Posted on 04/17/2017 5:10:45 AM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
The region’s toll-road agency on Thursday will consider killing a big toll increase for drivers on its 109 miles of roads in the region.
A 15 percent toll increase slated for July 1 was set in motion years ago when the Central Florida Expressway Authority was struggling financially. Axing the hike would hold down driving costs for both frequent and occasional travelers on toll roads in the Orlando area.
Those using transponders and paying about $100 a month in tolls would be spared a total annual increase of nearly $200, according to the agency, while those who toss quarters into buckets would be spared a hike of 25 cents at typical toll plazas.
The move, if approved by the agency’s board, also would put in place annual increases beginning in July next year of 1.5 percent or an amount that reflects inflation.
“I do believe this sends a message to the Central Florida community that we are thinking customer first, toll payer first, and gaining that public trust back,” said Jay Madara, a board member who helped craft the proposal.
“It’s no secret the previous board was focused elsewhere as opposed to fiscal responsibility,” said Madara, chief financial officer for NBC’s Golf Channel, who was appointed to the agency board by Gov. Rick Scott in 2014.
In 2014, the toll-road agency was roiled by a corruption scandal that ultimately led to a bribery conviction and prison term for then-board member Scott Batterson.
In that same year, the Orlando-Orange County Expressway Authority was restructured as the Central Florida Expressway Authority. Staffers and board members since then have stressed a need to regain public trust.
(Excerpt) Read more at orlandosentinel.com ...
Hikes and un-hikes don’t mean a reduction in the number of toll plazas which appear every 100 yds. I’ve seen lower building density in Hong Kong.
I had a good laugh when traveling south on one toll road - if you didn’t have a transponder then the next cash exit was ‘only’ 54 miles away.
Taxes and tolls. Two constants in life. We have tolls in Richmond, VA that were supposedly only going to be in operation until something or other was paid for. That was 20 years ago and they’re still in operation.
Around here, there are no cash tollbooths left. It really isn’t cost effective to collect and process quarters, and it certainly isn’t cost effective to make change.
Florida ought to consider entering the 21st century if they are still collecting cash along the roadside.
Well that’s all well and good, but former congressman John Mica suddenly revearsed his decades long pledge to not allow tolls on our interstate highways. So I-4 is being rebuilt from Kissimmee to Daytona with a nice toll road in the center, which will have a sliding rate. When traffic is heavy it will cost more.
Gee, I wonder why the powerful and connected Mica got thrown out on his are?
A$$
But in an area heavily reliant on and visited by tourists, the likelihood of those tourists having a SunPass is much lower than the locals, rental cars equipped with SunPass notwithstanding.
If it’s not ‘cost effective’ to process hard currency then I submit that the pay-as-you-go system is unfit for purpose.
Actually, for now, the toll road in the middle of I-4 will only go through the Orlando area. However, there has been talk of extending it.
Has a US Toll Road ever reverted to a Non Toll freeway? I’m sure there is at least one example...somewhere
I lived in Orlando for forty years, from 1966 to 2006. When I left, the Greenway was 3/4 finished; the part between I-4 and West State Road 50 had just been completed.
Did they ever build the northwest part of the Greenway, which would have run through the Apopka area? If not, the stories about cash shortfalls and corruption posted here could explain why.
Personally, I prefer the name former Orlando Sentinel columnist Bob Morris proposed for the Greenway. Since a lot of the land it is on came from former orange groves, he suggested calling it the Fruit Loop.
Lucky you! Here in Kentucky we don’t have a single tollbooth or toll plaza. Years ago, ten major highways called “parkways” were built here, to connect parts of Kentucky where the Interstates won’t go. When you drive on them, they look a lot like Interstates, except that I can’t remember seeing any billboards alongside the roads. I understand they were toll roads originally, but the tollbooths were removed after the cost of building them had been paid.
When we arrived in Central Florida in 1986 the only toll roads were the BeeLine and of course the Turnpike. It was amazing to see the BeeLine Toll Authority actually tear down two toll stations in those days...the 0.10 toll in North Merritt Island/Cape Canaveral and the 0.25 toll at the Hwy 520 entrance. Apparently promises made to only keep the tolls up to meets the debt obligations and promises kept.
Now it’s just about revenue without regard to whatever the project costs were or even the ongoing maintenance.
“Has a US Toll Road ever reverted to a Non Toll freeway?”
They did in Kentucky. See what I wrote in message #11.
Wondered what ever happened to Bob. He was like a CFL Dave Barry and could be very funny/creative.
On further review...as of 2012 I see he's still writing...
http://www.newspaperalum.com/2012/08/from-living-on-a-kibbutz-to-newspaper-columnist-to-entrepreneur-and-novelist-a-road-well-travelled-f.html
Also you get to scam the Disney tourists by getting rid of cash. Rental car companies can charge huge rental fees for transponders, along with padded toll charges. The cheapest way for a one time tourist in a rental car to get through a toll is with cash. Another way Floriduh screws the Disney tourists.
In Louisiana the Sunshine Bridge over the Mississippi used to be a toll. When it was paid for, the toll was removed. The bridge was named after the singing governor, Jimmie Davis, who recorded, “You are My Sunshine”, the state song.
I was recently in Upstate NY. Interstate 90 in NY has tolls of a nickle a mile and is in worse shape than the stretch in Pennsylvania that I drove. Tolls do not benefit the road unless they are actually used for the road - might as well be a tax on oversize soda pop.
The northwestern part of the so-called Fruit Loop is underway. The stretch’s formal name is the Wekiva Parkway.
Richmond-Petersburg Turnpike in Virginia (I-95)
Georgia 400 (near Atlanta)
All the Kentucky parkways, parts of which are being turned into I-69.
You’re right. I didn’t mean to imply otherwise. Thanks for the clarification.
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