Quote:
Originally Posted by worldcreator
1604 is a HIGHWAY. It's called STATE HIGHWAY LOOP 1604. I already mentioned that a small northern section is an expressway. And it only comprises about 1/5th of the total length of the road. Primarily 1604 is a highway.
Besides, you're obviously not comprehending the main issue of what my complaint is. Which is that ANY new Austin expressway project is ONLY being proposed as a tollway. Not just brand new roads, but the conversion of existing roads, AND the widening of existing roads. San Antonio had IH-410 widened without tolls. Houston is having IH-10 widened without tolls. Dallas is having IH-30 widened without tolls. El Paso has various widening projects without tolls.
We can't even get a SINGLE lane added to a major expressway here without a bunch of pro toll road jerks sticking their nose in it and trying to make a buck off the deal. We desperately need an extra lane (or 2) in both directions on IH-35, as well as Mopac. And the best our local transportation authorities can come up with is to just TOLL it.
All of this is mainly due to the horrible leadership of Rick Perry and his toll road happy, special interest goons. They have created an atmosphere of NO roads or toll roads. They have lied of about available funds and diverted our gax taxes towards other projects which have NOTHING to do with transportation, so they can claim that they're out of money allowing them to force feed toll roads down everyone's throats. WHY??? Because toll roads make money, "tax" roads don't. Roads are supposed to be for the greater good of it's citizens and to facilitate commerce, NOT as a tool for profit!!!
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I cant live like this. I've watched this go on for a week now, and have to say a couple of things. Since I'm one hour into a craptastic 5 hour overnight layover, and I'm creeped out by sleeping in public, I'll jump in to the fray to kill some time. Pardon me if I get a bit long-winded; brevity means nothing in an airport terminal at 4 a.m.
1. "no one reads those ballot measures anyway. Its so wordy."
Homeboy #1 swears the media reported the 2000 bond/election issue as tied to tolls. Homeboy #2 swears it was never/hardly said. The only way to prove the point is for one of y'all to kill a Saturday afternoon at the Austin Public Library and do a content analysis. Settle on print media (it's the easiest to track), determine the outlets (i'd suggest the statesman, as it's the paper of record for the city and county), the weekly alternative newspaper, the Austin Business Journal, possibly the Daily Texan, and a few community newspapers in Travis Co (like the community impact papers serving Georgetown, but not necessarily that one because it didn't publish until 2005.). Then sharpen your pencils, and count number of stories mentioning the bond/election issue at all (and note the source), measure, with a ruler, the column inches each story is, then count up the words 'toll' and note how many times they appear, what stories mention it, the print source, and the author of the story. then you can make a nice little matrix that will settle the question, once and for all. If you're not down for investing the time into a content analysis, then shut up about it. Oh, or you could drop like $4G's or something and hire a media clipping service to do it for you. What's that? You don't want to do that either? Not worth the... Yeah, thats what I thought. Enough with the lips flappin in the breeze on the media references issue.
2. Civics Class starts promptly at 9:00 a.m. and meets here.
Today's lesson is "representative democracy: thanks, but we have it all taken care of." The abstract from todays lesson tells us that the United States is a representative democracy, and not a direct one. Our fore-fathers understood that most Americans then, like now, are idiots and would only muck up the system and do stupid $hit if everyone got to have a say in how things were done. We elect people to run the government FOR US, kinda like in our place. Sometimes it works out great, sometimes not so much. But (the indirect) you show your stupidity when you get all populist and demand your voice to be heard. Your voice was heard, when you voted in the primary and general election, if you did that. Now on occasion, we do have ballot and bond initiatives that require voter approval, because thats dealing with taxes and credit, and the politicians were smart enough to put it in the state constitution that if a tax paid for by the whole was gonna happen, we had to get 50% +1 on board, cause no politician ever has the balls to make a decision like that for his peeps. So there ya have it; CAMPO, ARMA, TxDOT and others ARE APPOINTED by the people WE ELECTED, to do just that. Hell, it's their job to do so. You don't like the peeps on the appointed board? throw out the people who appointed them. I know it sucks, but thats what Washington and Jefferson and Madison wanted and its what we got. Which is a great transition to....
3. Rick Perry, Ms. Breck Girl 2008.
In December of this year, he becomes the longest serving governor in state history. Like all 160 whatever years of it. So I guess not everybody hates him. Yeah 40% isn't anything to be overly proud of, but it got his ass across the finish line first didn't it. That fella is gonna be governor for the next decade, cause he's likable, and pretty (in a creepy way). If y'all want him outta office so bad, you shoulda told Carol Keeton Landrover to shut the hell up and sit down. Seriously, why did y'all support her so fervently? Hell, my mom is one tough grandma, but I sure as hell wouldn't want her running Texas. Backing her wasn't even a smart political choice. It was dumb as hell. Everyone told y'all how it would end, but ya'll aren't real good at listening. Real good at talking, but not so much on the listening.
4. Chill the hell out on the xenophobia a bit there Lou Dobbs.
It's not the end of life as we know it if a company from Spain wants to front the cash to build the thing and run it. TxDOT gets a chunk of change up front to jump start other projects (It already got its first $25 million payment in March see:
http://www.tollroadsnews.com/node/3434 ) Cintra is a publicly traded company- and they just have a lease on the operation of the road - the state of Texas still owns the road itself. And seriously, its SPAIN. The last time they dominated anything was like 1588. Hell, Communist China owns the notes on half our national debt, but where's the outrage there? Instead, some of y'all chose to get all up in arms about a lease on 40 miles of road through farmland? Priorities people.
5. 1604: The Loop, The Freeway, The Legend.
I live in San Antonio. In fact, I can see 1604 from my balcony if I stand on my tippy-toes. Worldcreator, I can assure you the segment out here is a four-lane, limited access, divided highway built to freeway standards. Don't get all fussy with the name either. It's legally just Loop 1604. (Again, see
http://www.texhwyman.com/l1604.htm ) It's also not, as you claim in your post just a 'highway.' It's legally defined as Loop 1604 regardless of what part you're on- the freeway part or the back country 2-lane road. It's all Loop 1604. No more, no less. Example: US Highway 87 is co-signed as I-10 through most of San Antonio. It just happens to be built up to freeway standards along that stretch and run on the same roadbed as I-10. It doesn't make I-10 cease to exist as an interstate along that stretch, just cause it's also called US Highway 87. Bonus Explainer: All Farm to Market roads don't necessarily connect farms to markets.
And since we're getting technical about it all here, it's kinda playing fast and loose with the language to say "There's a short northern section which is built as a non-stop expressway, however the majority is a highway with stop lights." Come on. The 'short northern section' is 26 miles long and has average annual daily traffic counts of 127,000 west of US 281(2006). It's counterpart location on South Loop 1604 at State Highway 16 on the section with 'stop lights' had an average annual daily traffic count of 3,750 (2003).
http://www.texhwyman.com/l1604.htm#Traffic and
http://www.treesalesandrescue.com/si...51/page/472650
So yes, the 'expressway' part of Loop 1604 only makes up one-fifth of the Loop, it's misleading to omit the traffic counts that demonstrate the use it gets, the number of drivers who rely on it, and the necessity of adding managed toll lanes to those 26 miles, as is illustrated in the 250% increase in traffic counts since it's substantial completion in 1990. One area along the 'short northern section' has experienced a 700% increase in daily traffic counts in the same period; yet there's no money for desperately needed additional 'free lanes' as you assert is the case with the 410 widening project, LBJ freeway, I-30, and the Katy Freeway (which are all federal interstate highways prioritized differently in the funding process from non-interstate routes). Finally, the Loop 410 widening project was initially awarded partial funding 18 years ago, but due to the lag time necessary for engineering, utility relocation, right of way acquisition, and actual disbursement of funds (separate from awarding of funds), construction didn't begin until 1995. A fact lost on our local 281 anti-toll zealots when discussing the difference and lag time between awarding funding for a project, cutting a check, and actual turning of dirt. You'd think they'd understand it cause they've been living it on 410, but 1) Teri Hall (our sal costello) just moved here from California, and 2) the anti-toll zealots never let the facts get in the way of their agenda (see Loop 1604 above).
6. You was robbed.
SH130 was not, and is not the east-side freeway loop you all were promised in Austin. 130 is only a segment of the larger state-wide reliever of I-35. Like all of I-35. The Williamson/Travis county segment is just the first part to be completed. If some people use it to make getting from north Austin to south Austin easier, that’s their own doin. It was and is intended to move the NAFTA traffic OFF of 35. Cause I-35 can not be expanded enough to meet the growing demands placed on it. If you wanna use it to get from Georgetown to AIBA, great. But that wasn't it's purpose.
7. It's based on opportunity to benefit, regardless of actual benefit.
Worldcreator, you pay AISD taxes as a property owner (even though you don't have kids) because you still have the opportunity to receive benefits from the schools. You have access to their facilities; you might vote there, could run at the track, and take your visiting nieces and nephews to the playground. Not to mention the opportunity to take continuing/adult education classes, or get a GED. All those you can do now, without kids. You could further opt-in, by having a kid, and receive the full benefit of your property tax dollars. But this is a benefit you might never fully use.
You pay hospital district taxes, because you have the opportunity to use those facilities, should you find yourself without insurance, needing serious non-emergency medical treatment. You might never need to go to county, but the opportunity is there should you want it. Again, you might never use it. In most cases, this would be just a subsidy, with the hospital expecting you to kick in some, but not what you'd pay at a private clinic.
Other public systems exist that you partially subsidize through various taxes, but pay to receive a greater benefit. The air traffic control system is supported by tax dollars and runway use fees passed on to you by your carrier. You receive the full benefit when you board the flight and get from A to B, but you receive a partial benefit the rest of the time by investing in a system that's pretty good at keeping planes from hitting each other and falling out of the sky on you or your house/church/work.
Toll roads are just another way of looking at the same equation. You might never choose to drive on one, but the opportunity is there should you need/want it. You can get anywhere without using the toll road, it just might take ya a little longer.
Sure, your tax dollars go to pay for part of it (city/county contributions to road construction projects always go to the land acquisition costs first), but if it's any consolation to ya, the city of Austin or Travis/Williamson county will always own the land under the freeway. The state or toll authority just owns the improvements (road, signage, drainage structures, etc) on the land. It's not an insignificant difference either. Just west of downtown, San Antonio had I-10/I-35 elevated during its reconstruction 20 years ago. The city now charges people $10 a day to park there (and also a few locations east of downtown under the elevated stretch of I-37). I'd be willing to bet after all these years, the city has recouped its land investment at least in downtown.
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Couldn't find a yawn sign. Would you guys mind opening another thread and continue the debate over there, so transportation updates don't get buried over here.
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