Off the topics of domains, but a thought I wrtie about a trend I’m seeing around the US, which may effect everyone of you in the NEAR future, is paying to use previously free interstate highways.
In Miami a month ago, the state took the two left lanes of I-95 and blocked them off, restricting their use to those having a “Sun Pass”, an electronic toll collector which was used for previously to pay the tolls on toll roads without using cash.
This left 3 lanes for use for free on the busy federal interstate road.
The toll road runs for about 7 miles from downtown Miami, through Miami, a highly congested area.
The toll varies between $.25 and $6.25, depending on the time of day and how bad traffic is.
So if your riding out at 1am you will pay $.25 to drive in the 2 left lanes. If you in the mist of rush hour, in bumper to bumper traffic, your going to pay anywhere from $2.65-$6.25 for the privilege of not waiting in traffic.
In taking the two left lanes for the pay as you go Sun Pass, it reduced the free lanes down to three, making the free lanes even more congested, making the pay to drive option even more desirable.
A state run, self fulfilling prophecy.
Find a high traffic area, make it worse and charge people more to avoid the traffic.
Nice.
In removing the 2 revious free lanes, the government took away the HOV lanes which was automatically opened to all vehicles carrying 2 or more persons, Hybrid cars, and some other approved vehicles. (some of these can still ride in the paying lanes for free, but you must apply, and be pre approved)
My first thought was how is this legal.
I mean federal highways, interstates, were build with tax money and previously always free, as opposed to a toll road or a bridge built with the issuance of government bonds which are to be paid back from the tolls from users. Makes me wish I had my own “Boston Legal” type law firm at my disposal to fight all these issues that appear to violate the law. (although in the last episode of the series, the mythical law firm went broke, so maybe that’s not such a good idea)
If you think this is a one trick pony issue, restricted to Miami, think again.
As tax revenues decline all over the country as sales tax collections are down because people are spending less, property taxes are down as real estate loses value and developers put on the brakes, expect government to become more creative to try to get into your pocket.
Doing a little research I see plans are now underway all over the country to take former HOV lanes and convert them into pay as you go roadways, including Atlanta, Denver, Pennsylvania, and Texas, just to name a few.
To go even further, in Oregon they have been testing a system to tax drivers based on the number of miles they drive instead of how much gas they use, by installing GPS monitoring devices in vehicles. Though the GPS devices did not track the cars’ locations in specific detail, it did track when a driver had left certain zones, and kept track of the time the driving was done, so a premium could be charged for rush-hour mileage.
The federal government is also looking into going to a mileage tax, rather than a gasoline tax, as drivers use more fuel-efficient and electric vehicles.
Governors in Idaho and Rhode Island have considered systems that would require drivers to report their mileage when they register vehicles.
In North Carolina last month, a panel suggested charging motorists a quarter-cent for every mile as a substitute for the gas tax.
James Whitty, the Oregon Department of Transportation employee in charge of the state’s effort, said he’s also heard talk of mileage tax proposals in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Florida, Colorado and Minnesota.
“There is kind of a coalition that’s naturally forming around this,” he said.
So as we follow what the government tells us, which is to conserve gas, buy more fuel efficient vehicles, the same government is already planning a way to dig deeper into your pocket to compensate them for your increased efficiency.
Doesn’t quite seem “American” does it?
Yes folks another piece of that America Dream is dying, or at least getting more expensive.
I would rather pay more income tax than inconveniences like this… It’s just another hidden tax.
Miami went bankrupt years ago, hence Miami-Dade. The irony of cash strapped, poorly managed/corrupt cities like Miami and New York is their high taxes. The higher the local taxes go, the greater the corruption and the larger the city deficits become. Taxes do have their place in society, but that place is not the pockets of officials, its in services for the citizenry.
I’d be interested in how that is legal too. The taxpayers already paid for the interstates and $6.25 each way isn’t a trivial amount. When gas being $4 a gallon helped bring on the biggest reduction in consumer spending in decades and tanked the economy, then adding a new “tax” even higher than the cost of driving 30 miles at $4 gas is short sighted and stupid. I doubt anyone is on i-95 stuck in traffic at peak times because they enjoy the experience, they’re there to get to work, to generate income, that they can spend, generating sales taxes. Someone having to spend $13 a day extra to get to work has to cut that expense out elsewhere.
This year has been a real eye-opener for things we always suspected, but now have confirmed. Our taxes are being used to give hundreds of billions of dollars to insolvent companies. The only reason we haven’t seen massive social unrest (yet) is because of the change of administration – there’s really no point when those responsible will be out in 3 weeks. Everywhere I turn the middle/working classes are being screwed to keep the top 1% fat and it’s not going to end well.
They did it here in Houston as well. I-10, a major highway, was turned into a hybrid “dynamic fee” road from Katy to Houston, a very congested span of road. The road was free forever.
They re-opened it late 2008, but I havent been there since they changed it.
I believe it is EZ Tag only, which means there are no manned toll booths. There is an electronic sticker you put on your car that the unmanned booths scan when you pass through them.
The next step, though no one has publicly said or admitted it, is to ticket speeders using the time it takes to go from one booth to the next. If the booths are 5 miles apart and it takes you 4 minutes to go from one to another, then they’ll know you were doing 75 and issue a ticket in the mail. You can’t argue it, it’s simple math.
They’ll know this now because of the electronic EZ Tag.
Scott
I believe you are correct on the speeding issue.
i know when I visited the Scottsdale AZ area they have radar detectors and cameras installed on the highway, so if you speed the unmanned speed detectors trigger the camera which takes a picture of the radar speed and your license plate and they mail you a ticket.
BIG BROTHER
No joke
Toll is the future, sad but that’s what is going to happen on all Interstates. Living inside the European Union I have been used to it.
Germany, Austria and Italy all have toll to use there Interstates when being a visitor. So if you have a German license plate and want to drive to Austria you pay toll in Austria. Same rule in Italy. In Germany only trucks have to pay toll.
This could also apply in driving from State to State inside the U.S. I don’t think it’s right being a State resident and paying taxes let’s say in Florida and then paying Toll to use the Interstate.
For example 1 gallon of gas in Germany cost 3.79 Euro that’s about 5,30 Dollars ( lowest price in the last 5 Years) The Government has taxes each gallon with 2,90 Euro ( 4.06 Dollars) the taxes are not used for keeping roads in shape it’s a Ecologic tax.
The roads are financed by Vehicle Tax. Depending on the size of motor in your vehicle you are taxed. For example a Honda Civic in Germany will run you about 280 Dollars. Taxes per year are about 18 Dollars per ccm.
So be sure similar is coming to the United States and you can thank those with 10 maxt out credit cards and living on depth with a Mercedes in the garage, 7 Bedroom house, a 62 inch widescreen and not a dollar to there name.
Duane
Well here you pay the toll if you live here or don’t, and because all these toll are now just electronic, with no toll collectors, if your a visitor you pretty much have no option to use the fast lanes and pay the toll, since you won’t have a pass.
So visitors, especially here in Florida where there are always are ton, have no choice but to be stuck in traffic, in fewer lanes, while the toll come from pretty much 100% of the time from locals
Thanks MHB,
I pretty much know that because i visit Florida about once every 2 years. I was just giving examples of what might be coming to the US in the future.
Of course you never see the statement so you have no idea that it’s a variable toll! And to make matters worse you can only get access into the lanes off or before one exit way back toward downtown, so if you come from north Miami, it’s no longer even an option. Abd to think we were inconvenienced for three years while they built this. I remember a 3-hour delay a year ago on a Sunday when they were just putting the signs up over the highway and make everyone on exit to a stop light then have to curve through the city to find a way back on further north.
I find this pretty distressing as well. You might check out the National Motorists Association – http://www.motorists.org/
They are the only group I know of whose primary mission is to fight this type of nonsense. I don’t agree with all of their positions, but that’s probably a given with any special interest group. I’ve been a member for years.
Big Government certainly has become as “American” as apple pie in the last half century. With the exiting Republican administration doing nothing to constrain the size of our bloated government (rather, EXPANDING it greatly), and with the liberal Obama administration coming for the next 4 (8?) years, it’s only going to get worse imo.
It makes me want to scream l like Mel Gibson at the end of Braveheart:
FREEEEEDOOOOOOM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Shoji,
….”doing nothing to constrain the bloated government?” They did far worse, they made it more bloated! So now we will get “the change we need”. Clearly…..
Up here in the D.C. area, they call them Hot Lanes. Which bring along steep prices. Since they ‘re replacing the High Occupancy Vehicle (HOV Lanes) with the High Occupancy Toll lanes.
We now live in a socialist country whether you want to admit it or not and Obama and the Democratic Congress haven’t even started yet.
Capitalism and your freedoms will be governed, regulated, monitored etc. First we had to give up our freedoms in the name of terrorism. Now we have to give our capitalism in the name of saving the middle class.
At least we have the internet… for now.
Reading through the article I was about to say just like Denver.
what we have now is a hybrid HOV/Pay road on I-25. if you are HOV you can go on it for free, or pay if you aren’t hov.
They are talking about taking the middle non-road section btwn the east/west sides of c-470 and building a road in that, to turn into pay as you go toll road.
luckly we don’t have anything like Miami where you can just shut down 2 lanes for payments…. but i wouldn’t put it past them
one more thing.
I do agree with the paying per mile that you drive part. Something needs to be done as MPG goes up on cars causing less revenue from that, vs the rising costs of building and maintaining the roads.