Comments on: Fun with Highways: Austin, Texas http://www.ptank.com/blog/2007/05/fun-with-highways-austin-texas/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=fun-with-highways-austin-texas cats, synthesizers, music, art, opinion Sun, 19 Feb 2012 04:56:05 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.1.4 By: Michael of Austin http://www.ptank.com/blog/2007/05/fun-with-highways-austin-texas/#comment-14648 Michael of Austin Sat, 18 Apr 2009 12:36:38 +0000 http://127.0.0.1/catsynth/index.php?entry=entry070521-202641#comment-14648 Eh...71/35 ain't so bad! Eh…71/35 ain’t so bad!

]]> By: sal costello http://www.ptank.com/blog/2007/05/fun-with-highways-austin-texas/#comment-2405 sal costello Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 http://127.0.0.1/catsynth/index.php?entry=entry070521-202641#comment-2405 URGENT: The LAST public hearing on shifting freeways to tollways is on: Monday, Sept. 10th, 6pm Capitol Building Sen. Kirk Watson and others are pushing a plan to shift Austin freeways to tollways! Yet, smarter options do exist. In the short term, the $700 million tax dollars shouldn’t be spent on toll roads as Sen. Watson plans, but instead, our tax dollars intended for freeways should be spent on cost efficient non-toll solutions such as: Variable speed limits, ramp metering, HOV lanes without tolls, reversible/barriered lanes for peak periods, parkways (like fix290.org), pass through financing, more arterial lane miles, better incident management and advance computerized control of traffic signals. In the long term we must index the gas tax. The Texas Transportation Institute report states that more tolls are simply NOT needed - that indexing the gas tax and using the revenue to pay off bonds allows freeways to be built right now. Once placed, the tolls will NEVER be removed from our public highways. In contrast, the Ledge has the opportunity to index the gas tax every two years. Sal Costello Founder of People for Efficient Transportation [url=http://salcostello.blogspot.com/]http://salcostello.blogspot.com/[/url] URGENT: The LAST public hearing on shifting freeways to tollways is on:

Monday, Sept. 10th, 6pm
Capitol Building

Sen. Kirk Watson and others are pushing a plan to shift Austin freeways to tollways!

Yet, smarter options do exist.

In the short term, the $700 million tax dollars shouldn’t be spent on toll roads as Sen. Watson plans, but instead, our tax dollars intended for freeways should be spent on cost efficient non-toll solutions such as: Variable speed limits, ramp metering, HOV lanes without tolls, reversible/barriered lanes for peak periods, parkways (like fix290.org), pass through financing, more arterial lane miles, better incident management and advance computerized control of traffic signals.

In the long term we must index the gas tax. The Texas Transportation Institute report states that more tolls are simply NOT needed – that indexing the gas tax and using the revenue to pay off bonds allows freeways to be built right now.

Once placed, the tolls will NEVER be removed from our public highways. In contrast, the Ledge has the opportunity to index the gas tax every two years.

Sal Costello
Founder of People for Efficient Transportation
[url=http://salcostello.blogspot.com/]http://salcostello.blogspot.com/[/url]

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