{"id":382,"date":"2007-04-27T06:12:31","date_gmt":"2007-04-27T11:12:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.citizennetmom.com\/?p=382"},"modified":"2007-04-27T06:12:31","modified_gmt":"2007-04-27T11:12:31","slug":"tennessee-toll-roads","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.citizennetmom.com\/?p=382","title":{"rendered":"Tennessee Toll Roads?"},"content":{"rendered":"

SB1152<\/a>, the "Tennessee Tollway Act," is making its way through the legislative maze, though ultimate passage is not at all certain at this point.  The Tennessean<\/a> reports a delay, with Sen. Doug Jackson (D-Dickson) concerned that the Legislature needs final approval of where such toll roads might be built.<\/p>\n

NIMBY?  Maybe.  In fairness, I didn’t hear his argument, but legislative approval is not needed on other road projects, so it sounds a little bit like he may want to ensure that there are no toll roads to affect HIS constituents — just others.<\/p>\n

I don’t have a tremendous amount of experience with toll roads, but what little I have hasn’t been bad.  All in all, the toll routes I’ve driven tend to be less crowded, well-maintained, and — best of all — speed limit enforcement is minimal.  It’s a benefit of paying your fees up front for the privilege of getting where you’re going a little easier.  My only complaint has been when the only exits are run by concessions (Florida comes to mind), so gas prices (along with food, beverages, and whatever else is sold) tend to be higher because there’s no competition.  It’s very much like McDonald’s prices in an airport are a lot different than the McDonald’s out on the street, and I have a problem with that.<\/p>\n

With gas prices still lingering at uncomfortable highs, most politicians are loathe to raise the gas tax — the traditional source of highway funds.  Stateline.org writes<\/a> that, despite the growing popularity of toll roads, it can’t fill the $11B gap between available funding and planned projects.<\/p>\n

A toll booth on the Herman Postma Memorial Bridge (Solway) might go a fair ways toward resolving Oak Ridge’s financial concerns, but that’s not likely even if this bill passes.  However, I don’t feel any strong opposition toward the idea of toll roads; it seems like a reasonable user fee, so long as it’s not overdone.<\/p>\n

What do you think?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SB1152, the "Tennessee Tollway Act," is making its way through the legislative maze, though ultimate passage is not at all certain at this point.  The Tennessean reports a delay, with Sen. Doug Jackson (D-Dickson) concerned that the Legislature needs final … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.citizennetmom.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/382"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.citizennetmom.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.citizennetmom.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.citizennetmom.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.citizennetmom.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=382"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.citizennetmom.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/382\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.citizennetmom.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=382"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.citizennetmom.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=382"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.citizennetmom.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=382"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}