Free Republic

AUSTIN, Texas — Deep in the heart of Texas is an artery that's been clogged for decades. According to the Texas A&M Transportation Institute, the portion of Interstate 35 that runs through downtown Austin is the third-most congested highway in Texas. About a quarter of a million cars in the Austin area use it daily. Gabrielle Guevara, a New Orleans native who works as a nurse at the Austin Cancer Center in Georgetown, drives on I-35 every day. She describes her commute home as "frustrating." "When I first moved here in August, I thought it was going to be about...

The political tide has turned against toll roads in Texas, imperiling a Tomball interchange project and hamstringing frustrated local officials, while setting an ominous tone for projects to come. For years, state officials relied on tolls to tackle some of TexasÂ’ biggest traffic messes as a way to build without adding taxes. Since 2016, however, Gov. Greg Abbott and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick have taken hard-line stances against the mixing of Texas Department of Transportation money and toll revenues. Most Popular More men accuse former Texas judge, Baptist leader of sexual misconduct Breaking down 2018 Texas A&M football: Quarterback With...

The distinction between how rail and road projects can happen in Central Texas — state law requires Capital Metro to ask voters for permission to build or expand a rail line, while road builders can proceed, even on a tollway project, without an election — has always rankled transit supporters.The Legislature added that requirement for Capital Metro rail elections in 1997 when the agency was in turmoil and anti-rail lawmakers held sway. Since then, area voters have OK’d one rail project — the MetroRail commuter line in 2004 — and twice said no to light rail (that second rejection, however, was of...

The Texas Department of Transportation has a contractor lined up to add a lane to each side of Texas 130 through Pflugerville, a popular commuter route that often backs up during rush hour.But the $36.7 million contract with OHL Construction is now caught up in the freeze on toll road projects — even though the project would be an expansion of an existing toll road, funded with toll road revenue. It would not use money from the gas, sales and energy taxes that have been the target of grass-roots anti-toll groups.“The planning and (bidding) has been done. The contractor is ready...

Texas lawmakers have gone from championing to criticizing toll roads, a shift that some Houston-area leaders worry has gone too far and could limit coming projects. "Without toll roads and that funding, I don't know what we are going to do," said Montgomery County Judge Craig Doyal, citing the need for new roadways in rapidly growing parts of the Houston area. The concern, voiced at a Dec. 15 meeting of the Houston-Galveston Area Council's Transportation Policy Council - the region's transportation planning group - was shared in response to decisions by the Texas Transportation Commission. A day earlier, the commission...

People forgot the asterisk. Or maybe they never noticed it in the first place. The consequences of that oversight took full form about a week ago, and the result is that the prospects for several major highway projects in Central Texas and the state’s other urban centers are now uncertain. Back during the 2013 legislative session, when Texas Department of Transportation officials and their lawmaker allies began pushing for more money through a constitutional amendment, they said that TxDOT needed an extra $5 billion a year to fight traffic congestion. Just give us that much money and all will be...

Texas is spending record amounts on transportation, but lawmakers worried it is not enough are considering extending a controversial program that’s helped spread tollways through some of the state’s largest areas. A bill approved this week by a House committee would give the Texas Department of Transportation a chance to add six additional projects, including the widening of Interstate 45 north of I-10 and a long-planned Hempstead Tollway, meant to relieve traffic on U.S. 290 with the potential for a commuter rail corridor. The bill, by state Rep. Larry Phillips, R-Sherman, would also allow TxDOT or regional officials the chance...

More than a year after Texas voters approved routing billions in state sales taxes to roads and bridges, some lawmakers are questioning whether the first payment of $5 billion should move forward as planned. Texans voted in 2015 to boost funding for state’s public roadways and bridges, which have strained under the state’s growing population. Proposition 7 — loudly cheered by top Texas leaders and supported by 83 percent of voters — changed the state constitution to route some taxes collected on car sales to the State Highway Fund. But in an unusually tightfisted legislative session, some Texas lawmakers are...

The cost of toll roads, the toll of urban congestion, ride-hailing battles and a high-speed train war garnered plenty of attention in Texas this year. And after the Legislature spent two sessions focusing on highway funding, lawmakers now appear poised to tackle other transportation matters next year. Here's a look at the year's biggest transportation stories and how they may continue to unfold in the coming months:1. Uber and Lyft roll out of Austin after losing city electionNational ride-hailing companies Uber and Lyft stopped operating in Austin after voters there rejected an ordinance that would have repealed certain regulations, including...

The People's Republic of California - which voted for Barack Obama over John McCain by a margin of 24 points - did something else that should send an even louder message: the "green," "global warming," "alternative energy" initiatives got utterly annihilated. Proposition 7 - which would have required utilities to generate 40 percent of their power from renewable energy by 2020 and 50 percent by 2025 - went down 65% to 35%. And Proposition 10 - which would have created $5 billion in general obligation bonds to help consumers and others purchase certain high fuel economy or alternative fuel vehicles,...

TV commercials touting a new clean energy strategy and an environmental ballot measure in California both have one thing in common: if they succeed, they'll make investors – from "big oil" to the U.S. Capitol – a lot of money. The ads champion Texas oil billionaire T. Boone Pickens' "Pickens Plan" to move our nation from foreign oil dependence to domestically produced wind power and natural gas fuel for automobiles. The plan is touted as a cleaner, more eco-friendly alternative to our current reliance on coal power and gasoline. The ballot initiative is California's Proposition 10, known as the California...

Propositions that are on the November 4, 2008 General Election Ballot* Bond MeasureProposition 1 SB 1856 (Chapter 697, 2002). Costa. Safe, Reliable High-Speed Passenger Train Bond Act for the 21st Century.** **Note: The Safe, Reliable High-Speed Passenger Train Bond Act for the 21st Century was originally scheduled to appear on the November 2, 2004, General Election ballot. Subsequently, Senate Bill 1169, Chapter 71, Statutes of 2004, provided that it appear on the November 7, 2006, General Election ballot. However, most recently, Assembly Bill 713, Chapter 44, Statutes of 2006, provides for the submission of this Act on the November...