HOT LANES PROPOSED TOLLS WOW

Folks, this is a political/financial shell game.

Has anyone looked at the HOV lanes lately? They're a mess; potholes and cracks everywhere! VDOT is facing steep HOV lane maintanence costs, and has no budget to complete the promised HOV lane buildout. VDOT is facing a financial crisis and Barbara Reese, VDOT's CFO and financial guru is on the hook to fund these programs THAT WERE PAID FOR by VA taxpayers AS VDOT PROMISED.

Along comes a "solution"; lease out the rights to a private firm to charge tolls on the highway in exchange for the maintanence and buildout. VDOT and Reese get to save face and the roads get fixed. Soundes like a good solution until you look under the shells and find that the cost burden has been dumped on the backs of NOVA commuters.

Come on NOVA taxpayers, folllow the money! It goes from our pockets to VDOT coffers, then, where? It's gone! Now VDOT is going back to the well, NOVA commuter's pockets, with a fee for road construction and maintanence in the disguise of a toll (with a tidy profit skimmed off the top by Flour) and calling it a "user fee." It all sounds fair until you realize that NOVA taxpayers have already paid for this!

And it gets worse when you realize what effect tolls will have:
-Discourage carpooling, while encouraging single, affluent passenger commuting,
-Discourage other forms of ridesharing such as busses/vanpools (yes, they will be tolled too),
-Encourage affluent urban flight as those who can afford the commute will move further out the the exurbs,
-Push the middle class, suburban commuters onto an already crowded and expensive mass transit system, and, as much of the METRO riders receive subsidies for taking mass transit,
-Funnel costs for this whole fiasco right back to the taxpayer: follow the money here folks; high tolls push commuters onto METRO> govn't. pays mass transit allowanses> taxpayers fund govn't. services> mass transit allowance costs increase> taxpayers must pay more for govn't. services.

Meanwhile, in another part of the country, Flour executives (and NOVA politicians) sit in big leather chairs counting their profits and laugh about how they snowed NOVA taxpayers/commuters into paying, yet again, for a boondoggle!

I'm right there with you HOV3. I'll start putting my case together for telecommuting as soon as the tolls kick in. There's no way I'll be putting out that money. I'd rather take a pay cut and work out of Stafford.