Quote:
Originally Posted by M1EK
130 was always sold as a potential toll road. I remember when the bonds (for it, SH45N, and one segment of SH45S, I think) were floated, and some folks were asking why we still need to make these right-of-way 'donations' through general funds when it's going to have tolls on it (future projects have since promised to rebate those 'donations').
And the idea that eastsiders are forced to use toll roads is nonsense. The routes they would take into Austin itself aren't tolled (unless they live incredibly far out on 290) - the main impact of these tolls are going to be on NW Austinites going to the airport, for instance, or on new exurbanites going to work at Dell in Round Rock. These people aren't poor by any reasonable stretch of the imagination, and it's about time they started paying something closer to the cost of their choice to live out there.
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Nobody said 130 wasn't always supposed to be a toll road. 183 from IH 35 to 71 was NOT supposed to be a toll road. The new plans call for rebuilding as a toll road. Ditto for 71 from IH 35 to the airport. Ditto for 290 coming into town from 130. Where are the free roadways, other than service roads, going to be for what is likely to become the fastest growing part of the Austin area? I only wish Dell had enough jobs for all the folks that will be moving into the new "exurban" eastside. The people I see every day, myself included, trying to make our way around that neck of the woods are not well off by any stretch of the imagination. Most of us are about one paycheck away from some real trouble. Your bleeping tolls aren't gonna help one damn bit. Meanwhile, in the event you ever do find yourself in a car over in your cozy central locale needing to go somewhere further afield,, just hop on your free IH35 to points anywhere north and south, your free Mopac all the way to Parmer or Wm. Cannon, your free Ben White out to Oak Hill (soon to be tolled? I doubt it.), or your free Research 183 westbound from IH35 all the way to bleeping 620. Congratulate yourself for being so damn prescient in your choice of neighborhoods and lifestyles. I'll be stuck in traffic and construction chaos over on the eastern side of town with all of my supposedly well off neighbors, enduring years of inconvenience as the new roadways are built, armed with the knowledge that once they are built people like me are going to get stuck with the tab. Who paid for your damn roads?