Anti-government conservatives have been working very, very hard to reduce every service that the government provides to make people less inclined to support government.

In states like California, they successfully destroyed local governments ability to raise taxes for services, so local recreation, libraries, and schools disappeared or became so bad that people had to find alternatives.

Once a person doesn't benefit from the government directly, they feel less invested in the community and supporting it through taxes.

This "solution" to roads seems more work on this vein.

Even libertarians 10 years ago said that they supported the government building roads. It was just insane not to want that.

But now we are seriously talking about this.

What is the government supposed to do, then? What exactly are people supposed to point out in their daily lives and say, "this is how my tax money is spent"?

For it to operate like a "regular market with market efficiencies" there would need to be viable alternatives.  Without such alternatives, toll highways would be a monopoly.  What do I mean by alternatives?  Well, how far out does mass transit reach (hint: Metro lines go further outside the Beltway in MD than they do in VA)?  Where do our mass transit lines run (hint: the Metro map looks like a hub and spoke with DC at the center...what about Tysons, Reston, and Herndon)?  How pedestrian-friendly are our major centers (hint: try walking from an office building in the 8200 block of Leesburg Pike to the Wendy's just on the other side of Rt. 123)?

Sorry, but this isn't a viable answer to our transportation woes unless it's coupled with other measures like extending the availability of mass transit, rerouting bus and Metro lines to other work and residential centers and forcing planners to be more pedestrian-friendly in their designs.  Simply throwing a tax on top of our current infrastructure will only serve to piss people off.

That's just strange.
How would they know how much a person used the highway?  They would either have to monitor a whole lot of cars/people/personal information - or have people use the honesty system.  I don't see how it could work without people (rightly) getting mad.

The report talks about variable pricing to control congestion.  If you avoid driving in congestion you don't pay anything.  It also talks about increased METRO and bus service.  

The Post article emphasized funding options.  The reporter skipped any discussion of relating tolls to congestion.  

Use this link to read the 110 page report.  

http://www.mwcog.org/TPB/VPTF/...

An earlier threat mentions that if more than 27% of the HOT lane users access the road by having 3 or more passengers, we (the taxpayers) will pay the foreign managment company the difference of their lost tolls - in other words, the state will subsidize a private company and the state will have no incentive to promote carpooling.  It's a lose-lose.  

They are just regressing the tax code, once again they are called "user fees"

Nothing morally wrong with that, but they are not honest about it.

Time to toss ALL REPUBLICANS out, get rid of the scaliwags!

Enjoy your high tax rates and misguided priorities

One party rule is a recipie for disaster

6 years of Bush and Republican Congress
The Gilmore administration
The current situation across Maryland

Two party rule works best

Think Clinton with the Republican Congress
Warner with the Republican VA Legislature
Ehrlich with the Democratic MD Legislature

The public has always paid for its roads through taxes, including gasoline, property, income or other taxes and user/toll fees.

Although I may not be completely against HOT lanes, I am against selling our major roadways to falsely claimed Public/Private Partnerships that end up principally funded and guaranteed financially by the public till with little exposure by the private sector.

Then, when the private sector fails with its road endeavor (holding 50-80 year leases on the roadways), the government(s) will come to the rescue, as the roadways are too important (and were already built with public funds) to close them off to public use.

My question: If toll roads are profitable for private entities, why can't they be profitable for governments? Oh, I forgot, the Dulles Toll Road is such a cash cow!

The roads aren't free.  Sure, driving on them is free (if you don't count gasoline, maintenance of your vehicle, insurance, or monthly car payments), but building and maintaining is not and that is paid for through various taxes.

Increase the gasoline tax to pay for necessary road improvements.  There is no need to screw around with building toll plazas, implementing monitoring processes, creating billing and management solutions - the tax system is already in place.

The main complaint I've heard against the gasoline tax increase is that people won't pay evenly - those with less fuel efficient vehicles will pay more (for driving the same number of miles) because they require more fuel.  Tolls supposedly even out the amount everyone pays.

I know the gas tax is regressive generally, but who drives more fuel efficient vehicles, low-income people or high-income people? The Conventional Wisdom would tell you only the rich liberals can afford Priuses. But I'd think low-income people would gravitate towards more affordable, lighter cars like Corollas and Civics that get good mileage, while the wealthy go for less-efficient SUVs, BMWs, etc.