Mobility Toll Road plan is wrong

This Toll Road plan just won't work. It is a quick and dirty way to build more roads, which will not releive any traffic congestion. You will just have to pay more to get to the traffic jam that much faster and put up with a lot more construction barrels for years to come.

If you think a new road will help, got drive Hwy 183 south into Austin. The traffic jams are still there, they just don't have to stop at the 620 light. Nobody gets to work any faster !

I know. I tried it on Thursday.

While I am DO support Toll Roads, this plan that the Mobility people are rushing through simply fails to solve their primary purpose ?– TO RELEIVE TRAFFIC CONGESTION.

Building more roads takes a lot of money and a lot of time, but this road way plan does nothing to encourage Car Pooling, Mass Transit, using low emissions fuels, alternative transportation (electric cars, rails, or elevated rapid transit).

And, their suggested allocation for bike paths is a pitiful 0.015% of the entire $6 billion budget?

I can't see any good reason for not jumping on bike paths for simple and effective solution that we can do today.

Think about just putting in bike lanes on the pipeline and major electric utility easements. Bikes work in Europe and Asia, and the can work here, but not on our roads. It's just not safe to ride a bike on a road with cars and trucks.

I lived in Sacramento way back in 1984. They have a first class bike route that is 50 miles long, and follows the American River, never crossing a single street. Their paths go UNDER all the roads and bridges, and it's 60 miles long!! It's paved all the way and it's the width of one standard car lane (12 feet).

That's something we can build today, without Federal money and Toll Roads.

Overhead rapid transit works, too. I love the Monorail, but I'd have to agree that it's too expensive and too big to be useful. Instead, we could build a much smaller scale system, using programmable overhead taxies. The are small, silent, and all electric. They only need a 16' elevated rail system, which would not go over the tree tops, and easily allow it to by-pass city streets. It would be hidden by most commercial buildings, coming in behind major shopping centers, and able to cover all of downtown and our Southwest Austin area, too Monorails and Commuter rails will never come this far west (past South Lamar).

Keep an eye on this technology, which will be introduced at the next OHAN meeting (www.acprt.org)

And help us defeat the current Toll Road plan.

(The Loop 45 and 130 roads are already taken care of - the new Toll Road plan doesn't affect those on-going projects at all. It's focused on the other major roads in Austin -- 360, MOPAC, and Hwy 183).

Think about this:

In as little as 3 years, you could be paying $10 in Tolls to drive from Circle C to the airport and back !!! Everything else will reflect that new tax - UPS deliveries, retail prices, groceries, taxies, flower delivery, and even the cost of gasoline.

The Mobile plan needs to be back to the CTRMA with a lot of guidance from CAMPO and comments from people like you!

Email Campo:

Email Campo:

campo@campotexas.org

Demand another hearing.
1 public hearing on something this big is a crime.

WHAT'S DIFFERENT?


WHAT'S DIFFERENT ABOUT THIS TOLL ROAD PLAN, AND HOW TOLL ROADS HAVE BEEN BUILT IN THE PAST?



Toll Roads, in the past were primarily built with Issuing bonds secured by TOLL REVENUE. This was a sound responsible, fair system to pay for the Toll Road.

TxDOT's new mobility plan uses Tax dollars to secure bonds to build toll roads.

From TxDOT 2001 TxDOT Review: ''In 1953 the Legislature created the original Texas Turnpike Authority (OTTA) as an independent entity, headquartered in Dallas, with statewide authority to build toll roads and bridges. The toll roads were to be financed by revenue bonds issued by the OTTA and supported entirely by tolls collected from its projects. The OTTA?’s efforts were primarily in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, developing three major toll road projects, including the Dallas-Fort Worth Turnpike, the Dallas North Tollway, and the President George Bush Turnpike.''

''2001...conducts a preliminary feasibility study to assess the toll viability, whether or not the project will generate sufficient revenue to pay for construction and maintenance.''
(http://www.window.state.tx.us/txdot/txdot202.html)

...Questions also have been raised about how well the Texas Department of Transportation manages the $10 billion, two-year budget it already has. According to a state auditor report, the agency's three-month forecast of lowest daily balances in the highway fund was off by an average of 258 percent between September 1999 and September 2002.

Responsible Government: Let TxDOT build Toll Roads with Bonds backed with Toll Road Revenues. This will help with the checks and balances of the viability of each Specific Toll Road. It is also wrong to Toll a road that has already been paid for with tax dollars.

Building Toll Roads with Tax dollars and no revenue or traffic studies is irresponsible and reckless for central Texas.
Building Toll Roads with Tax dollars is bad government.
Building Toll Roads with Tax dollars and then paying for the Toll...is a DOUBLE TAX.

Keep TxDOT Responsible in Central Texas. Use Toll Revenue to secure bonds.

Otherwise they will be Tolling every future road...because they can.

TxDOT/CTRMA ...for seconds

TxDOT/CTRMA are coming back to Kiker this Thursday ...for seconds.

They are coming back for another Town Hall Thursday 27th at Kiker at 6:45.

Show up and tell them how you STILL don't like Wm Cannon bridge being Tolled after we already paid for it.