow against it and use the money for NON-tollway projects.

It IS a scam. It is a tax. You aren’t paying it for the upkeep.

[JimRed]

The PRs were getting checks before and they’re going to continue to get checks. The illegals know that all they have to do is, pop out a citizen at the nearest hospital in Miami and they start collecting checks.

PRs are citizens. So they don't have to "pop out" any more, though if they do so the check is bigger!

[Ikeon]

As a tourist a couple of years ago , I rented a car at the airport and drove to the keys for vacation. The rental company offered me a SUNPASS for 90.00 for the week! I said no thanks, that's outrageous. I thought I could use my GPS or at least pay as you go.. But NOOOOOO! excuse me.. I drove straight to key west and coming back drove straight to the airport.. I got a bill from the rental company 3 weeks later . 180$.. it was 90$ for the actual tolls that's 45$ one way from the airport to key largo.. 90$ in tolls and a 90$ administration Fee.. I will never go back to south Florida. NEVER, NEVER EVER, south Florida can BMA.

[Bartholomew Roberts]

+2

[qaz123]

I meant the “illegals” popping out citizens, not the PRs. Although for decades most of them wanted autonomy from the US, but all of the sudden, BAMMMMM!!! they want to be a State.

[oldtech]

What’s scarey about all this is that there are some poorer states that are going to look at this & think they can make it work for them. People on fixed income aren’t traveling much as it is,so I guess they will stay home & die.

[jmacusa]

Jersey is a rip off too. The Garden State Parkway and particularly the New Jersey Turnpike are the jugular vein of the Eastern Seaboard. If you want to get from anywhere north or south along the entire east coast you have to come through NJ unless you want to take a big detour west then hook back through PA. The state of NJ knows this and they've been scamming people because of it for decades. Even if you don't use the roadways if you're an NJ resident part of the state income tax goes to pay for these roads. So they get you one way or another.

[Elsie]

bingo

[Elsie]

Cities have SOLD YOU OUT

Cities are bastions of Liberalism.

[SamAdams76]

I called this years ago when the EZ-Pass transponder first came out (a/k/a "Fast Lane"). Here in the Northeast, it was actually a yuppie status symbol to have one of those transponders glued to your windshield and early adopters were indeed able to whip right through their special lanes without even stopping while all the lowly rank-and-file drivers fumed in stop-and-go queues for the opportunity to hand over their quarters to the toll-collectors.

I predicted then that eventually we would have technology to read license plates and that motorists would be billed monthly for using the roadways. Tolls would rapidly expand and increase from that point on.

It was like when credit cards first came out. People thought it was great to pay for goods and services without the inconvenience of handing over cash (and waiting to receive change). Then the monthly bill came and often consumers would pay the conveniently suggested "minimum payment" as their balance grew larger and larger.

My monthly toll bill is now averaging $60 a month! It's hard to believe there was a time not too long ago when I kept a few quarters in my cupholder and that was enough to take care of whatever tolls I ran into. Those were halycon days!

[SamAdams76]

Somebody has to pay for constructing and maintaining highways. Better to have the users pay for them than the general taxpayers.

Believe it or not, that's what our tax money used to go towards. You know, the money the government involuntarily deducts from our paychecks? As a "general taxpayer" as you refer to us by, I do not notice my taxes going down on account of motorists paying higher tolls.