I assume your point is that toll roads are irrelevant to a states economic performance?
Oh.
How come you had to go down to Fla, rated #7 in growth at 2%, while bypassing Nevada and Arizona that were No.s 1 and 2? (growth rates 4.7 and 3.2 percent respectively). None of the top 6 states have toll roads. Florida only has 77 miles of toll on Aligator Alley, so your example was not very good in the first place.
It looks like people don't like toll roads, and the neglect of the free roads in states with them.
And don't forget the basement dwellers. Pennsylvania at #48, home of the famous Pennsylvania turnpike, Ohio at #47 with three toll road systems. New York #44 with four toll systems. And Maine at #42 with, count 'em, 8 toll ways. Wow.
How many years after Texas ties up all all those miles with tolls before they join those states in the basement?
You might want to point your conspiracy accusations at yourself. The study you cite (one of many with all kinds of different factors measured that shift the rankings based on what is and isn't included, but whatever) has Florida at #7, which prompted you to go off on your rant. But #3 to #8 have virtually the same growth rates, between 2.3% and 2.0%. Both Florida and Texas are at 2.0%, so I'd say that they are comparable.
But of course percentage growth can be misleading, since a state with a small population only needs to add a small number of persons to have a high percentage rate of growth, while a huge state like Florida (4th, and soon to be 3rd, in population) could add multiple times more residents and yet have a smaller growth rate. Your source ranks based on growth over the last 10 years. I don't have quick numbers for that, but do for the last 5 years, and in that time Nevada added 400,000 persons, while Florida added 1.8 million.
You also don't know your facts on which states have toll roads. Again, if we simply accept your handpicked list for the sake of argument, #3 Colorado has a toll road loop around the Denver area and has been debating a north-south tollway from Ft. Collins to Pueblo running east of the urban areas (very similar to the Trans-Texas Corridor.) #4 Georgia has a tollway in Atlanta and is planning to add toll truck lanes thru the Atlanta area from the northwest to the south. Not sure about #5 Utah, but is the Legacy Hwy going to be tolled? And even if not, Utah isn't a low-tax state. #6 Idaho is relatively tiny.
As to your claim that Florida only has 1 tollroad, Alligator Alley, didn't you consider checking a map before revealing your complete ignorance on the subject? But thanks, it quickly illustrates that everything else you post on this subject is 95% BS. Florida also has the 300-mile FL Turnpike from near Ocala to the southern tip of the Miami area, Miami has 4 other toll roads, as does the Tampa/Lakeland area, and every freeway in Orlando but I-4 is a tollway. All 3 metro areas are in the top 15 in the country for raw growth (not percentage manipulations. My in-laws just moved in with my grandma on her farm, for a 200% population increase from 1 person to 3, should that count as the fastest growth in the country?) In fact in the last 6 years Florida has added more people than currently live in the entire state of Nevada, despite having numerous toll roads for years. You sure you want to claim Florida's economy was "Flattened" due to tollroads?
OBTW, Houston has had several toll roads and is in the top 10 in urban area growth. DFW has had tollways for awhile yet continues to year in and year out be in the top 3 in growth. Your claim that toll roads 'flatten' an economy is laughable.
Ohio has only one toll road system, the Ohio Turnpike, and Maine, as far as I know, has one turnpike, although there might be turnpike spurs from the mainline. The Pennsylvania turnpike system consists of a number of toll roads, not just the original turnpike itself.
