Letter to the Muckraker: ~A Personal Run-In With A Toll Booth~

Letter to the Muckraker, from George:

First of all, Sal ...

Bless you for your tireless efforts at keeping these road robbers in line! Without you and your group, these thugs would absolutely, positively toll every pig trail in Texas.

But I also wanted to share a personal experience I had this Sunday morning as I exited MoPac at Wells Branch Parkway, which you have likely already heard about.

I have lived in the Austin area since Jan 1st, 1975 ... now 32 years. And I have traveled that same road since it was first constructed, turning onto Howard Lane from MoPac, before it was even MoPac ! (Of course it was first North Burnet Road). But imagine my surprise when I took the usual Wells Branch exit off of MoPac, to find this time, a little white sign above the exit marker, indicating "Pay Toll".

Imagine my confusion when I took the exit anyway, assuming it to be a mistake, since I could already clearly see the stop lights of the intersection just past what I now realized was indeed a TOLL BOOTH ! No way were they expecting me to pay a toll to take an exit which I'd already been using for a quarter century or more ... an exit to a street just some 100 feet or so in the distance ! In plain sight already ! And for sure I would have taken the same exit anyway, if only to AVOID the tollway, still some distance ahead. But sure enough, here I am at a toll booth .... expected to shell out a half dollar just to take a 100-foot drive up to my turn. Was I PISSED ?? ! ! ! You BET I WAS PISSED ! !

And I'm STILL PISSED ! !

I paid that damned 50 cents ... but it's the last nickel the toll road commission will ever siphon from MY pocket. And you can bet that I'll fight these robbers with my dieing breath, not because of the 50 cents loss, but because of the method of extraction used by them to get it. I will be taking names and paying close attention to every newsletter you send. And let me know what I can do to help return our highways to our citizens.

George