Blacklands private toll road exploits repealed law

Link to article here.

This project sends up so many red flags it's hard to note them all. The big one is the fact that a private corporation has the right to use eminent domain for its own private toll profits. This should NEVER happen in the cradle of liberty. The legislature and voters of Texas approved a Constitutional Amendment in 2011 that is supposed to protect Texans from eminent domain for private use. This supposed turnpike corporation thinks it skirted Texas law by forming ONE DAY before the law allowing such corporations was repealed. We'll see what Texas landowners can do to challenge it using the Texas Constitution in court.

Private Toll Road Considered to Counter Population Boom
By Aman Batheja
New York Times
June 12, 2014

Facing traffic congestion that is only expected to get worse, officials in North Texas are weighing a proposal to build a toll road for commuters into Dallas. The Texas Turnpike Corporation of Dallas has proposed a private toll road, the only of its kind in the state, connecting Greenville and Wylie, and local transportation officials say they are keeping an open mind.

“This would be a private-sector company that would 100 percent finance the project,” said Tom Shelton, a senior program manager with the North Central Texas Council of Governments, which coordinates the region’s transportation planning. “As a result, they would take 100 percent of the risk, and they would take 100 percent of the benefits.”

County, TxDOT may part ways on 290 plan

Link to article here.

County, TxDOT may part ways on 290 plan
County likely to revise partnership with state; move could lead to more free lanes
By Dug Begley and Kiah Collier
June 9, 2014
Houston Chronicle

Drivers head northwestbound in the HOV lane on U.S. 290 Tuesday, May 14, 2013, in Houston. Starting Monday, solo drivers will be able to pay between $1 and $5 for using the lanes while eligible carpoolers can still use them for free.

The honeymoon is likely over between Harris County and state transportation officials who joined together to speed construction of U.S. 290, and the split could mean more free lanes for motorists on the expanded freeway.

The Harris County Toll Road Authority and the Texas Department of Transportation would still remain partners in some way along two major toll corridors.

"I certainly wouldn't say we're getting a divorce," Harris County Judge Ed Emmett said, explaining a revised plan for the $1.8 billion freeway widening. "We are still contributing to 290, but this lets everybody get back to where they are more comfortable."

If county commissioners approve a revised plan Wednesday, the 2012 agreement that made the county and state partners on the freeway widening would change significantly, and include ceding control of toll lanes along Interstate 10 to the state.

For drivers, it could mean more free lanes along U.S. 290 than earlier proposed, but minus the reversible lanes meant to handle peak commuting inbound and outbound.

County and state engineers have been at odds for the past three months regarding some aspects of the design used to widen U.S. 290. Crews are already working to widen the freeway between Mueschke Road and Loop 610.

When county and state officials lauded their partnership in 2012, the plan was to widen the freeway to four general use lanes in each direction, with three reversible managed lanes in the middle. How those carpool/toll lanes fit into the overall freeway project - such as the location of entrance and exit ramps - was the focus of recent county-state discussions.

"There were just complications that were occurring, and there were problems," said Harris County Commissioner Jack Cagle, whose Precinct 4 encompasses most of the U.S. 290 work.

Because discussions are still ongoing, TxDOT spokeswoman Raquelle Lewis said it would premature for the agency to comment until county officials make a decision.

Under terms proposed by Harris County Infrastructure Director Art Storey, the county's role diminishes greatly, freeing the Texas Department of Transportation to build the project as they like.

Storey is asking county commissioners on Wednesday to amend an agreement between the county and TxDOT to remove the reversible toll lanes from the U.S. 290 project that were going to be developed by the Harris County Toll Road Authority and waive control of toll projects along U.S. 290, Interstate 10 and the Hempstead Road corridor to TxDOT.

In return, to honor the spirit of the agreement the county and TxDOT announced in October 2012, Harris County will pay TxDOT $200 million - half what it initially offered - and give the state the Katy Managed Lanes along Interstate 10.

"We could have all gone merrily along, and in the end it would've worked," Emmett said. "But I think it is better this way."

If approved, the Katy Managed Lanes would convert to TxDOT property by the end of the year.
TxDOT would then keep two-thirds of the revenue along I-10, Emmett said, and the county would get one-third. A similar deal could be reached along U.S. 290, though that was still unclear based on the agreement proposed Wednesday.

In the short term, drivers would likely not notice the change. State and county toll roads accept toll tags issued by a number of agencies. Agreements between local police and constable offices govern who patrols the respective sections of toll lanes.

A maintenance change also does not worry officials, they said.

"I always see the immediate improvement of our local control," Cagle said. "But … I don't think you're going to have any safety concerns or maintenance control concerns."

Along U.S. 290, the deal could mean more free lanes, because TxDOT could choose to use the right of way to build 10 general use lanes, rather than eight.

Additional general use lanes might be the preferred choice for many commuters and local elected officials along U.S. 290.

"If the freeway is going to be the same width, from a commuter perspective I would rather have the free lanes," said Jersey Village Mayor Rod Erskine.

Commuters, business owners and residents along the route have closely watched the construction, Erkskine said, and likely will monitor changes in the arrangement to ensure the project meets their expectations in terms of noise abatement and providing access to local streets.

The shift, however, could have dramatic long-term effects for commuters, potentially well outside the two freeway corridors being discussed. Emmett said drivers could benefit from county toll officials refocusing on other routes. Harris County, for example, has plans to extend the Hardy Toll Road into downtown Houston, widen southeast sections of the Sam Houston Tollway and complete work on a tollway along Texas 249.

It's a slight reversal from the teamwork officials celebrated less then two years ago, but Emmett said he is confident that ultimately drivers get a better road system.

"The more we looked at this the more I realized maybe HCTRA ought to focus on HCTRA," Emmett said. "We build our roads and handle them, and they take care of theirs."

Ploy to End Saturday Postal Delivery to Bailout the Highway Trust Fund

Boehner’s Ploy to End Saturday Postal Delivery to Bailout the Highway Trust Fund
By Gary Hoitsma l June 10, 2014
Selous Foundation for Public Policy Research News & Analysis

The nation’s transportation funding debate just gets curiouser and curiouser. In a surprise move , House Republican leaders let it be known they have decided to back a short-term General Fund transfer into the Highway Trust Fund to extend current programs for about eight months to May 2015. The transfer would be paid for through a controversial postal reform initiative that has already raised protests of opposition from key Senate Democrats. Meanwhile, the plan all but kills any small chance there may have been to find agreement on a longer-term multi-year transportation bill before the election. The news appears to have caught even some House Transportation & Infrastructure (T&I) Committee members by surprise.

How to pay for a simple one-year bailout of the Highway Trust Fund at a cost hovering near $15 billion? That has been the question of the moment for House Republican leaders intent on avoiding a fiscal train wreck this summer that could force highway and transit programs to come to a grinding halt.

Read more here.

Judge approves spy cameras in taxis

Link to article here.

DC: Federal Judge Approves Spying On Taxis
Federal court says District of Columbia may install tracking devices to record movements of cab drivers and passengers.
The Newspaper.com
6/12/14

Spying on taxi drivers and their passengers is fine with a federal judge. In a memorandum opinion last week, the US District Court for the District of Columbia rejected a lawsuit that claimed the use of "smart" metering systems violated the Fourth and Fifth Amendments.

DC cabbies filed suit last year after the DC Taxicab Commission mandated the use of "smart" devices that record the identity of the driver, the time and mileage of each trip along with GPS coordinates, the amount of a fare charged and real-time location of the cab. Passengers would also be tracked through credit card transactions and the data shared with DC police.

The equipment was paid for by imposing a 25-cent tax on each passenger. If a cabbie failed to pay the tax, the Taxicab Commission gave itself authority to withdraw money directly from the driver's account. The court rejected the claim that this arrangement discriminated against cabbies, because the District government imposes no similar requirement on any other business in the city.

"The regulations at issue are 'facially neutral' and there is no suggestion that they have been discriminatorily applied," US District Judge Ellen Segal Huvelle. "The complaint arguably alleges a racially disparate impact (by alleging that the requirements are unique to the taxicab industry and that the drivers are a 'suspect class' because they are all either foreign born or African-American), but it fails to allege any basis upon which to infer a plausible inference of discriminatory intent could be drawn. The sole allegation pertaining to intent is that the regulation 'intentionally targets' licensed taxicab drivers. But the same could presumably be alleged as to every regulation enacted by the Taxicab Commission."

The court was even less sympathetic to the privacy argument, citing a January case from New York, El-Nahal v. Yassky, and the 1983 US Supreme Court decision, US v. Knotts. The court said the government is free to track all such movements.

"Here there has been no trespass and no infringement of a reasonable expectation of privacy," Judge Huvelle wrote. "Neither the taxicab drivers nor passengers have a reasonable expectation of privacy in the pick-up and drop-off data collected by the GPS tracking aspect of the modern taximeter system... Applying Knotts, other courts have held, and this Court agrees, that requiring a taxicab driver to install a GPS tracking device that records the start and end of each trip does not infringe on any reasonable expectation of privacy."

The court ordered the lawsuit dismissed. A copy of the ruling is available in a 50k PDF file a the source link below.

Source: Azam v. DC Taxicab Commission (US District Court, District of Columbia, 6/2/2014)

Austin City Council discusses road project options to add to November rail bond

Link to article here.

Austin City Council discusses road project options to add to November rail bond
by Amy Denney
Impact News
June 11, 2014

Austin City Council is discussing $480 million in road projects, including several on I-35, that could be added to a potential $700 million urban rail bond package that would go before voters Nov. 4.

City staff presented a menu of options totaling $1.185 billion, well beyond the city’s maximum amount of bonds it could sell at $965 million. This 2014 strategic mobility plan is based on a shared solution approach to invest in both roads and high-capacity transit, such as urban rail, Transportation Department Director Rob Spillar said. The city had previous strategic mobility plans in 2010 and 2012.

Mayor Lee Leffingwell said council has a tough decision of how to whittle the list of options into a package the city can afford. The city also will only sell bonds if it receives federal funding for the urban rail project, he said. Typically, the Federal Transit Administration will fund about 50 percent of a project.

“We believe that a package that looks like that has a great deal of appeal and has a good chance of succeeding,” he said during the June 10 council work session. “If we can put together a package that has broad appeal, there’s a good chance we can go ahead with our strategic mobility plan.”

Road projects listed in the options are of regional significance, including portions of I-35, Spillar said. The city worked with the Texas Department of Transportation in creating the list because several I-35 projects are keystone projects, meaning they have to occur first before TxDOT can add the Future Transportation Corridor—a set of lanes, one in each direction—on I-35, he said.

“That reflects the fact that [the city] invested previously in our bonds to get ready for I-35,” Spillar said. “We think there is a good set of potential projects there on I-35 that advance the potential for future transit investments.”

Not included in the options are the corridors that the city has already studied for infrastructure needs, including Airport Boulevard, East Riverside Drive, Burnet Road, North Lamar Boulevard and FM969/Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard.

Councilman Chris Riley said he would have liked to see more investment of these roads because they are mentioned in the Imagine Austin comprehensive plan for walkable environments.

Leffingwell said I-35 is the biggest concern for most people in the region and critical for the city to address. He added that city bonds in 2010 and 2012 also devoted money to those corridors.

“This menu has been developed with respect to what people in this city have been clamoring for and been developed to have appeal to voters,” he said. “The objective is to have a strategic mobility plan that actually makes a difference in moving traffic in the shortest time frame possible.”

Road and rail options for Nov. 4 bond package:
    •    $700 million: 9.5 mile urban rail route
    •    $130 million: North I-35/US 183 interchange
    •    $120 million: I-35 downtown access roadway/Riverside interchange
    •    $90 million: South I-35 interchanges (Oltorf, Stassney, William Cannon)
    •    $80 million: SH 71/Austin-Bergstrom International Airport direct access
    •    $34 million: US 183/Riverside interchange
    •    $16 million: Regional multimodal corridor development strategies (Loop 360, RM 620, RM 2222, FM 734)
    •    $10 million: I-35 regional Traffic Management Center to facilitate I-35 construction
    •    $5 million for the Project Connect Next Central Corridor to consider where to expand rail
Upcoming meeting schedule and significant dates
    •    June 13: The Central Corridor Advisory Group makes its recommendation of the locally preferred alternative, or LPA, for urban rail to mayor Lee Leffingwell
    •    June 17: City Council and the Capital Metro board of directors review the proposed urban rail plan
    •    June 20: City staff forwards the recommended 2014 strategic mobility plan to City Council
    •    June 24: Capital Metro board considers the urban rail LPA
    •    June 26: City Council considers the 2014 strategic mobility plan, including the urban rail LPA
    •    Aug. 7: City Council considers calling a bond election for Nov. 4
    •    Nov. 4: Voters could consider a bond package that would include both urban rail and road projects

Abbott pledges to fix Texas roads without tolls

Link to article here.

Abbott promises to fix Texas roads without tolls
By Terri Hall
Examiner.com
June 8, 2014

Gubernatorial candidate and Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott addressed transportation, among other policy initiatives, in his speech to an enthusiastic crowd at the Republican State Convention Friday. The state’s gridlock woes were even the subject of a joke when he quipped “I can wheel faster in my wheelchair than some of us can drive on our Texas roads.”

That about sums up both the political and literal reality for Texans in most metropolitan areas of the state. Neither Congress nor the Texas legislature have addressed the structural road funding shortfall for the last decade, both turning to toll roads and massive debt financing to kick the can down the road. But Texas is now facing a fiscal cliff - it leads the country in road debt and its maxed out its proverbial credit card. The Texas Department of Transportation (TXDOT) says it needs $4 billion more per year just to keep pace with congestion. Even worse, its $10 billion annual budget will experience an additional gaping $2-3 billion hole in 2015 as the borrowing that’s been propping up its budget disappears.

Obama wants new taxes to replenish the trust fund depleted by raiding

Link to article here.

EDITORIAL: Highway (trust fund) robbery
Obama wants new taxes to replenish the trust fund depleted by raiding
Editorial Board
Washington Times
June, 6, 2014

The Highway Trust Fund is running on fumes, and this is sending certain congressmen and the administration into a tizzy. The administration insists that America’s roads are crumbling, the bridges tumbling, and Congress must raise taxes, or else.

“If they don’t act by the end of the summer,” President Obama says, “federal funding for transportation projects will run out — will run out. There will be no money. The cupboard will be bare.”

This is a classic Washington crisis by the numbers. Congress sets up a “trust fund” — in this case, the Highway Trust Fund — and depletes it by spending the cash on projects that have nothing to do with highways. When there’s no money left, taxes must be raised.

The Obama administration sells this fanciful tale with claims that America’s cars and trucks have been made magically more fuel-efficient by government fiat, and since everybody is paying less than ever in taxes on gasoline, raising the tax on gasoline won’t actually hurt. It might sound plausible, but that’s not the story the numbers tell. In 2009, gross receipts for the gasoline tax were $24.6 billion. Every year since, they’ve gone up, to the most recent accounting of $25.5 billion. Separate taxes imposed on diesel fuel for the big rigs brings the total sum to $41.3 billion.

That’s a lot of money, and it’s keeping America’s roads and bridges in the best condition in decades. According to a Cato Institute review of Federal Highway Administration figures, nearly 9 percent of all bridges in the National Highway System were deemed “structurally deficient” in 1992. That number has been steadily declining, and less than 4.6 percent of bridges are now considered “structurally deficient.” “Structurally deficient,” by the way, is not “structurally dangerous.”

Still, Mr. Obama and his transportation secretary, Anthony Foxx, want to replenish the Highway Trust Fund with a $150 billion tax increase on U.S. businesses. Mr. Foxx says he will take “untaxed earnings … and plow some of that into infrastructure.”

If he gets the money, there’s no assurance he will spend it on tumbling bridges and crumbling highways. This White House has been spending the money intended for bridges and highways on niceties, such as bike paths, sidewalks, hiking trails and landscaping. Billions more go to high-speed rail, trolleys and other expensive mass-transit projects.

The Highway Trust Fund was created as a user-pay, user-benefits system, in which those who paid fuel taxes would see those dollars returned through road and bridge construction, repair and maintenance. It has become a slush fund to pay for wants, not needs.

No matter what Mr. Foxx, members of Congress and the president argue, bridges will not fall and roads will not crumble if these irresponsible new taxes are not enacted. What could happen is what should have happened years ago. Congress would set priorities of transportation needs, eliminate the wasteful projects and utilize highway user fees to pay for the repairs and reconstruction that are vital to the nation.

NTTA begins cracking down on toll violators

Link to article here.

Every time you pass under an electronic toll gantry, the toll agencies consider it a 'transaction.' Therefore, a toll violation takes place every time you pass under one without a current Toll Tag. All it takes to be labeled at 'habitual toll violator' is having your debit or credit card associated with your Toll Tag account to expire, and by the time you realize you need to update your payment card after a month's billing cycle has gone by, you're at 100 toll violations at risk of your car registration being blocked or being stopped by DPS and having your car impounded on the spot. This leaves you stranded with no way to get to work & owing fines and fees up to your eyeballs for an innocent mistake. The punishment does not fit the crime!

NTTA begins cracking down on toll violators
By Gordon Dickson
Star-Telegram
June 2, 2014

About 4,050 Tarrant County car owners can expect to have their annual vehicle registrations blocked this year because of unpaid tolls, unless they pay up before the sticker expires, North Texas Tollway Authority officials said.

The agency, which earlier this month opened the new Chisholm Trail Parkway connecting Fort Worth and Cleburne, is getting serious about efforts to crack down on vehicle owners who drive on its toll roads without paying. A new state law allows the tollway authority to submit a list of its habitual violators to tax offices in Tarrant, Johnson, Dallas and other counties and place a block on vehicle registrations at their next renewal.

It’s one of several steps being taken to get people to pay for use of Dallas-Fort Worth toll roads, which are playing an increasing role in the region’s mobility. In Fort Worth, Chisholm Trail Parkway hasn’t been open long enough for motorists to be delinquent with their tolls, so the Tarrant County residents who face having their vehicle registrations blocked most likely accumulated their past-due tolls on Dallas-area roads.

On Dallas-area roads, the tollway authority also is setting up electronic devices that scan the license plates of passing cars to identify vehicles with past-due accounts. In some cases, those vehicles can be pulled over by Texas Department of Public Safety highway troopers, and repeat violators can even have their automobiles impounded.
“Keep in mind that DPS troopers will check the banned list on routine traffic stops as well,” said tollway authority spokesman Michael Rey.

The agency has sent notices to 32,675 car owners in eight counties regionwide who are habitual violators, said James Hofmann, tollway authority assistant executive director of operations. Generally, a habitual violator is a car owner who has accumulated at least 100 tolls without paying.

All electronic
Uncollected tolls became an issue in 2010, after the tollway authority completed the conversion of its entire system to electronic toll collection. Gone are the toll booths, with employees who make change. Instead, motorists simply use the open toll roads and pay electronically. If they have a TollTag on the windshield, tolls are deducted automatically as they drive under payment gantries built over the road. For cars without a TollTag, cameras photograph the license plate and the registered owner is sent a bill.

In all, 16,065 registrations could be blocked in eight Metroplex counties by the end of the year, including the estimated 4,050 in Tarrant County, Hofmann told the tollway authority board during a meeting last week.

The agency also has notified 969 people, including 117 in Tarrant County, that their vehicles have been banned from the tollways and that if they continue to use the roads their vehicles are subject to being impounded.

Although the crackdown is in its initial weeks, many scofflaws who have been contacted by the tollway authority about their delinquent accounts have already made payment arrangements worth an estimated $7 million, according to Hofmann’s presentation.

The agency lost an estimated $12.5 million last year in unpaid tolls, officials have said previously.

Tarrant County
Tarrant County will collect $5.24 from the tollway authority for each car owner whose registration is blocked, but who subsequently makes some sort of payment arrangement. The payment is intended to offset the cost of the paperwork and staff time needed to process the vehicle registration blocks.

The crackdown is just getting started in Tarrant County, said Ron Wright, Tarrant County tax assessor/collector.

“We haven’t actually had to turn anyone away yet,” Wright said. “I expect with the opening of Chisholm Trail Parkway that over time there will be people turned away. We do expect that in the coming months.”

The county tax office also plans to embark on an education campaign, including placement of informational signs in county offices, to let car owners know about the toll rules.

About 2 million vehicles are registered in Tarrant County, he said. Of those, about 500,000 are issued titles, and 1.5 million are renewed.

Chisholm Trail Parkway, a 28-mile toll road from Interstate 30 near downtown Fort Worth to U.S. 67 in Cleburne, isn’t yet a part of the crackdown, Rey said. The toll road opened May 11, but several important connections needed to drive large amounts of traffic onto its lanes — including ramps at Interstates 30 and 20 — aren’t expected to open until September or October.

Higher tolls pushing many off the Dulles Toll Road

Link to article here.

Higher tolls pushing many off the Dulles Toll Road
By Lori Aratani
May 31, 2014
Washington Post

When the Dulles Toll Road was built in 1984, it was meant to provide quick local access to the interchanges between the Capital Beltway and Dulles International Airport. An average of 327,296 vehicles traverse the roadway daily. But after five straight years of toll increases, many drivers have decided that the convenience, such that it is, is no longer worth the cost.

“You talk to people and they go, ‘Oh, hell, no — I don’t use the toll road,’ ” said Tammi Petrine, a longtime Reston resident who used to use it but now avoids it whenever possible.

Burt Rosenberg, too, has sworn off the roadway.

“It’s the principle,” said Rosenberg, also from Reston, who uses the road only when he’s running late. “I just can’t encourage them, or they’ll just keep raising it.”

Commuters say that avoiding the 14-mile toll road has forced them to get creative, incorporating back roads and side streets into their daily drive. They compare notes with co-workers and neighbors — though not all are willing to share their routes. Some confess to using the Dulles Access Road to get around, even though the free roadway is supposed to be used only by people with airport business. Airport officials are cracking down on the practice, known as backtracking.

The most recent toll hike took effect in January. Now, most toll road users pay $3.50 per trip.

“It’s just crazy,” said Reston resident Jim Nagle. “If you just use the toll road for one round trip [a day], you’re spending $140 a month on tolls.”

For some drivers, the beef is not just the higher tolls. It’s also the fact that those dollars and quarters are going to pay for a rail line that they may never use.

That would be the Silver Line, the first phase being an 11.4-mile segment that will extend Metro service to Tysons Corner and Reston starting sometime this summer. A second, 11-mile segment, expected to open in 2018, will extend Metro service to Dulles International Airport and farther into Loudoun County.

The Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority, state of Virginia, federal government, and Loudoun and Fairfax counties are contributing to the project’s cost, but close to half of the $5.6 billion tab to build the Silver Line is being paid for by toll-road users. And that is why tolls have to be raised.

Officials at MWAA — which operates the toll road and is managing construction of the Silver Line — say they are sympathetic and are doing their best to temper the increases. They note that an additional $300 million in funding from the state and a low-interest loan from the federal government mean tolls likely won’t have to be increased again until 2018.

MWAA says the additional funding also means that future toll increases are likely to come less often and won’t be as steep. Still, barring another financial windfall, tolls will increase in coming years. According to an analysis by MWAA, by 2043, it may cost $11.25 per trip to drive on the toll road.

MWAA officials say people need to think big picture.

“Ultimately this project will benefit everyone in this region in terms of economic development and in particular for drivers who are going to see less congestion,” said MWAA spokesman Chris Paolino.

But that’s little comfort to folks who may find themselves paying $35 a week — more than $1,800 a year — to drive the road.

Jessa Foor of Sterling said rising tolls prompted her to leave her job in Arlington County for one in Reston, closer to home.

“Most of the reason I left my job is that I was paying a ridiculous amount of money to spend two hours on the road,” she said. “It’s one thing when you’re paying for a toll road that’s moving constantly, but when you’re paying and sitting in stopped traffic? I don’t want to pay to just sit there.”

Foor, a marketing executive, estimates that the shift has saved her more than $4,500 a year in tolls, gas and maintenance for her car.

And the reduction to her stress level? Priceless.

Not surprisingly, statistics show that as tolls increase, the number of annual toll road transactions decreases. Between 2010 and 2013, the number of transactions on the toll road declined by more than 5 million.

MWAA officials say a drop in usage after a toll increase is to be expected. According to projections, Paolino said, the agency expects the number to rebound.

And the dropoff hasn’t hurt the agency’s bottom line. MWAA made more than $127 million in toll revenue in 2013, compared with $88 million in 2010 — an increase of over $39 million.

But residents and elected officials worry the vehicles bailing on the toll road are clogging local surface roads.

“Simple economics tells you there’s going to be less usage and the cars that don’t use it are going to have to use alternative roads that run through our communities,” said Fairfax County Supervisor John W. Foust (D-Dranesville), who said he’s heard from constituents about more congested streets.

Virginia transportation officials, however, say they have no evidence that traffic volume has increased. Joan Morris, a spokeswoman for the Virginia Department of Transportation, said there are no plans to look at the impact toll increases are having on surrounding roads.

Petrine scoffs at the idea that traffic volume hasn’t increased. She can see it from the window of her home.

“I have been stunned at the amount of traffic that is now using Lawyers [Road],” she said of the road that runs parallel to the toll road and is a popular alternative for people trying to get from Reston to Vienna or Tysons. Others say they’ve seen more traffic on Leesburg Pike, a popular north-south artery, and on Beulah and Lewinsville roads.

Petrine said the additional traffic has changed how she structures her day. She avoids scheduling morning appointments with clients. Once 3 p.m. rolls around, she simply stays put. And nothing is a straight shot anymore, because she finds herself “jig-jagging” along streets.

“It’s really crazy that with our limited access in and out of Reston, they then saddle us with these crazy tolls that are making people jump the toll road,” she said.

Nagle’s commute from Reston to Bethesda can take an extra 20 to 30 minutes because he uses side streets instead of the toll road. He’s mum about his exact route, not wanting to tip off other drivers, but says it eventually gets him from his home in west Reston to Lewinsville Road near McLean.

He said he’s all for quality public transportation but doesn’t think making toll road users pay for a Metro line is fair.

“I’m stubborn, and I’m cheap,” said Nagle, who was one of the plaintiffs in an unsuccessful lawsuit that challenged the state’s decision in 2008 to transfer management of the toll road from VDOT to MWAA. A second suit, which challenged the use of tolls to fund the rail project, was recently dismissed by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit.

John Pinkman, who owns the Pinkman Baseball Academy in Sterling, said he hears complaints from his clients about the rising tolls. For his part, he does everything he can to avoid the toll road. And when he’s forced to use it, he’s not pleased.

“You can put me down as an angry toll road user,” he said. “It’s not that I’m cheap or don’t have the ability to pay. I just wonder, when is it all going to stop?”

A drop in usage
Total number of toll road transactions

Year     Transactions
2009    109 million
2010    104 million
2011    101 million
2012    100 million
2013    99 million

THE WASHINGTON POST

TxDOT head opens door to raiding road funds for rail

Link to article here.

From roads to rail: TxDOT head opens door to raiding road funds for rail
By Terri Hall
Examiner.com
May 29, 2014

In what appears to be a contradiction with Texas House Speaker Joe Straus’ announcement that his next budget will end all un-constitutional gas tax diversions to ensure taxes collected for roads indeed go to roads, Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) Executive Director Joe Weber recently signaled the need to depart from highway-only funding to use road taxes for rail.

Weber told the Dallas Morning News that “it’s going to take more than new roads to keep Texans traveling smoothly if population growth estimates prove true.”

He also said TxDOT needs to increase funding for rail projects despite an environment where road dollars are already scarce. With the Department’s shift to tolling, some of this money it plans to divert to rail will include toll revenues. Texans won’t take kindly to paying tolls to fund rail that they can’t or won’t use.

Power shift in Texas election to benefit anti-tollers

Link to article here.

Update: Bob Hall did edge out incumbent Senator Bob Deuell by 300 votes.

Power shift in Texas election to benefit anti-toll cause
By Terri Hall
Examiner.com
May 27, 2014

It was another great night for the anti-toll cause in Texas. Today was the Republican primary run-off election and voters toppled the incumbent David Dewhurst, replacing him with tea party favorite State Senator Dan Patrick for the powerful Lt. Governor seat. The campaign got downright nasty with Dewhurst hurling mud about Patrick’s past mental health challenges that dated back thirty years into the past, drudging up Patrick’s attempted suicide to try to win votes. It clearly didn’t work. Patrick beat Dewhurst 65%-35%.

Two more tea party favorites also won statewide office easily, perhaps on Patrick coattails: Ken Paxton beat Dan Branch for Attorney General and Sid Miller beat Tommy Merritt for Agriculture Commissioner. Newcomer and tea party leader Konni Burton cleaned up the senate seat vacated by Democrat Wendy Davis in Senate District 10, which is a pick-up for the GOP if she wins in November. Burton was also one of the top anti-toll candidates tonight.

NTTA Is Suing the Driver in a Horrific Irving Bus Crash Over Lost Toll Revenue

Link to article here.

Here’s yet another danger to using toll roads - you could be sured for loss of toll revenue for a traffic accident.

NTTA Is Suing the Driver in a Horrific Irving Bus Crash Over Lost Toll Revenue
By Eric Nicholson
Wed., May 28 2014
Dallas Observer

The two dozen lawsuits that have piled up against Grand Prairie's Cardinal Coachlines in the wake of last spring's grisly bus crash on the Bush Turnpike in Irving were predictable enough. Three dead, dozens more seriously injured, almost all senior citizens bound for Choctaw Casino in Durant, Oklahoma -- all because, according to the Texas Department of Public Safety, the driver couldn't stay in his lane.

On Friday, the North Texas Tollway Authority joined the line of plaintiffs, filing a lawsuit claiming negligence on the part of Cardinal Coachlines and its driver, Loyd Rieve. Their suit, however, isn't about the human toll of the crash. Rather, the NTTA wants compensation for property damage and lost toll revenue.

NTTA spokesman Michael Rey put the agency's losses at upwards of $100,000.

"That's for damage to the roadway, resources to work the accident and lost revenue for the hours the road was shut down," Rey wrote in an email. "The insurance company failed to address NTTA's claim in satisfactory fashion, so NTTA filed suit to protect its rights."

Rey didn't provide a breakdown of damages, but the loss in toll revenue alone would have been substantial. The southbound stretch of the turnpike was shut down for 3 hours, 31 minutes, according to the suit. Northbound -- the direction the bus was traveling -- the closure lasted from 9 a.m. to 5:14 p.m., spanning parts of morning and evening rush hour.

According to a recent NTTA revenue study, the average daily traffic volume on the Bush Turnpike through Irving is between 40,000 and 50,000 cars in each. Assuming that a third of those cars took alternate routes or left the tollway before they otherwise would have (and this is pure speculation), and that every one of those vehicles would have ended up paying NTTA $2.50 for their trip, the loss would have been in the ballpark of $75,000.

NTTA may not have an easy time collecting. Cardinal filed for bankruptcy last month, listing just over $13,000 in total assets.

New private toll road in Virginia draws opposition

Link to article here.

Jones: ‘Who was responsible?’
By Matthew Ward
Suffolk News-Herald
Thursday, May 29, 2014

There are flaws in Virginia’s approach to public-private partnerships, and further legislation will be needed to fix the problems.

Those are among the conclusions Delegate Chris Jones (R-Suffolk) has reached even before the final scrutiny of what went wrong in the push for a new toll road between Suffolk and Petersburg.

Transportation Secretary Aubrey Layne froze contract spending on the $1.4-billion new Route 460 in March, with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers steadfastly refusing to issue a permit for the preferred design alternative’s significant impact on wetlands.

But $300 million in public funds already had been spent, as former Gov. Bob McDonnell had pushed the project despite environmental concerns, calling it a strategically important transportation asset.

“This is something that should have never happened,” Jones, chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, said recently.

“It’s very concerning, not only to me but to my colleagues. I don’t know who was looking after the taxpayer in this process. That’s going to be part of my focus: to figure out, at the end of the day, who was ultimately responsible for this, and how we ended up where we are.”

Payments to the state’s private project partner, 460 Mobility Partners, are frozen while a supplemental study of environmental impacts required by the Corps is completed. But the project costs continue.

Virginia Department of Transportation spokeswoman Tamara Rollison said six firms have together billed VDOT a little more than $1 million from December and through March for their help with the environmental study.

Work included “preparing documentation, including field and research work, to study the environmental impacts” of the project’s five proposed alternatives, Rollison wrote in an email. Canceling the project is a sixth option.

But even as that review is in process, Gov. Terry McAuliffe announced last week that he also intends to reform the public-private partnership process to avoid similar situations in the future.

The Commonwealth Transportation Board passed a resolution to “increase transparency and competition and to better evaluate the public’s risk” for future Public Private Transportation Act Projects.

“Protecting every dollar that Virginia taxpayers send to Richmond is Job One for my administration,” McAuliffe stated in a press release. He has asked Layne “to work with the CTB to evaluate the state’s approach to public-private partnerships to ensure that we are giving Virginians the maximum return on their investment in those projects.”

Jones criticized McAuliffe’s predecessor for pushing through the 460’s public-private deal without General Assembly approval. “We have checks and balances for a reason,” he said.

If the project is canceled, Virginia taxpayers could be out of pocket $400 to $500 million all told, Layne last month told a hearing of the committee Jones chairs.

Layne and department Commissioner Charles Kilpatrick gave a chronology of the troubled project, starting with the legislature in early 2003 authorizing VDOT to solicit PPTA proposals.

Procurement was postponed in October 2009 after the private sector deemed the project financially unfeasible without a large public subsidy.

Procurement was terminated seven months later, but the project remained a high priority for McDonnell, whose administration pushed ahead with a new procurement structure that emphasized tolls on the new road.

In 2011, a bond sale was arranged after an independent review found the project would need significant public funding, and after the private sector indicated yet more public funding was required, the Virginia Port Authority — shortly after McDonnell cleared out its board — committed $250 million.

Even after the Corps expressed concern regarding the environmental impact of the project, VDOT was directed to “consider all options to advance the project.”

The contract with Mobility Partners, committing $904 million in highway funding, was signed in December 2012, weeks before the legislative session convened.

Jones said that the project should have been re-bid after no private support emerged, adding that individuals need to be held accountable.

“The bottom line is, throughout the whole process, there should have been much better judgment used in how they went about the job of building this road,” he said.

Jones plans to “sit back down again with the secretary and the commissioner to get answers to every unanswered question,” to “further refine the PPTA process.”

“This was never the intent of the legislation,” he added.

San Antonio city council belligerent about installing bike lanes

Link to article here.

Of course the elites that populate the San Antonio City Council know best and the rest of us just need to sit down and shut-up. They want to put us on a 'road diet' and presumably force us out of our cars and into mass transit. Sorry, but I have 9 kids and taking mass transit is not only inconvenient and not stroller or family-friendly, it's way more expensive per person than travel by car. Use our road taxes to expand them, not take away auto lanes and elevate bikes over cars.

City 'Won't Ask Permission" To Reduce Vehicle Lanes for Bikes
Friday, May 30th 2014
By Jim Forsyth
WOAI Radio

Mayor Julian Castro and other members of City Council stress that they are committed to narrowing roadways to create a system of bicycle lanes across the city, and a visibly frustrated Castro said the city will 'not ask permission' from taxpayers before they reduce vehicle lanes from major streets, 1200 WOAI news reports.

"The policy of the City of San Antonio is that we are going to build a strong bike network," Castro said.  "We will not ask permission before taking this action, just like we don't ask permission before we repair roads."

Texans charged twice for highways

Texans charged twice for highways
By Bennie Wilson : May 23, 2014
Express-News

SAN ANTONIO — Please consider the following scenario.

A Bexar County family goes shopping at its favorite grocery store to get biweekly food items and sundries. After awhile, the family checks out at one of the cashier stations.

As the family departs, the manager races out to catch them in the parking lot. The manager is apologetic as she explains that a robbery just occurred at their cashier station, so they must return their purchases since their payment has been stolen. As they look around the parking lot, they see other store employees accosting customers with what appears to be the same confiscation.

Group ranks states friendly to motorists, Texas not among them

Link to article here.

It's shocking Texas didn't make the Top 10 worst list with tolls coming on virtually every highway, but it's certainly not topping the list as a motorist-friendly state either. It won't be long before Texas tops the worst list however - once the toll roads under construction are open to traffic and enough vehicles impounded and car registrations blocked....

Activist Group Ranks States Most Friendly To Motorists
National Motorists Association ranks the top eight worst and best states for drivers.
May 19, 2014
The Newspaper.com

Drivers are happiest in the state of Wyoming and most harassed when traveling through the District of Columbia, according to rankings published Monday by the National Motorists Association (NMA). The drivers' rights group scored each state (and the District) based on five main factors related to how the government interacts with the motoring public.

"Driving in the United States can be hazardous, not only to your health, but to your civil rights and pocket book as well," the group explained. "Because each state treats motorists differently, how well you fare depends on which state you are driving in."

The NMA evaluated the legal protections available to motorists and gave states points based on whether trial by jury is allowed for traffic tickets, whether the case is heard by a real judge and whether the accused has the right of discovery in traffic cases.

"The relationship between state and motorist lies somewhere on the scale between 'to protect and serve' and 'command and control,'" NMA President Gary Biller told TheNewspaper. "It depends greatly on how the fuel tax, tolls and other user fees are collected, how fines are levied, and the degree to which that revenue is used to maintain and improve public roadways (not to mention highway safety) vs. being diverted for use on unrelated projects. We, as the oldest and largest drivers' rights organization in the US, decided to quantify that relationship on a state-by-state basis."

Regulations were evaluated based on whether speed limits were set appropriately, whether police can stop people merely for choosing not to wear a seatbelt, whether cell phone use while driving is banned and whether the state has a tax on license points or "driver responsibility" tax. States lost points for having lots of speed traps and roadblocks, photo enforcement and regular ticket blitzes. The cost of driving, in terms of tolls, taxes, fees and insurance costs were also taken into account. Finally, the rankings took into consideration each state's fiscal responsibility. Jurisdictions that raid gas tax funds for non-motoring projects such as bicycle paths and mass transit lost points.

"The NMA rankings show that all states have much room for improvement in treating motorists as part of the citizenry they answer to rather than as revenue sources to exploit," Biller said. "How else explain tactics such as ticket blitzes and nearly non-existent constitutional rights for defendants in many traffic courts?"

Montana aced the regulations category, while South Dakota and Wyoming were tops in fiscal responsibility. DC scored a zero in legal protection and New Jersey's massive tax regime gave it a miserable 1 out of 15 score in the cost of driving.

Article Excerpt:
Treat Motorists Worst
    1.    District of Columbia
    2.    New York
    3.    Delaware
    4.    New Jersey
    5.    Vermont
    6.    Maryland
    7.    Illinois
    8.    Rhode Island
    9.    Florida

Treat Motorists Best
    1.    Wyoming
    2.    North Dakota
    3.    Utah
    4.    Mississippi
    5.    Montana
    6.    Kansas
    7.    South Dakota
    8.    Wisconsin

Roads alone won’t drive Texas’ future, new TxDOT chief says

Link to article here.

Roads alone won’t drive Texas’ future, new TxDOT chief says
By BRANDON FORMBY
Transportation Writer
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Published: 18 May 2014 10:32 PM

The Texas Department of Transportation’s new executive director says it’s going to take more than new roads to keep Texans traveling smoothly if population growth estimates prove true.

The way Joe Weber sees it, the state transportation agency needs to increase financing for commuter and freight projects if it is to build the infrastructure that Texans are going to want and need in the decades ahead.

“That’s going to be hard to do,” Weber said. “That’s a cultural change.”

Some estimates project the state could double its population to more than 55 million residents in less than 40 years. TxDOT faces inadequate funding to maintain current state roads and build new highways to keep pace.

But one of Weber’s biggest priorities in the short term is going to be reducing the number of traffic fatalities. More than 1,100 people have died in vehicle accidents so far this year.

“That’s embarrassing to me,” Weber said.

The Texas Transportation Commission tapped Weber last month to replace former executive director Phil Wilson, who left to run a Texas water authority. Weber, a retired Marine Corps lieutenant general, last week spoke with The Dallas Morning News about his philosophies on the future of Texas transportation.

Weber was most recently the vice president of student affairs at Texas A&M, his alma mater. Like Wilson, Weber is not an engineer and doesn’t have a transportation-focused background.

But, he said, his 36-year tenure in the Marines included overseeing a host of construction work, military base installations and infrastructure projects.

“So it’s not new to me,” he said.

Weber said that meeting transportation needs isn’t just about making sure Texans get to work. He said the future stability of the state’s economy will rely on businesses, workers and consumers being able to connect through all modes of transport.

“It’s about economic development,” he said. “It’s not just moving around, it’s not just solely congestion.”

Putting more emphasis on transportation modes other than roads isn’t just predicated on a shift in thinking — it’s going to require a change in how the agency spends its money. TxDOT, like most of its counterparts across the country, was born out of a former state highway department. And when it comes to legislative funding and agency spending, those roots are still apparent.

“Funding still primarily revolves around highway construction,” said agency spokesman Bob Kaufman.

Weber said the agency needs to work closely with local authorities — including other transportation agencies — to better plan for future needs and projects. He said the agency will have to continue to explore new ways to finance projects. And emerging technologies such as automated cars could also lead to innovations that relieve congestion in less costly ways to the agency.

“We’re really in a window of opportunity,” Weber said.

Much of Texas drinking water flush with 'potty water'

Link to article here.

No Joke: Most Drinking Supplies Flush With "Potty Water"
by Neena Satija
Texas Tribune
May 14, 2014

Poor old Wichita Falls.

The city of about 105,000 people has become the butt of late-night jokes and the subject of shocked headlines since officials decided to turn to treated sewer water to fill residents' drinking glasses.

Turns out, though, the joke is on just about everybody else. Because for the large chunk of population that lives downstream from a big city and whose water supply flows through a river, more than a few drops of the water in their glasses was probably once in someone else's toilet.

Let’s start with Houston, which, as Texas State University professor Andy Sansom says, “has been drinking Dallas’ crap for decades.” Wastewater from Dallas and Fort Worth is deposited into the Trinity River, where it flows down into the lakes that supply Houston residents. The wastewater is so clean that it’s credited with helping the Trinity River stay strong during recent years of severe drought.

San Antonio’s wastewater — which flows through the city’s famed Riverwalk in times of drought — is considered valuable, too. Recently, the San Antonio Water System applied for a permit to ensure complete ownership over that wastewater, which is currently deposited into the San Antonio River and is so clean that it helped bring back species some thought were gone from the area forever. 

The Guadalupe-Blanco River Authority balked at the application, saying its own customers — farmers, manufacturers and, you guessed it, South Texas city residents — rely on that wastewater. It is so important to the authority that it’s taking legal action against the San Antonio Water System’s permit.

No one involved in the brewing court battle over who owns San Antonio’s wastewater is calling it “potty water," as the Fort Worth Star-Telegram did in a recent story about the Wichita Falls plan.

There are a few other things to be clear about regarding the multimillion-dollar project planned in Wichita Falls. Wastewater reuse in Wichita Falls has been in the works for years and would have happened with or without the drought. It was fast-tracked as the city deals with reservoirs that are only 25 percent full today. In addition, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality — not known for being a particularly strict regulating agency — is currently on the defensive for delaying the city’s project by asking for more testing.

Several other Texas cities — San Antonio, Austin and Fort Worth among them — have been looking at such water reuse projects for decades, and some are hoping the plans might come to fruition in the coming years. Across Texas, treated wastewater is being used for everything from watering golf courses to making silicon chips.

Yet judging by the headlines on news reports about the Wichita Falls project, the city’s residents could be in for some sort of disgusting surprise.

“Brushing Teeth With Sewer Water Next Step as Texas Faces Drought,” read a Bloomberg News headline.

National Public Radio wrote, "Drought-Stricken Texas Town Turns To Toilets For Water." Most recently, NBC’s Today Show tackled the topic, with a reporter noting, “Some residents think it’s just plain gross.”

Bloomberg News noted that many people are concerned about water contamination, comparing the Wichita Falls project to the example of Oregon water officials flushing 38 million gallons from a reservoir after a teenager urinated into it. "We're not drought-stricken Texas," an official there noted.  

On that note, remember all the people guzzling beer and floating in the water out on Lakes Travis and Buchanan, which supply Austin's drinking water. No one is suggesting flushing those bodies of water or implying that residents of the capital city are brushing their teeth with sewer water.

When talking about the yuck factor associated with water reuse projects, people seem to be distraught over the fact that the water would go directly from a sewer treatment plant to the tap. That's the short-term plan in Wichita Falls during this extreme drought. Eventually, the city plans to blend treated sewer water with reservoir water before anyone drinks it — not unlike what happens in other cities.

And the fact is, some of the lakes and rivers that supply water here in the United States can get pretty dirty. The recent horrific spill in the Elk River from the chemical manufacturing company Freedom Industries that had 300,000 West Virginians afraid to take showers is just one example.

A recent New York Times investigation showed that public water supplies nationwide contain everything from arsenic to radium at higher-than-safe levels. In the Rio Grande, which supplies millions of South Texans and farmers with drinking and irrigation water, raw sewage is dumped in the river from Mexico every day — and water treatment plants either deal with it or they don't, as was demonstrated in a small town near Laredo last fall when residents were forced to boil their water for three weeks after getting sick from taking showers.

In fact, an exhaustive National Academy of Sciences study of wastewater reuse concluded that when it comes to potential pathogens that may be in the water, “the risk from potable reuse does not appear to be any higher, and may be orders of magnitude lower, than currently experienced in at least some current (and approved) drinking water treatment systems.”

No wonder so many cities — not just in Texas — are considering direct water reuse as a water supply strategy to quench their thirst.

On The Tonight Show recently, host Jimmy Fallon made a joke that a lot of environmental advocates, water engineers and city planners across the state have said they think asks a good question.

“A town in Texas just announced a controversial plan to recycle toilet water and use it for drinking water. Dog said, ‘How are you only thinking of this now?’"

Austin City Council casts symbolic vote against Texas 45 Southwest

Link to article here.

Austin City Council casts symbolic vote against Texas 45 Southwest
By Lilly Rockwell
American-Statesman Staff
May 16, 2014

In a largely symbolic gesture, the Austin City Council voted 6-1 early Friday morning to declare its opposition to the proposed Texas 45 Southwest toll road, asking the city manager to engage highway decision-makers on various alternatives.

The move is likely futile. Texas 45 Southwest has been lining up the approvals and money it needs to be built. The toll road is controversial because it will be built over environmentally sensitive lands and could direct more traffic on to already-congested MoPac (Loop 1) Boulevard.

This story continues on our new premium website for subscribers, MyStatesman.com. 
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Gas prices go up, toll revenues drop

Link to article here.

Gas Cost Rises, Toll Road Use Sinks
Gas tax collections faring better than Indiana Toll Road in spite of record high fuel prices.
The Newspaper.com
June 12, 2014

Gasoline prices are at an all time high, and as a result some areas have reported reductions in the average amount vehicle miles traveled as consumers adjust driving habits. A number of influential highway officials have seized upon this news to advocate for a move away from gasoline tax-funded transportation networks to a system dominated by toll roads.

"This latest trend is yet another reason that we need to overhaul the highway financing system," Federal Highway Administration acting head Jim Ray wrote in May. "New funding methods that are not dependent on fuel consumption are needed and needed now."

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