Toll roads are one of the neatest propaganda tricks that government ever created. Often, toll roads are sold to an uninformed electorate as an item that will pay for itself over time.
What government DOESN’T want people to know about them is that they never get paid off and remain an additional bureaucracy. Despite the cliams to the contrary, tax dollars are initially used to fund the construction of the toll road and, once it is built, the money the road generates is supposed to be repaid to the taxpayers.
It usually isn’t because the bureaucracy in charge of the toll roads finds ways to spend the revenue on themselves. But, the worst trick about toll roads is that drivers who use the road get to pay extra to sit in the eventual traffic jam versus the drivers on the non-toll roads.
There are exceptions. The Dallas-Fort Worth tollway (now I-30) eventually became free once the bonds were paid off, after a fight over extending the tolls, if I remember correctly. Kentucky’s system of parkways (parts of which are now I-69) were once tolled, but are now free. The last ones became free just a few years ago.
So, no, they aren't a trick ~ they're just the price you pay to get the road you want.
I-95 at Richmond, Va was built as a toll road.
Removing the tolls was a big mistake.
Local people bought a book of tickets and paid a dime to ride it. Yankees passing through paid almost a buck LOL!
Hmmmm .... yes.
That explains why I-95 through Richmond is still a toll road. And I-264 from Norfolk to Virginia Beach is still a toll road. And why the Elizabeth River Tunnels in Norfolk are still toll facilities.
Nope. Tolls never get lifted.
Never ever.
But, the worst trick about toll roads is that drivers who use the road get to pay extra to sit in the eventual traffic jam versus the drivers on the non-toll roads.
Yep. The Dulles Greenway and Dulles Toll Road are far and away the abolute most crowded, parking-lot at rush hour roads in all of northern Virginia. They're FAR worse than I-66 and I495.