Foreign Control of U.S. Interstates Encouraged By Feds

American Chronicle ^ | June 29, 2006 | Diane M. Grassi

[Paladin2]

I don't know about you, but I can tell the difference between free parking and pay parking, and I always go for the free, even if I have to walk. One can pretty easily tell about a place by whether one has to pay to park or not. For instance, downtown NYC and Chicago are places where one would be unlikely to want to go or stay long.

I like Alberta, but have never had to pay to park while there, though I'm sure that those who demand to pay to park are accommodated by some sharp people fulfilling that need.

Freeway comes from California where the roads are free from additional fees, unlike say, the Indiana Toll Road (recently on the auction block to some Spanish company).

I've driven on both, I have no trouble telling the difference.

I'd still submit that those places where they have free parking are being true to the American way. Democrats want people to pay to park so they can restrict their mobility and create dependence. Free Parking is independence. No, I'm not kidding.

[hedgetrimmer]

What "free market"?

[raybbr]

There is an enormous "hidden" cost in toll collection in many parts of this country -- primarily in the form of lost productivity and increased travel time associated with traffic congestion.

Original post: ...(the elimination of overpaid toll collectors)...

Oh. Right. Your original post had nothing to do with wages.

[Young Scholar]

AC referred specifically to unskilled work, something my job ostensibly is not. In reality, this work (auditing) so far seems extremely dull and not terribly difficult, and considering what I'm actually accomplishing as an intern, I probably am being overpaid.

Oh well, the search for something more interesting begins in the fall...

[butternut_squash_bisque]

CFR's grants received list reads like a who's who of socialists, commies, fascists, globalists, diversity-perversity advocates, doesn't it?

[dirtboy]

Conducting war on the wage earners of this country, are we now?

Well, let's look at the Pennsylvania Turnpike System. If you want a job as a toll collector, you have to have political connections to powerful pols who view Turnpike revenues as their personal playpen - while the road remains in crappy shape.

I personally would be in favor of removing the tolls altogether - that is what was supposed to have happened once the bonds used to build the turnpike were paid off.

[raybbr]

You're paranoid.

Are you studying globalism in school? Is that why you can't see it?

[ClaireSolt]

I think I will put my observation here. When we entice foreign companies to buy up and run old companies that allows us to leverage our own money and use it for innovative new ventures that have higher profit margins.

Once, I said that women may understand this concept better than men. We know how to live on someone else's money. Just hand me your credit card and I'll go shoppiing at the mall while you enjoy your football.

Toll collectors do mindless jobs but can sometimes be paid a lot because they are political patronage jobs. In Nj they were earning $70.000/an and Bret Schonberg wanted to just take the toll booths out.

Very soon, we are going to see a very, very tight labor market in the US. All this cheap labor talk has been a lot of hooey. Scarce labor has always driven automation in US economic history.

[Doohickey]

Since you're going to stick with that; my community's library is usually quite busy, actually. Popular new releases and reference materials are very hard to come by because the demand for them causes to be checked out continually, causing long waiting lists.

[hedgetrimmer]

Democrats want people to pay to park so they can restrict their mobility and create dependence.

They have also helped to create the 'crisis', by not doing their duty to the American people and creating crowded freeways using the excuse of 'sustainable development', so they can propose the 'solution', foreign owned tollways. Ever hear of the Hegelian dialectic, Alberta's Child?

All the things that are tearing this country apart have their roots in internationalist vision for the globe, including 'sustainable development' and 'privatization' of extremely valuable public resources so transnational corporations can take them over.

The public is being bankrupted before our very eyes, in no way will we ever be paid for the value of our assets that are lost to privatization under the globalist plan.

[Paladin2]

At our library, you have to pay to park in the adjacent lot and it's almost always near full (it's downtown).

[Paladin2]

PA TP is instituting an E-Z Pass arrangement where if you don't use the pass, you have to pay double at the booth. It's a ripoff.

[hedgetrimmer]

I personally would be in favor of removing the tolls altogether

There's the spirit!

Freedom!

[Valin]

The deal which started a flurry of more than 18 proposed foreign financed interstate highway projects across the nation over the past year in amounts of over $25 billion was in Chicago, IL in December 2004. Chicago Mayor Richard Daley proposed an agreement to lease the Chicago Skyway for $1.83 billion dollars to Cintra-Macquarie Consortium, a Spanish-Australian conglomerate, doing business as State Mobility Partners in the U.S. The deal, finalized in January 2005, gave Cintra-Maquarie a 99-year lease for which it is responsible for the maintenance and structural quality of the 8-mile elevated structure.

OMG It's the end of the republic!.....or not

[dirtboy]

PA TP is instituting an E-Z Pass arrangement where if you don't use the pass, you have to pay double at the booth. It's a ripoff.

I've heard nothing of that, and I drive it every workday (ungh). Do you have a link?

If anything, toll roads initially offered a discount for EZ-Pass and then took it away once people started widely using it.

I personally refuse to get one - I won't cater to any kind of tracking system.

[Calpernia]

Oh the CFRs are significant.

Most are missing the electronic toll collection angle too.

RFID systems in the transportation were are at an estimated $767 million return on investment 2005, with hardware representing approximately 40% of the market.

I was on a thread last night trying to point out the data collection that goes with the electronic toll systems and got pretty roughed up.

While doing a few searches I even saw EZ Pass was a partner of Verichip. Cintra is too.

See, what Verichip does is creates independent business ventures with businesses such as Cintra. When that is done, the venture usually takes on a business name that makes it a little rough to trace back to Verichip unless you are specifically looking for it.

The business gains a percentage of the profit but the data is also shared.

The applications involed with these RFID systems and electronic toll collection is for future investment. The investment industry sectors include: electronic toll
collection (ETC); asset management; real-time location systems (RTLS); security/access control; supply chain management (pallet, case/carton, and item tracking); and transportation ticketing. ETC and rail car tagging are the more established. The future market will be driven by open-loop applications.

This is why the foreign entities that are already partnered with Verichip ventures can do the bidding so cheap. They are counting on the return on investment from the future applications. If a domestic business doesn't have this venture set up, the cost of leasing the roads will be higher.

[Doohickey]

Why is it a ripoff? Get an EZPass. It's not like the government isn't already taking pictures of your license plate a the toll plaza anyway.

[Paladin2]

MI has 160,000# limit (likely seldom checked) ilo 80,000# elsewhere. The roads are built to the same design with the thinking that by adding extra axles/tires, the unit loading is the same.

That would be true if there were perfectly flat roads. Roads are not perfectly flat and when the heavier trucks start bouncing around, the unit loadings of the tires in contact with the pavement temporarily increases, pounding the (insert favorite #2 word here) out of the roads.

This combined with a climate where most winter days go through a freeze/thaw cycle and lots of trucks, the roads don't last long.

[Paladin2]

It's a ripoff for those that only use the road once or twice a year and forget going through the trouble of getting a pass for each jurisdiction.

[1rudeboy]

See what I mean? People actually think roads are free.