6/05/2008

TEXAS: Officials contemplate tolling neighborhood streets


Tyler Duvall, the top policymaker at the Department of Transportation, thinks we should start a toll tax on neighborhood roads.

By IAN McCANN and MICHAEL A. LINDENBERGER, Dallas Morning News

Highland Park's solution to unclogging traffic congestion on Mockingbird Lane: Make Dallas drivers pay for it.

Since most of the 18,000 drivers on the road each day cut through the town, officials are exploring a proposal to toll the road. Most local drivers would not be charged.

A plan is far from developed, but if it comes to pass, transportation experts say the stretch of Mockingbird between Hillcrest Avenue and Dallas North Tollway could become the first tolled surface street in the country. The concept, known as congestion pricing, was among dozens of ideas in an application last year in which Dallas Area Rapid Transit led a team of North Texas officials seeking part of a $1 billion federal grant program. It was aimed at finding innovative fixes for traffic-clogged streets in big cities.

Read the rest of the story HERE.

READ MY OPINION ABOUT VALUE PRICING/CONGESTION PRICING HERE.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

The right of every person, to have an equal and unencumbered ability to travel freely, is central to an economically healthy and prosperous society. Toll roads and managed lanes for are a direct affront to the personal and economic freedoms we enjoy. This is elitist class warfare against the masses.

Anonymous said...

Are they for real? If so, don't the TROLLS know that the people will start using a different route and congest somewhere else? Obviously the TROLLS have toll on the brain. I think a lobotomy is in order.

Sal Costello said...

Bush and Perry love those hidden double taxes!

Sal Costello said...

And, we can't forget our own Central Texas double tax snake Sen. Kirk Watson!

Anonymous said...

This idea is preposterous! Maybe we should pay a toll for toilet paper (by the square) every time we use a public restroom...maybe local government could charge joggers along Town Lake to use the path (extra fee for bringing your dog)...maybe the government could charge us a toll to walk down certain streets - like Sixth Street on Friday nights...

Give me a f***ing break!

Anonymous said...

Tyler Duvall even has the look of an A-hole.

Anonymous said...

The only consolation that I can take from this is that it is FAR-REACHING. I believe that the demise of tollers will be that they are drunk with power and don't know when to stop. Their far-reaching tactics will ultimately be their demise as they dig ever deeper into the average Texans pocket. The result? A groundswell of public support from people, previously oblivious to thier tactics, to throw the bums to the curb. It may not happen very soon, but it WILL happen.

flyboy said...

Looks like the marijuana crop came in early this year. Too bad it was tainted. Not only are these folks on drugs, they are on bad drugs.

Keep hittin' 'em Sal!

flyboy

Anonymous said...

TxDOT grants for such assinine "studies" is not only another squandering example of taxpayer funds but also blatant cavalier payola (akin to mis-accounted $1.2 billion) to consorting trolling cronies -- substantive funds collected for actual transportation infrastructure instead fritted frivously away among special interests influence peddlers.