Texas is doing a horrible job with toll roads.
Nobody wants to pay money to drive on a road when there is a perfectly good
free one. It seems lately toll roads are popping up everywhere. With a new toll
road comes the increase moodier people.
Sitting
in morning traffic at eight am while they build a toll road right next to you
with people bumper to bumper and reduced speed limit signs has created severe
road rage in drivers. People are tired of sitting an extra 10-15 minutes because
the government is building a road you have to pay on. So when the opportunity
comes for you to go you scream at anyone who threatens to place you five
seconds behind where you were.
Continuing
to build toll roads would be a great idea if the state was making money of it! They
are spending a lot of money to build a road without making profit from it. Over
27 million dollars has been issued in unpaid toll violations. Texas needs to
stop and evaluate, the profits or losses need to be assessed to see if, maybe,
they should stop building more toll roads for people to drive on for free.
Texas
needs to create stricter punishments for those who decide to ignore their toll
bill. One way for people to get rid of their toll bill could be through
community service. They could perform tasks like: picking up trash, working at
a food bank, or working at a state/ public facility. You could arrest that
person for so many days but that would cost even more money having to feed them
daily. However, something needs to be done.
Toll
roads and road rage are paving themselves for the future. In 50 years every
road will be a toll road with even angrier drivers than before.
I think this post is kind of a fun topic really, though not necessarily fun for the people that have to deal with toll roads. I've been all over the U.S in the places that I've lived in, but I haven't been in Texas for long. So far, I've been able to diagnose a few things about the toll roads here:
ReplyDelete1. They're inconveniently placed (Either they're in a direction that nobody is going, or they funnel cars to such a degree that they create traffic).
2. They're not priced high enough (A whole dollar to go on the toll road? The problem with having such a low price is the fact that people are less likely to pay because there's no financial ramifications).
3. There aren't enough to justify the roads or a pass (I know of two toll roads, as I've only been here for a few months, the 183A and the 45. I have also heard of getting a pass which allows a person to travel the toll roads unlimited amount of times for x amount per month).
For these reasons, I agree with Lauren. The toll roads here are not executed in a logical, or fiscally responsible, way. It is possible to fix the situation by addressing any one, preferably all three, of my reasons. In this way the Austin toll road system may still be salvaged.