A new coalition started up within the last week. The US tolling coalition is a diverse group of public- and private-sector transportation interests urging Congress to allow states more flexibility in tolling their Interstate highways. They believe the gas tax is not feasible anymore and we should allow the states an option of tolling the interstates. I do not believe this is going to work; the way Congress is divided right now and the way tolls would be collected (electronic device) people would not support it. The HOT lanes in Atlanta not working as planned is a good example. http://ustollingcoalition.com/ (http://ustollingcoalition.com/) :confused:
I tend to agree with giving states the option to toll Interstates that are currently free in order to rehabilitate, expand capacity, improve operations, or reduce safety hazards on those highways. Everybody complains how they don't want to pay tolls, gas taxes, sales taxes, etc.. but nobody has been able to provide other meaningful solutions to our looming infrastructure crisis. I think the more revenue options we provide states, the better chance we have to find some kind of compromise that will actually work.
I know that many opponents of tolling say that our tax dollars already paid for the Interstate system, so adding tolls now is like double taxation. However the tax dollars that were paid a generation or 2 ago were for a system that is now 40-60 years old (or more) designed with engineering standards that are also 40-60 years old to serve a much smaller population that drove a lot fewer miles. So if we say we shouldn't have to be charged a penny more for the Interstate highways means that we are basically stuck with our current highways forever until they collapse or are completely congested 18 hours a day.
Periodically, the USA has been faced with completely revamping our transportation systems. We went from foot trails to wagon trails to graded auto roads to paved auto roads to multi-lane roads to our first generation of limited access Interstates. In reality, we aren't being taxed again; were being asked to find a way to start paying for the next generation of the Interstate system that will last another 40-60 years. And hopefully we will also include realistic funding for continued preventive maintenance - it is always cheaper than waiting until the crisis point where we are faced with total replacement or impending failure.
Given the alternatives for raising revenue - GPS tax-by-mile or speed cameras - I'll take the tolls, thanks.
TOLLROADSnews:
E-ZPass, ATI, IBTTA commit to work together for national interoperability (http://www.tollroadsnews.com/node/5602)