are you guy against of for the tolls roads

[cool hand]

??

[Ignignokt]

I'm against people of for the toll roads, but i don't mind toll roads.

[baseline bum]

yes

[Michael Brown]

I'm in favor of troll roads. How else are they going to get around on the information highway?

[ChumpDumper]

Ok with new toll roads if they are in the right places, against tolling existing roads.

[Bender]

I'll go out of my way to avoid any toll roads they stick in SA

[sook]

i love paying the toll. All that stupid change in my car screams for being spent. I think its a mutualistic relationship between the toll and i

[fyatuk]

No way they should ever toll existing roads. And I'm okay with a few toll roads, but I think TXDot has gone crazy with how heavy they are pushing on them.

[boutons_]

Tolls are meant to raise funds for road maintenance, esp for heavily travelled/degraded roads, iow, intercity roads, which are mainly Interstate roads.

Tolls are not usually applied to metro area roads, although Dallas has at least one.

Spending $10Bs to build a road (which is really a gift to the road builders and their lobbyists) so you can apply a toll to it is stupid. I bet if you dig deep enough, Perry and his fellow-travelling TX Congressionals who are pushing for new roads are all on the take from road builders who have "captured" the politicians.

Applying a toll to congested IH35 between Round Rock and Dallas to pay for a badly needed 3rd or 4th lane makes a lot of sense.

Another reason for tolls is to charge non-state users of the roads for their usage. In TX, that would be the enormous number of tractor trailors tearing up the TX Interstates to/from MX while transitting TX.

If I had to pay a toll for, I'd expect the road to be of very high quality (ie, smooth as glass today and essentially forever), not the lowest-bidder washboard shit we have now and that people, dumbed down by low-quality roads as "normal", accepted without complaint. As always, the (road-buliding) corps deliver the shittiest product for the highest price. And if the road is, goes to, shit, guess who pockets more $Bs to fix it? The road-builders have a vested interest in delivering a shitty product.

[johnsmith]

Tolls are meant to raise funds for road maintenance, esp for heavily travelled/degraded roads, iow, intercity roads, which are mainly Interstate roads.

Tolls are not usually applied to metro area roads, although Dallas has at least one.

Spending $10Bs to build a road (which is really a gift to the road builders and their lobbyists) so you can apply a toll to it is stupid. I bet if you dig deep enough, Perry and his fellow-travelling TX Congressionals who are pushing for new roads are all on the take from road builders who have "captured" the politicians.

Applying a toll to congested IH35 between Round Rock and Dallas to pay for a badly needed 3rd or 4th lane makes a lot of sense.

Another reason for tolls is to charge non-state users of the roads for their usage. In TX, that would be the enormous number of tractor trailors tearing up the TX Interstates to/from MX while transitting TX.

If I had to pay a toll for, I'd expect the road to be of very high quality (ie, smooth as glass today and essentially forever), not the lowest-bidder washboard shit we have now and that people, dumbed down by low-quality roads as "normal", accepted without complaint. As always, the (road-buliding) corps deliver the shittiest product for the highest price. And if the road is, goes to, shit, guess who pockets more $Bs to fix it? The road-builders have a vested interest in delivering a shitty product.

You do know that the "road builders" as you call them, have to build these things to TxDot specs don't you? The "normal" low-quality roads you are talking about are called "old" where I'm from.............you know what, nevermind, you're an idiot.

[Bartleby]

If I had to pay a toll for, I'd expect the road to be of very high quality (ie, smooth as glass today and essentially forever), not the lowest-bidder washboard shit we have now and that people, dumbed down by low-quality roads as "normal", accepted without complaint.

If only that were the case. Ever drive I-95 outside NYC? Tolls out the ass and it's still a perpetual mess.

[ChumpDumper]

Toll roads 45 and 1 in Austin are in great shape now. We'll see if they last.

[Blake]

I'd like to see the plans of where the toll roads will be in SA before I say yes or no.

[bobbybob0]

Most of the highways in France are toll roads.

Initially it was meant to be a 20 to 30 years concession for the companies that built the highways but it has been extended to almost lifetime concessions.

Now the investiments have all been reimbursed but the highways remain fucking expensive: 40 euros for a 500km ride (roughly 300 miles) on some of the most expensive segments.

On the other hand, French highways are some of the best maintained roads but they are awfully expensive and everything you buy (gas, food, drinks...) comes at a premium (10% for the highway company maintaining the road).

You don't want toll roads.

[coyotes_geek]

I don't have a problem with toll roads. We need new roads and until the legislature is willing to hike the gas tax tolls are the only way we can fund them.

[LnGrrrR]

??

I'm for not skewering the English language to the point of unrecognizability, for what it's worth.

[byrontx]

I suspect the current TxDot push to have more to do with typical Texas "bidness" of channeling money into politicians pockets and the Perry campaign chest (he is going to get whipped anyway) than any real attempt to enhance transportation. I would rather that we pumped up the tax on fuel since it has the side benefits of stimulating conservation and depriving terrorists of oil dollars. Furthermore, that provides flexibility in policy that being locked into long-term contracts (with Perry's Spanish partners) that will outlast the current group of politicians that will profit it.

[Extra Stout]

A toll road is good it if allows for its own construction by funding the bonds to build it years earlier than sufficient tax revenue might be collected.

The reason American roads suck compared to good European roads is because the engineering specs for the roadbed, the pavement, and the drainage systems are much skimpier here than there.

[cool hand]

toll roads will keep the rift raft and losers out and only people with money (like me)will be able to use the road.....I like it,.