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i was thinking about this today, driving down the freeway:

how much would you have to increase the gasoline taxes to pay for this? bonds issued, etc.

why do we have to make some people richer at the expense of taxpayers.

what if the gasoline was $3.50 a gallon? $4.00?

fine.

"how much would you have to increase the gasoline taxes to pay for this? bonds issued, etc."

To build new freeways at a reasonable clip, an increase of about 20 cents per gallon for gasoline would do the trick. That would bring in roughly $3 Billion per year, and allow about 250 miles of new 6-lane freeway to be built (in rural areas). Using that formula, you could complete much of the TTC in about 16 years.

The nice thing about the gas tax is that everyone who drives pays, not just the people who use it. And no one gets to rob the drivers blind (like Cintra continues to do in Canada).

Building these highways as freeways would virtually assure no more traffic jams in Texas - but if you build them as toll roads, so many trucks and cars will be pushed on to what's left of the crubling freeways that everyone (except the filthy rich) will suffer.

"what if the gasoline was $3.50 a gallon? $4.00?"

You start hitting (actually exceeding) those numbers when you drive on Cintra roads (figuring their tolls as added gas tax).

For example, if your car gets 20 miles per gallon, Cintra charges 22 cents per mile, and gas is at $2.00 per gallon - your equivalent gasoline price (after factoring in tolls) comes in at $6.40 per gallon (or close to $100 to buy 15 gallons of gas).

Now you're starting to make me think that the toll road advocates in Austin may just be reincarnated people who always felt that we pay too little for gas in this country (versus Europe), and this is just their (indirect) way of making us pay world-class prices to drive.