Atlanta Forward readers responded to our columns this week about new toll lanes along I-75 in Henry County. Here are some selected comments:
Matt: Toll roads will not solve the underlying problem on this stretch of I-75, which is 18-wheelers and out-of-town traffic.
Jefferson: The whole interstate system was built without toll lanes. Why can't they expand without tolls? Why should we have to pay twice? Who is ripping off the taxpayers — contractors?
DC: More gas taxes … not really a great solution, as more and more hybrids get on the road and don't pay their "fair" share. It seems like hybrids should have to pay an extra annual (or at-purchase) tax that goes to support roads, so the rest of us don't get stuck subsidizing them again and again.
JM: We need toll lanes. And we need more highway capacity. So raise the gas tax and create more toll lanes for additional capacity.
Last Democrat: On its face, building an Outer Perimeter highway to take truck traffic off of the I-285 Perimeter and all approaching spoke interstates is an excellent idea, as many major metros have either second or even third outer loops or bypasses. But just like raising the state's increasingly antiquated fuel tax, building a second outer loop in the form of the Outer Perimeter or a second northern outer bypass in the form of the Northern Arc is a total political impossibility. There are too many extremely politically powerful people in state and regional government standing in the way of an Outer Perimeter being built, particularly with regards to the Northern Arc, which runs through some of the most affluent suburban areas in the nation and was officially canceled by Gov. Sonny Perdue in 2003 due to overwhelming opposition from a robust coalition of area residents, area landowners, regional environmentalists and regional transit activists. The robust coalition that took down the Outer Perimeter/Northern Arc over a decade ago was pretty much the same across-the-board coalition that took down last year's unpopular T-SPLOST, but without the tea party labels of the current political climate. Raising the fuel tax is a political impossibility that no politician in the tea party-dominated conservative state of Georgia would not ever dare suggest for fear that their political careers would be over quickly. If we are going to make the necessary improvements to our transportation infrastructure, we are going to have to do it in a way that does not involve the futile task of attempting to push through politically unfeasible tax increases. We are also going to have to do it without the help of the federal government, which is effectively bankrupt and teetering on the edge of financially insolvency and financial oblivion. We are going to have to pay for it on our own with the use of user fees.
