Texas & Toll Roads

1
With all of the recent road construction over the
past 5 years in the area, it is hard to not
notice the increasing amount of toll roads in
Texas.
2
As more states find it hard to fund road
construction to fight off the rising levels of
traffic congestion, the popularity of toll roads
is growing rapidly.
3
The area of Dallas-Fort Worth is home to more
than 6.
4
5 million people and now has one of the largest
networks of toll roads in all of North America.
5
These toll roads are not the toll roads of the
past.
6
These toll roads are entirely built and operated
by private companies that maintain the rights of
the roads they built for decades.
7
One such company, Texas Turnpike Corp., even
possesses eminent-domain powers granted by a law
that has since been rewritten, and has plans of
making the only privately funded, built,
operated, and OWNED toll road in the entire
country.
8
Many Texas residents are getting fed up with the
ever increasing expansion of toll roads.
9
Some claim that it is completely impossible to go
about their lives without having to pay a toll
somewhere.
10
While many of them are suggesting that the state
just stop sanctioning private companies to build
roads they cannot build themselves, traffic
congestion is a serious and still growing problem
in the area.
11
The main source of revenue to fund road
construction for the state comes from its 20 cent
tax is placed on every gallon of gasoline
purchased.
12
However, those 20 cents have not changed since
1991 and is a major cause for the lack of funding.
13
Currently the U.S. has 5,400 miles of toll roads,
an increase of 15 since 2003, and 500 miles of
that has been built in Texas in the last decade.
14
With an additional twenty or more toll road
projects currently being planned or in
construction, that number can be expected to rise
more than 300 miles in the next five to ten years.
15
With the state nearly 5 billion short of
transportation funding, there are few
alternatives to toll roads or higher taxes.
16
However, with large sections of major cities
being sectioned off by toll roads, public unrest
is becoming a major concern for lawmakers and
city officials.
17
Despite the growing frustration over toll roads
in Texas, if a more reliable method to increase
transportation funding is not found, toll roads
will continue to be privately built for the state.