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Follow TURFAussies campaign against tolls
Taxpayers will always find ways to avoid the new tax, especially when their paychecks are shrinking while costs for food, energy, and basics continue to soar! Australia was one of the first countries to embrace and aggressively push public private partnerships as the answer to their transportation funding (largely at the urging of Macquarie, an Australian company and global toll road investor/operator). Now several years later, after pension scandals (they invested public pensioners in the risky deals), toll hikes, and toll roads that are in the red, the PEOPLE are rising up and boycotting these road rip-offs.
Road rip-offs: Hills resident campaigns against tolls
Local News
3 Aug 11 @ 01:30am by ROBBIE PATTERSON
FRUSTRATED commuter Ziggy Zapata is urging all city drivers to join a fight against toll ways after becoming “flabbergasted” with Sydney’s infrastructure and transport systems.
His frustration was further inflamed when the Times recently reported toll increases on the M2.
Mr Zapata started the group Citizens Against Road Rip-offs (CARR) and says he has tips to save commuters thousands of dollars annually on tolls.
“For years I have been angry about the fact that motorists pay so much money in fees, charges, fines and yet governments cannot even build decent free roads, but instead resort to colluding with private operators to construct toll roads,” he said.
Mr Zapata said taxpayer-funded roads such as Epping Road at Lane Cove were almost unusable.
He said they had been “narrowed to try to force motorists to use the Lane Cove Tunnel. And streets in the area have been made inaccessible to prevent motorists from using them as rat-runs to avoid the toll road.”
So Mr Zapata established the non-profit organisation, CARR.
The website aims to teach motorists how to “fight back against the completely unjustified gouging to which they are subjected”, he said.
“CARR is there as my personal protest against being used as a victim for bloodsucking governments and toll road operators.”
Mr Zapata urges anyone who is not happy with the current system to join.
The website contains handy tips to avoid fines and tolls.
“Using technology such as GPS receivers and a bit of common sense, every motorist can avoid being a cash cow for government and toll road operators,” he said.
Mr Zapata said the most powerful tool people had “is the power of the boycott and this is where CARR can help motorists save a lot of money.”
ZIGGY’S TIPS: HOW TO AVOID ROAD RIP-OFFS
* Buy a cheap GPS and use the no tolls option;
* Use a Bluetooth hands-free device at all times to avoid being booked on your mobile phone;
* Put power in numbers: if enough people don’t use the toll ways they will become free like they should always have been.
* For more handy hints and tips, or to join the group go to - www.carr.org.au