12/08/2005

Toll Road fails to cut congestion as promised

at 12/08/2005

1 comment:

Sal Costello said...

http://www.mysanantonio.com/opinion/letters/stories/MYSA121105.5H.tollfocus.1bba8670.html

MySA.com: San Antonio's news, sports & classified leader

Letters to the Editor
Focus: Toll Roads

Web Posted: 12/11/2005 12:00 AM CST

San Antonio Express-News

Citizens must fight back

The facts about toll roads:

1. Toll roads will result in fat re-election war chests for each politician who supports them.

2. Toll roads are a cop-out. If they are the only solution, those responsible for our roads (Texas Department of Transportation, politicians, judges, etc.) are allowed to proclaim their failure to provide proper roads as a victory. Toll roads do not force the Department of Transportation to find a solution to the problem.

3. Toll roads will not result in a single original route. You will get to drive the access roads for free or pay a toll for the roads already in place on the same routes. Sure, they will do a powder and paint makeover, but they will be the same roads, same location.

4. Toll roads will not make your cost of transportation decrease, nor will the amount of money spent on our taxable roads decrease. In fact, your tax dollars will be spent to start this whole project.

5. Toll roads are administered by non-elected people. They are appointed. Don't like them? Then you have no recourse as a voter.

Are you going to take this lying down, San Antonio? Go to www.texastollparty.com and get involved. Fight back before it is too late. After it is too late, I don't want to hear this town complaining.

— Mike Sisley, Schertz

Cheaper to raise gas tax

Re: Pat Driscoll's article "Toll roads will limit improvements to free roadways" (Dec. 4):

I am glad that one reporter has the wisdom to mention the disparity in what the Texas Department of Transportation has been proclaiming about toll road charges (14 cents a mile) vs. what its actual survey is stating (more like 39 cents a mile).

I was one of those fortunate few who took the online survey, and the survey stated I would pay $5.90 each way for about 20 miles of travel on Loop 1604. Can the average San Antonian afford $5.90 each way? Can he afford $4.90 or even $3.90 each way?

This survey reveals many things — most important, the politicians who have been proclaiming 10-14 cents a mile are way off in their estimates.

At $5.90 each way, we're talking about $260 a month, or more than $3,000 a year, just for work travel. Contrast this with the average San Antonian who uses 1,500 gallons of gas each year and pays $300 a year in gasoline tax revenues to the state, and people ought to start comprehending how expensive proposed toll roads will be.

I plead with fellow San Antonians to check the math and then call local and state politicians. Surprise them by telling them you would prefer they consider doubling the gasoline tax revenue vs. adding toll roads ($300 more a year is a lot cheaper than $3,000 a year).

— Dave Ramos

Delay dangerous to kids

Re: "Group sues to stop work on toll road" (Dec. 3):

The judges hearing the lawsuit against toll roads should keep in mind the safety of children on school buses and private cars when considering stopping the construction along U.S. 281 North.

School buses must travel along with commuters, with many heavy construction trucks and cement trucks mixed in to the bunch, all traveling at a high rate of speed of 50 mph.

Some neighborhoods along U.S. 281, north of Loop 1604, do not have access roads to get from one street to the next. Redland Road traffic, which includes three neighborhoods, a private school, local businesses, small farms and a future apartment complex, must enter U.S. 281 to take children to school, to doctors and to the grocery store. We must merge with 50 mph traffic.

San Antonians also will have to pay extra money for environmental studies that will delay construction, causing lost or hurt lives, insurance costs for accidents, plus extra cost for construction at future prices.

Please consider visiting this area of town. For one week, travel through these areas at peak hours, including lunch, and you will see how a delay in construction only puts children at risk.

I lived in Houston for many years, commuting one hour to work, but U.S. 281 traffic still scares me.

— Peggy Drogo

Need more openness

I respectfully disagree with County Judge Nelson Wolff's comments about the inevitability of toll roads in Bexar County.

I believe, as do many others, that the process involved in the creation of important infrastructure such as roads should be dealt with in a more open and honest way. I understand the forces of Big Business can be strong, but as an elected official in Bexar County, I would hope Wolff would be strong and demand openness and fairness in the whole process.

I promise I will work hard to support those I see as working for the people of Texas and not just the special interests. That means political action and votes.

Please do the right thing and stop telling citizens that something is inevitable if it's not even clear it is acceptable to the people of this county.

— Jeff Farren

Inevitable? Baloney!

Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff said toll roads are inevitable. To that I say: Baloney!

He and his big money, road-building handlers are not going to make me accept toll roads. I reject his argument that the toll roads will pay for road construction and road maintenance.

The state with the most toll roads, New Jersey, has some of the worst roads and traffic congestion. You can't move 15 minutes in that state without running (oops! bad choice of words — crawling) into a toll road.

Wolff and the rest of the city/county government will only find other ways to fleece us taxpayers. We already pay high property taxes and don't want to pay for the "privilege" of driving, too. I will fight him and the rest of his pro-toll-road gang.

Since he has baseball stadium named after himself, what's next? The Nelson Wolff Tollway? Not if we, the TexasTollParty, have anything to do with it.

— Santiago Tello

8:41 AM, December 11, 2005

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