Fark toll roads.

Eloquent citizen needs to learn that entropy always wins in the end.

Boobies

It's never free money

I've got to agree with the citizenry of the Republic of Texas on this one. Using tax dollars to create roads that will tax people even more is... well. I can't think of the word. So I'll just go with:

Damnit it said it was unfetchable. And I didn't hotlink...
Lets try again.

Ok, I fail 2X.

[Insert image of Penn & Teller's Bullshiat logo.]

keithmccants: It's never free money

Don't tell that to the Obamatrons.

Free money is just too expensive nowadays.

/Channeling Yogi

i thought toll roads are built by our big business friends.

kewl,

use tax money to build the toll roads and then when the toll money starts coming in, then our business fukks will rake in the profits??


perfect!

TexASS is great!

Thanks, Grandpa Simpson...

/Now we know what state Springfield is in...
//Slashy slashy

Linux_Yes: i thought toll roads are built by our big business friends.

kewl,

use tax money to build the toll roads and then when the toll money starts coming in, then our business fukks will rake in the profits??


perfect!

TexASS is great!

Or the toll revenue will be used topay for state services. Just a thought.

Oh noes, using the stimulus money to generate jobs by building the toll roads then generating revenue to maintain said roads by charging a nominal fee. Plus, the money doesn't collect itself.
Texans are retarded

It's probably more for being able to track the citizenry with Easypass more than for the money.

Obviously, the answer to this dilemma is to cut taxes. Its the only way.

DubyaHater: Oh noes, using the stimulus money to generate jobs by building the toll roads then generating revenue to maintain said roads by charging a nominal fee. Plus, the money doesn't collect itself.
Texans are retarded

Yes, because ONLY Texans would biatch about that! I love how people act that any state would have dumber citizens then any of the other dumbass states. Get over yourself moran! Somehow I doubt someone from North Carolina can really talk smack about Texas and the intelligence of the people.

It sounds like an idea worth considering to me.

DubyaHater: revenue to maintain said roads by charging a nominal fee

I'm unaware of any toll road maintained solely with the money collected on it. Also, it's not like they're maintained any better or resurface/rebuilt any more often.

Oh and like someone said in the article comment section, why not build more damn light rail? That is a better investment then some BS toll road. Texas has enough highways, how about they ease traffic with something the people might actually want?

TheJoe03: DubyaHater: Oh noes, using the stimulus money to generate jobs by building the toll roads then generating revenue to maintain said roads by charging a nominal fee. Plus, the money doesn't collect itself.
Texans are retarded

Yes, because ONLY Texans would biatch about that! I love how people act that any state would have dumber citizens then any of the other dumbass states. Get over yourself moran! Somehow I doubt someone from North Carolina can really talk smack about Texas and the intelligence of the people.

*checks profile*

You ain't helping your cause here, Joe.

At least the Texas Legislature didn't propose using the money to build a light rail system in Houston. Now THAT would caused a REAL fight.

//Houstonians want a rail system ... just not in front of THEIR house.

unyon: TheJoe03: DubyaHater: Oh noes, using the stimulus money to generate jobs by building the toll roads then generating revenue to maintain said roads by charging a nominal fee. Plus, the money doesn't collect itself.
Texans are retarded

Yes, because ONLY Texans would biatch about that! I love how people act that any state would have dumber citizens then any of the other dumbass states. Get over yourself moran! Somehow I doubt someone from North Carolina can really talk smack about Texas and the intelligence of the people.

*checks profile*

You ain't helping your cause here, Joe.

I don't care. How intelligent are you if you judge people solely on Fark profiles?

thatmanfromtexas: At least the Texas Legislature didn't propose using the money to build a light rail system in Houston. Now THAT would caused a REAL fight.

//Houstonians want a rail system ... just not in front of THEIR house.

Amusingly enough, one of my friends who goes to Rice managed to t-bone one of those light rail trains. No one was hurt (thankfully), but that was easily one of the most poorly thought out public transportation projects in recent history.

WhyteRaven74: DubyaHater: revenue to maintain said roads by charging a nominal fee

I'm unaware of any toll road maintained solely with the money collected on it. Also, it's not like they're maintained any better or resurface/rebuilt any more often.


Why would a toll road be repaired more often? Roads should be repaired based on cost/benefit analysis of whether its worth fixing now or waiting longer.

I don't know of you meant it to sound this way, but by expecting the roads to be repaired more often if they are toll roads it sounds like you are implying that toll roads have more money spent on them than normal roads.

I imagine a normal road costs X dollars to repair, as does a toll road of the same variables. The toll road collects A from tolls and uses B from other taxes to get to X. The normal road uses B from taxes, where B=X

At least, thats how it SHOULD work.

Now, I like toll roads in that they distribute the cost of the road usage more evenly, but I don't like slowing down to pay, and I don't like the potential costs in maintaining the toll booths and operation costs of things. I don't know the exact numbers on how much additional cost the toll adds to the operation. Still, assuming it isn't terribly high, people should be in FAVOR of toll roads, because they tax the user, not the rest of people. In theory anyways.

God, this sounds stupid enough for Penna. to do.

Use tax dollars to build a toll road to tax you, while driving on the gas that is taxed at 14%. To go to the gov's new gambling parlors which used tax dollars. And probably just to gouge normal people a little more than usual....if you happen to take your family on a local vaca with a pop-up camper or small trailer.... he would hit you with a double toll.

Higher taxes means less investment. More tolls means more stress on wage earners.

Smackledorfer: Roads should be repaired based on cost/benefit analysis of whether its worth fixing now or waiting longer

They should be repaired based upon their condition. And since at least in theory toll roads should have more money they shouldn't degrade to the same state as other roads.

WhyteRaven74: DubyaHater: revenue to maintain said roads by charging a nominal fee

I'm unaware of any toll road maintained solely with the money collected on it. Also, it's not like they're maintained any better or resurface/rebuilt any more often.

Allow me to introduce you to the Kansas Turnpike, which is one of the finest highways you'll ever drive on. Not only is all maintenance funded solely through tolls collected from users, but it is meticulously maintained. It's probably the smoothest ride on the planet. Even in a state widely regarded as having by far the best roads in the region (I'm looking at you Nebraska, Missouri, Oklahoma, and Colorado), it stands out as a particularly nice one.

So if we give you free money, you biatch that we're going into debt.

But... if you give you money on the cavaet that you pay it back so we won't be in debt... you biatch.

Damned if you do, damned if you don't I guess.

Meanwhile, Americans from every other state are upset they have to deal with Texans.

WhyteRaven74: DubyaHater: revenue to maintain said roads by charging a nominal fee

I'm unaware of any toll road maintained solely with the money collected on it. Also, it's not like they're maintained any better or resurface/rebuilt any more often.

Rather the opposite from my experience on the IL tollroads and others. They are built fairly well and high quality but almost no upkeep is done so you get the farking cobblestone road of a highway with a 55 mph speedlimit.

As a Texan I agree wholeheartedly with the comment from the article. Keep in mind that when the tollroad authorities here claim it will only cost 12-15 cents a mile that that adds up quite quickly when you drive it for 50+ miles a day in a state as large as Texas

In before steers and queers.

Grand Parkway to be a toll road. Hey, thats one way to keep poor people out of the neighborhood.....

Outshined_One:
Amusingly enough, one of my friends who goes to Rice managed to t-bone one of those light rail trains.

I went to school there 20 years ago. And I'm likely going back this fall.

/Houston scares me, still....

You'd think the free market types would be all for toll roads.

WhyteRaven74: Smackledorfer: Roads should be repaired based on cost/benefit analysis of whether its worth fixing now or waiting longer

They should be repaired based upon their condition. And since at least in theory toll roads should have more money they shouldn't degrade to the same state as other roads.

Your first sentence doesn't agree with your last. Either the condition is the primary thing, or the amount of money that is budgeted to the road is the primary thing.

I get it, paying a toll is an annoying process. It seems to me that that you don't have a real argument against toll roads. Why on earth should a toll road be repaired more often than it needs to be just because it is a toll road? The point of the toll is to provide an alternate form of revenue to the standard taxes that go towards fixing roads. You seem to be operating on the premise that the point of the toll is to provide an ADDITIONAL form of revenue and that the toll road gets all the money a normal road does + that of the toll booths.

If that is true then I stand corrected, but I highly doubt that is the case. So I'm going to once again request you clarify your complaint.

The toll road should either:
1. Get more money total and spend that additional money on repairs.
or
2. Get the same money total and be in the same state of repair (minus what is hopefully a minor cost to the operation of the toll process itself).

You seem to be claiming that they get more money total, and that the additional money is wasted and somehow disappears. I don't buy it, and if that really is your claim, then 'citation needed'

MORE farking toll roads? OHH FARK YOU!


Why are we being triple taxed to drive? Sometimes more? Hell our farking idiot mayor in Austin added 1/2 a billion dollars in cops to one farking road (a block from me) to "reduce crime". He added nothing but radar cycle cops to catch speeders and write more tickets. BUT there are more farking drug and violence crimes on Rundberg than ever, but hey least the speeders are being caught!fark you, fark austin, I farking hate what this farking city has become and now i'm too farking broke to leave. God I farking hate this place now. If I didnt have a farking family

I need a farking drink.

While we are on the subject, is there any person out there, anyone at all, who thinks life would be better for them if the government stayed out of the road building business altogether?

I see nothing but complaints from people when they have to detour for repairs. I see nothing but complaints when the roads are bad. I see nothing but complaints when the states say it costs X to fix the roads and they just don't have that much money.

I'll come right out and say it: I'm damn glad that someone built the roads I drive on. The cost savings to me in terms of repairs on my automobile is a good thing. The freedom to travel without it being a pita is phenomenal. It improves my ability to choose where I shop and thus assists in keeping costs down by increasing competition.

I can't think of a good reason that anyone, from the libertarian to the socialist, would be against the government handling the job of road creation and maintenence. That doesn't mean that there doesn't exist plenty of room to criticize money spent on roads when it is done without reason or inefficiently. But it does mean that the complainers should be able to give proof of how it is inefficient or why the new road is a bad thing.

Smacky the Frog: I've got to agree with the citizenry of the Republic of Texas on this one. Using tax dollars to create roads that will tax people even more is... well. I can't think of the word. So I'll just go with:

They're using the money to build the roads, which employs people -- the stated purpose of the stimulus bill. Then, once the roads are built, only the people who use the road will pay for its upkeep -- as opposed to "public" roads whose upkeep is paid for by everyone's taxes. What exactly is wrong with this?

orclover: MORE farking toll roads? OHH FARK YOU!

So don't drive on the toll road. Then you never have to pay for it. Problem solved.

orclover: MORE farking toll roads? OHH FARK YOU!


Why are we being triple taxed to drive? Sometimes more? Hell our farking idiot mayor in Austin added 1/2 a billion dollars in cops to one farking road (a block from me) to "reduce crime". He added nothing but radar cycle cops to catch speeders and write more tickets. BUT there are more farking drug and violence crimes on Rundberg than ever, but hey least the speeders are being caught!fark you, fark austin, I farking hate what this farking city has become and now i'm too farking broke to leave. God I farking hate this place now. If I didnt have a farking family

I need a farking drink.



Your money is no good here, sir.

Phaid: Smacky the Frog: I've got to agree with the citizenry of the Republic of Texas on this one. Using tax dollars to create roads that will tax people even more is... well. I can't think of the word. So I'll just go with:

They're using the money to build the roads, which employs people -- the stated purpose of the stimulus bill. Then, once the roads are built, only the people who use the road will pay for its upkeep -- as opposed to "public" roads whose upkeep is paid for by everyone's taxes. What exactly is wrong with this?

Tax money creating something that will tax people more.

Smacky the Frog: They're using the money to build the roads, which employs people -- the stated purpose of the stimulus bill. Then, once the roads are built, only the people who use the road will pay for its upkeep -- as opposed to "public" roads whose upkeep is paid for by everyone's taxes. What exactly is wrong with this?

Tax money creating something that will tax people more.

Then you should be opposed to non-toll roads rather than toll ones. Maintenance of non-toll roads is paid for through taxes, which causes people to be taxed more whether they use the road or not. Tolls are not a tax; you can avoid paying them by not driving on them. On the other hand, a toll road benefits even the people who don't use it, by reducing congestion on neighboring non-tolled roads.

Again, using stimulus money to build toll roads is a win-win. It allows the stimulus money to create jobs as intended, without increasing the long-term tax burden on the state.

TheJoe03: DubyaHater: Oh noes, using the stimulus money to generate jobs by building the toll roads then generating revenue to maintain said roads by charging a nominal fee. Plus, the money doesn't collect itself.
Texans are retarded

Yes, because ONLY Texans would biatch about that! I love how people act that any state would have dumber citizens then any of the other dumbass states. Get over yourself moran! Somehow I doubt someone from North Carolina can really talk smack about Texas and the intelligence of the people.

Yeah! God, if we liked roads, we would have asked for them! I don't have to pay tolls for going on the roads near my house, so why the hell would I pay tolls on other roads! We are intelligence people, dadgummit!

Truncks1: Yes, because ONLY Texans would biatch about that! I love how people act that any state would have dumber citizens then any of the other dumbass states. Get over yourself moran! Somehow I doubt someone from North Carolina can really talk smack about Texas and the intelligence of the people.

Funny. The Raleigh, NC area has the highest per capita percentage of PhDs in the country. They're building one toll road now and in the planning stages of several others, and the people there overwhelmingly support them.

Lumi: Fark toll roads.

Yeah roads should fall out of the sky for free and other people should pay for my driving habits.

It's the American way!

Another alternative is to raise the gas tax to cover the cost of road building.

netcentric: More tolls means more stress on wage earners.

Unless the choose not to use them.

Phaid: Truncks1: Yes, because ONLY Texans would biatch about that! I love how people act that any state would have dumber citizens then any of the other dumbass states. Get over yourself moran! Somehow I doubt someone from North Carolina can really talk smack about Texas and the intelligence of the people.

Funny. The Raleigh, NC area has the highest per capita percentage of PhDs in the country. They're building one toll road now and in the planning stages of several others, and the people there overwhelmingly support them.

From what I hear, Raleigh and the nearby area don't really belong in North Carolina. Not that I have any beef with NC. It's South Carolina that sucks.

WhyteRaven74: I'm unaware of any toll road maintained solely with the money collected on it. Also, it's not like they're maintained any better or resurface/rebuilt any more often.

Pennsylvania Turnpike

Garden State Parkway

I'm sure there are more.

JammerJim: From what I hear, Raleigh and the nearby area don't really belong in North Carolina. Not that I have any beef with NC. It's South Carolina that sucks.

That's possible; my only experience with NC is the Raleigh area. It's one of the nicest places I've ever spent time in; nice clean modern cities, roads that aren't overcrowded, lots of culture and highly educated people, and cheap housing aplenty. If I had the chance, I'd move there in a heartbeat.