Posted on 07/29/2010 3:38:56 PM PDT by Willie Green
WASHINGTON - Anybody who uses the Dulles Greenway can tell you his commute is a costly one.
Rep. Frank Wolf, R-Va., wants to change that.
Wolf wrote a letter to Virginia Transportation Secretary Sean Connaughton, urging Connaughton to support state legislation to roll back the tolls along the Dulles Greenway.
"I have said it before and will say it again, this is highway robbery," Wolf said.
"The Greenway is perhaps the most expensive toll road per mile in the country. This is a quality of life issue for those people living along the Greenway or who use it on a daily basis."
In the letter to Connaughton, Wolf asks the transportation secretary "to consider supporting legislation that not only rolls back the previously approved toll increases, but provides consumers with greater protections as the state considers more public-private ventures to address the Commonwealth's transportation infrastructure... In my opinion, the current law protects the interests of the owner of the toll road rather than the consumers of the road."
Base tolls go as high as $4.50 per trip. Combined with the Dulles Toll Road, some drivers are paying $10.50 a day on tolls. Wolf says people who pay these maximum tolls are spending as much money to use the road as they would spend on a monthly car payment.
Toll revenue from the road is down, partly because commuters are using Route 28 as an alternative.
Wolf also wants the Macquerie Group, the Australian company that owns the road, to put up clear and recognizable signs before the main toll plazas. He wants drivers informed of the toll rates before they access the road.
Additionally, he wants to see Connaughton appoint a task force of citizens, Virginia General Assembly members and elected officials from Loudoun, Clarke and Frederick counties and Winchester to look for ways to make the Dulles Greenway more user-friendly.
Over $200 a month for the privilge of driving to and from work.
Use the free road.
Live in town.
Work outside town.
Move.
Stay.
Buy the road.
Free people have free will.
We have the Tollways here in North Dallas area too also a bit pricey. They do plant some nice greenery for the viewing pleasures——dammit give me the tall weeds and ratchet down on the coinage extortions.
Yes, it’s much better to pay it without realizing it via subsidies for rail lines...
That’s nothin’. You pay at least $7 to cross the Verrazano Bridge in NYC (one direction).
I-90 in Chicago can wind up being about $4 if you won’t use iPass.
The money line:
“Toll revenue from the road is down, partly because commuters are using Route 28 as an alternative.”
I made a choice to move my family further out and thankfully, I can pay for the privilege of using the Greenway. No one’s forcing anyone to take a toll road to get to places. If you don’t want to pay, there are plenty of roads to take into work. Yes, it may take a bit longer to get there, but you don’t have to pay out of your pocket to use it.
Privately built, privately maintained, privately owned. If a commuter considers his time worth the cost of the tolls, that is his decision. If a commuter wants to forgo the cost, there are several public roads available.
This of course is the exact opposite that you preach. You demand that everyone pay for the 'train', if we want to use it or not and then subsidize it's existence forever.
Sorry, can't afford to subsidize anything else. I'm currently contributing to the continued existence of the leaches of our society already.
There is no “free market” for private industry owning our roads and charging tolls to citizens who are forced to use those roads. This is a kooky libertarian idea that has to die.
Who is 'forcing' anyone to use this road?
Why do you think that someone or some company can not build, maintain, and if there is a market, charge to use the facility?
Don't want to pay for the use, take any other route that you desire. Roads leading into DC are plentiful.
The tolls are not out of line with combined Metrorail/Metroparking fees.
Besides, no one ever forced anyone to live out there ~ it's their own choice. I recall distinctly when you could go hunting EVERYWHERE along that route with highpowered rifles and not fear hitting any dwellings, or even an old rusty fence.
The landowners lobbied for the Toll Road at a time when Virginia had far higher priorities elsewhere.
The road got built. The value of the land skyrocketed. Development took place.
The burden of the cost of the road be upon them!
Who is forcing anyone to use the road? Maybe, it would be people who have to get to their jobs and to the store?
This is more private/public partnership fascism. Libertarians have to begin engaging their brains and rethinking in light of the economic crash and bankster bailouts. There should be a wall between business and public functions. Otherwise, both are corrupted and there is no free market - as we are seeing right now.
I know nothing about the area, but am curious: Who paid for this road? Taxpayers? If that's the case, you both need to remove your blinders and get an angry hardon.
OK, I learned a long time ago not to argue with the disturbed. Nice talking to you.
“Privately built, privately maintained, privately owned”
On land seized through eminent domain.If they can use gov tactics to build their “private” roads, they should be under gov restrictions as to what they charge. If on the other hand, these private companies buy land on the open market at the going rate, let them charge what they want
Hah Figment - great minds!
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