Posted on 09/15/2014 5:01:03 PM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
In the next decade, Florida’s biggest cities will add toll lanes to the state’s busiest highways. Nobody knows exactly how much it will cost. Maybe as little as $3 billion. Maybe double that.
What’s clear is that when the toll lanes across the state are complete, they will become one of the largest infrastructure projects in state history.
There’s little debate that the toll lanes, also called express lanes or managed lanes, make commutes quicker for those willing to pay as much as $10 to use them. But there has been little debate about the need for the projects — not one resident will cast a vote on the lanes or the billions spent to create them.
Instead, 169 miles of toll lanes will arrive as part of an initiative by Gov. Rick Scott’s administration. A series of projects that will be under construction until 2021 will add multiple toll lanes in Jacksonville, Miami, Orlando and Tampa.
An analysis by the Florida Center for Investigative Reporting has learned that the toll lane projects began thanks to state-funded reports produced by a think tank funded in part by toll lane developers. In addition, Florida Department of Transportation Secretary Ananth Prasad used to work for one of the state’s largest toll lane builders before approving billions of dollars in toll lane projects, some of which have gone to his former employer.
Prasad says toll lanes effectively create a free market highway system, where only those who use them have to pay for them. “It’s about trying to efficiently move traffic,” Prasad said. “It’s about how we use existing lanes most efficiently.”
There’s little doubt the lanes can move cars, but what’s still to be decided is whether Florida commuters will be happy to see them.
(Excerpt) Read more at members.jacksonville.com ...
If you want to see how corrupt the highway toll system has become, then take a look at Illinois. I’m not surprised to see Florida want to get in on the scheme.
Great thread for my b—ch.
Election year politicking: Florida Lowering motor vehicle fees. Raised 5 years ago by Crist. It appears the rollback is about 30% of the yearly fee folks pay on the cars.
Crist almost doubled them in 2009.
Now my gripe. The fee for titling a vehicle went up in 2009, THREE-FOLD. $25 to $75. That hasn’t gone down 1 penny.
My personal concern is the need to remove grown children from vehicle titles that the insurance company required them on when they were teenagers. State takes $77 to simply remove one name from the title. No true ownership change at all.
The more children in the family the worse this punishment is.
After the years of construction, the express lanes will probably see frustrated drivers. It was horrible for a few years. Craters, shifting lanes uneven surfaces (BAM front end), no exit. Now the main E-W artery (595) to FLL airport is pretty nice.
And I had to get a front-end alignment and new suspension.
Try getting to the Orlando airport without getting on a toll road. A $1.25 to go less than a quarter-mile. A rip-off of out-of-state drivers.
Next, Florida will charge for oxygen.
If they are existing lanes, you don’t need to build them. It’s about rich people getting their own lanes built by poor people, so the rich can get richer, while getting privileges denied to the now much poorer peons.
Welcome to communism comrads.
All drivers have the right to use the entire road system.
They pay the same taxes as everyone else.
And New Jersey proved the inefficient HOV lanes impede the flow of traffic.
Hah. One time the illegal aliens might have to pay...
Quit complaining - you have no state income tax. I’m a Floridian, moved here in Virginia 43 years ago — we have a huge state income tax, county taxes, and more taxes than I can even count. And our state sales tax is almost the same as yours......
Fla is bad, many more states are worse......
I really hate toll roads/bridges. Fricking unbelievable how much they keep going up and up in price.
Yeah, let's make it a wealth gap issue, idiot. It also makes commuting quicker for those willing to pay $0 as it clears their lanes of the drivers who are paying the extra $$.
The “rich people” in the toll lanes are reducing the traffic in the free lanes, so quit whining.
Pffft. Love toll roads. Don’t like them - then don’t take them. Most equatable tax around in Florida.
Want to see a “Progressive” get all red-faced? Talk-up toll roads.
Describe to us how poor people are building rich people toll road lanes in Florida.
Fine, sell your car and donate to build them another hundredth of an inch of road and I will quit whining about taxes used to build non public roads for political profiteers. You also will reduce road loading.
Why sell my cars? I’ll be needing them to drive in the beautiful, uncongested, fast toll lanes! Yee-haw! Why, I might even run over some poor people as they build them!
Lets see, the lanes were already there but we will put some plastic polls up and charge for them now. Its the biggest scam in the state of Florida and I hope some people go to jail over this. I have been driving I-95 in Dade and Broward for over 40 years and it has got horrible over the last 10 years because of the express lanes. If I were the Governor I would open them all up for all the tax payers and trust me it would work allot better..........
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