Posted on 10/07/2006 5:51:18 PM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
The more William Molina heard about toll road plans, the more outraged he got, until finally he picked up his camera and did what he does best.
Molina spent the past several months shooting more than 40 hours of footage at public meetings in San Antonio and nearby towns, talked to activists, tried to talk to toll road advocates and spliced together a film documenting what he says is a nexus of tremendous change.
"I just wanted to capture history," the veteran filmmaker said. "One day we're going to look back at this and say, how did this happen."
"Truth Be Tolled," which debuted last week and is available for free showings, offers Molina's take on why this is happening, but mostly it's a series of people from all walks of life, shown up close to reveal every twitch of emotion as they voice fear, anger and confusion.
"The most powerful thing about the film were the individual voices," said Char Miller, director of urban studies at Trinity University, who sponsored a screening there Thursday.
The documentary, about and hour and 45 minutes long, treads quickly through massive state tolling laws passed in recent years, the new policies to toll every new highway lane possible with the help of private companies that would reap profits in return.
Now toll roads are planned in cities around Texas, including more than 70 miles in San Antonio. And work is under way to develop the Trans-Texas Corridor, a 4,000-mile network of toll lanes, railways and utility lines in swaths up to a quarter-mile wide through rural areas.
State officials say that to solve traffic congestion it's better to use tolls rather than raise gas taxes to build more roads and complete them faster.
In the film, activists and elected officials bucking the shift to tolling said government has simply figured out a way to squeeze lots of money out of motorists, and they point out that traffic congestion is needed on free roads to make tollways profitable.
In public meetings throughout the state this summer, most speakers opposed toll plans.
"These are real people dealing with real issues, and the film just carries out their voices," Molina said.
Molina, a Trinity University graduate who spent 15 years shooting movies and television shows in Hollywood and has done films for the Discovery and History channels, said he tried to interview officials with several agencies as well as elected leaders who favor tolls.
None agreed, he said.
"From what he was giving me, he already had his answers," Texas Department of Transportation spokeswoman Gaby Garcia explained. "He wasn't going to have a fair discussion or a balanced discussion on the issues."
Trinity students Fletcher Rhoads and Emily Bower said the film tweaked their interest.
"It was more emotionally driven," Bower said.
"Which is fine," Rhoads said.
"But," Bower added, "I feel like I need to do research on my own to form my own opinion."
To find out more about the documentary and where it's being shown, go to the Web at TruthBeTolled.com.
If they want to solve traffic congestion, especially in San Antonio, they should deport all 12-20 million illegals.
"It's mildly interesting that you consider someone making a (presumably) rational economic choice (to use the tollroad or not) as being "pushed" upon you. Is the source some sort of sense of entitlement?"
It's no different from taxes. If you tax something greatly, people will tend to avoid it. If you're tolling at some insane rate, and other options exist (like what's left of I-35, in this case - or surface streets in other cases), people will consider the alternatives and clog surface highways. This happened when they doubled the tolls on trucks on the Ohio Turnpike. The diverted trucks started having accidents in the small towns on the parallel routes, and the state then decided that they needed to lower the tolls (fortunately, since Ohio owns the turnpike, they can adjust the tolls - rather than having to go begging to Cintra - which is our future).
What I cannot understand is how pushing cars and trucks on to surface streets is helpful to Texas, in any way.
Of course you do.
Look, the voters have said that they don't want "pay as you go". For you to say that "pay as you go" is an option is ignoring reality.
I came down Mopac out of Round Rock on Friday. First time in a while. I noticed that those toll booths went up real fast, the whole project is moving quickly and quietly. What does that say to me? Money. Real money. It is taking TxDot longer to build a bridge over the railroad in my hometown than it is for the whole toll project to go into Austin. Of course, I think the whole toll road thing is a vast yankee conspiracy. Pay as you go? whatever. These projects will eat up the available corridors and there will be no alternative to them. You will drive and you will pay. have a nice day.
"Look, the voters have said that they don't want "pay as you go"."
Get real, you and everyone else on this thread know that the voters had NO CLUE what was coming when they agreed to dump pay as you go. I doubt 1% of Texans even know it was voted on.
For a democracy to work, you need leaders who communicate with people, rather than TRICK THEM.
Sure they knew. And they still know. Do they want the road built sooner than later. Overwhelmingly yes.
Hmmm, I wonder what the Gov and his supporters are afraid of.
"your conspiracy agenda"
You were doing good - but now you need to get personal. I guess you also feel defeated.
Anyway, we've been down this road. There are lawsuits demanding that the contract be made public - so obviously I'm not the only one who thinks it's already a done deal.
Yep - all 1% of them.
Let's put the TTC Plan, with it's foreign ownership and 50 contracts up for a vote. You may not like the outcome.
Anyway, it won't happen, as Perry doesn't see a need for the consent of the governed.
So long, I'm done with this thread.
Again you evacuate a tollroad thread when I'm about to point out your misconceptions . . . I was going to talk about trucking . . . and what makes you think that a trucker is capable of doing a cost/benefit analysis that will always cause him to favor an option other than using a tollroad. And your 85 cent/mile California toll road, what is it, two miles long? Is it a bridge?
Okay, here you go..... good reading and report back to us what you decipher. You could have looked it up but didn't so I'll post the link for you.
The entire master development plan, approximately 1,600 pages, is available on TxDOT’s Web site at www.txdot.gov and the TTC Web site at www.keeptexasmoving.org.
There aren't any constuct contracts signed yet are there?.... There was the Development project listed above and now Cintra/Zachry apparently will have a construct contract for segments 5 & 6 of the SH 130 when the Feds give the Okay.
Do you know of any finalized, signed construct contracts? If so please post which ones.
If you ever get a link to the contract, please ping me.
If you ever get a link to the contract, please ping me.
No, it's not too hard for a trucker to figure it out, and they see it differently than you . . . .
The three hours that trucker saves, in your example, can be spent sleeping (off the clock), waiting to be unloaded (on the clock), or visiting "sweet Eileen in Abilene." Moreover, you cannot discount arriving at the destination faster (waiting to be unloaded, above). Being second in line makes a heck of a difference than being seventh. It gets you back on the road faster (faster to your next load, next stop, next Eileen, home, whatever). Time is money . . . that you do understand. What you do not understand is both sides of the equation.
Finally, if the thought of paying tolls is so onerous to a truck driver, why do you see trucks on tollroads? Personally, seeing a "convoy" of 30 or 40 trucks heading north (and rolling through the tollbooth without stopping) on the Tri-State Tollway (Illinois) on an early weekday morning warms my heart. You think they're on surface streets sitting at redlights.
Ok, if you're going to believe that financial incentives (or disincetives) do NOT affect behaviour, you need a lot more help than I can give you at this website.
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