Comments on: Bush’s Transportation privateers will throw funding at toll lanes for 35W

By: Dan

Dan — Sat, 13 Sep 2008 20:12:02 +0000

SAY NO TO TOLL ROADS!!! It is well known that private industry with the technology that is used for toll roads has been lobbying for this for years. freedom of movement on roads that are payed for with all of our tax dollars should be seen as a right not a privilege reserved for the few who can afford it!

By: Craig Westover

Craig Westover — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 10:09:38 +0000

In other words ... Your opinion is not based on whether congestion pricing and toll roads are good or bad ideas, but rather on who supports or opposes them. The fact that we have transit money, regardless of how one feels about transit, is irrelvant to the benefit or boodoggle quality of "congestion pricing" and toll roads.

Is there a problem you are trying to address, or are you merely dissing the bad guys?

By: fasolamatt

fasolamatt — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 08:26:05 +0000

The future of 35W http://www.youtube.c...

By: wabbit

wabbit — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 17:59:23 +0000

Change the headline, then "Bush's Transportation privateers will throw funding at toll lanes for 35W" is far from an accurate assessment of what happened in HF 2800. This request came from Minnesota first and the Federal DOT is responding.

This originated in the DFL.

By: Chris Steller

Chris Steller — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 17:46:49 +0000

We slice the ideology different out here Congestion pricing on public highways seems to take on different ideological hues in different places. The Post story makes it clear that in DC, it's part of a right wing approach. Here, as Bob says, it's bipartisan. After this post went up I talked to Lee Munnich from the Humphrey Institute, whose report on the MNPASS system on 394 you can download from the Toll Roads trade journal website that's linked above. He says in Europe it's a left wing thing. But maybe one reason everyone's happy with it here is we got the money, which is going to pay for a lot of transit projects too. If we'd lost out, the Bush approach of tying sweepstakes transit/highway funding to toll experiments might not seem so great.

By: Craig Westover

Craig Westover — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 17:25:02 +0000

Bob's right -- and there's more To get the support of the Minnesota Trucking Association the DFL wrote a prohibition on toll lanes into the transportation bill. The catch is the prohibition, according to Rep. Bernie Leider in a Civic Caucus interview, applies only to existing lanes, not new lanes. Lieder favors making the new Stillwater bridge a toll bridge.

That said, why is rasing the gas tax under the guise of a user fee ok, but charging an actual user fee is not? I'm a little confused by that logic.

By: Bob Collins

Bob Collins — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 15:52:02 +0000

DFL had a hand in this The toll lane project was in the transportation bill that Pawlenty vetoed and the Legislature overrode.

By: Bob Collins

Bob Collins — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

DFL had a hand in this The toll lane project was in the transportation bill that Pawlenty vetoed and the Legislature overrode.

By: Craig Westover

Craig Westover — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Bob’s right — and there’s more To get the support of the Minnesota Trucking Association the DFL wrote a prohibition on toll lanes into the transportation bill. The catch is the prohibition, according to Rep. Bernie Leider in a Civic Caucus interview, applies only to existing lanes, not new lanes. Lieder favors making the new Stillwater bridge a toll bridge.

That said, why is rasing the gas tax under the guise of a user fee ok, but charging an actual user fee is not? I’m a little confused by that logic.

By: Chris Steller

Chris Steller — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

We slice the ideology different out here Congestion pricing on public highways seems to take on different ideological hues in different places. The Post story makes it clear that in DC, it’s part of a right wing approach. Here, as Bob says, it’s bipartisan. After this post went up I talked to Lee Munnich from the Humphrey Institute, whose report on the MNPASS system on 394 you can download from the Toll Roads trade journal website that’s linked above. He says in Europe it’s a left wing thing. But maybe one reason everyone’s happy with it here is we got the money, which is going to pay for a lot of transit projects too. If we’d lost out, the Bush approach of tying sweepstakes transit/highway funding to toll experiments might not seem so great.