[ken21]

i just threw the $3.50 and $4.00 figures out as a what-if?

i have no idea what the cost would be.

i was pleasantly surprised at your 20 cents per gallon.

if it could be done that cheaply, then why not?

no doubt the "keep austin weird" people should be re-named:

"keep austin stupid and on the democrat plantation".

[BobL]

"i was pleasantly surprised at your 20 cents per gallon."

The 20 cents was based on a number used by Perry's own people. Specifically, the guy said that it costs about $2 Million to build a lane-mile of rural freeway. Thus it costs $12 Million per mile to build a 6-lane freeway. 20 cents more per gallon will bring in about $3 Billion per year - however, our state Constitution requires the diversion of one quarter of the 20 cents to "the schools", so we would lose quite a bit there (in fact, the current state gas tax of 20 cents per gallon also loses 5 cents to "the schools"). So to get 20 cents for freeways probably requires closer to 26 cents of gas tax - but then the state has a little extra money to play with for other uses, so maybe (just MAYBE), they could drop our sales tax a bit. But the bottom line is that they money stays in Texas.

One other thing, this 20 (or 26) cent increase would do nothing to help with local city traffic. In that case, it cost much more to add lanes - often 10 times as much. However, building rural freeways could at least give long-distance travelers a way to avoid the cities, and thus help the cities a bit there.

This is particularly true in Austin. Right now they're building a bunch of toll roads that would allow vehicles to bypass the center of the city. If inter-city vehicles (particularly trucks) were given free passage on these toll roads, that could REALLY help clear I-35 through Austin. However, the toll collectors that run our government don't think like that. Rather they think of trucks as big piggy-banks that will pay the tolls - they'll be in for a big surprise real soon. They only people that will pay the tolls are wealthy car drivers, trying to avoid rush hour congestion.