Senate ready to pass highway programs overhaul

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Associated Press

Senate ready to pass highway programs overhaul
Associated Press | Posted: Tuesday, March 13, 2012 12:45 pm

The Senate is ready to pass long-delayed legislation overhauling America's highway and transit systems, with lawmakers steering past partisan fights that have kept it sidelined.

The measure, now set for a floor vote Tuesday, would give states more flexibility in how they spend federal money and would step up the pace of road construction by shortening environmental reviews. Even the measure's sponsors _ California Democrat Barbara Boxer and Oklahoma Republican James Inhofe _ come from opposite political poles. Passage would provide a rare display of bipartisan deal-making between the parties in a bitterly partisan election year.

We are hopeful this will become a template for all of us in the Senate and the House to find the sweet spot where we can work together," Boxer said. She said the Senate's bipartisan success should be a lesson for House Republican leaders, whose efforts to pass their own bill without concessions to Democrats have fallen apart.

Nearly 20 amendments _ including proposals to put toll booths on interstate highways, provide tax credits for alternative energy, and tighten requirements that highways and bridges be constructed using domestic goods and labor _ were slated to be voted on in an all-day marathon of Senate voting.



Read more: http://www.stltoday.com/news/senate-ready-to-pass-highway-programs-overhaul/article_b88905b6-96a0-596c-9539-d66b0f678c60.html#ixzz1p1i9ZHlV

[denverbill]

1. Toll booths on interstates? Great, push the tax burden down again.

Billionaires don't use the roads any more than I do. When roads are paid for with tax revenue, billionaires pay the exact same amount an unemployed person does to go to a job interview.

Some of the other stuff looks good though.

[FarCenter]

10. They should put tolls on trucks, since trucks cause the most wear and maintenance costs

Maintenance is heavily dependent on vehicle weight.

Tolls aren't really an impediment to the free flow of traffic. The toll wickets are more and more high-speed lanes with overhead readers for the EZPass. They actually have a beneficial effect on traffic flow, since they break up bunching of vehicles.

[woo me with science]

2. So they're planning a system of toll plazas/stopping places on our highways.

I bet those would come in very handy for TSA searches, if such searches should ever become more frequent and necessary. But of course that would never happen.

And for those who buy an EZ-Pass, the wheels are already in motion by the developers to put government cameras inside your car:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=edit&forum=1002&thread=419965&pid=420039

And the poster above has it right. The one percent will not be waiting in line to get through the toll booths.

Not to mention....this will wreck the experience of getting out on the open road in your car. Turnpikes are not the same.

Every day there is a new one. I can't stand this. This one looks like it should be small from the headline....who would oppose overhaul of our highways?....but damn it. Don't take away my open road.




No, there's been quite a bit of bipartisanship lately...

[Selatius]

5. Putting up toll plazas would help government authorities monitor movement of people.

In a time of war, the toll plazas would become de facto checkpoints if they're equipped with high definition cameras equipped with facial recognition software. They could easily use the cameras to identify people of interest, and they could easily set up checkpoints on country back roads to gain total control over movement of people who don't or won't use highways. Aerial surveillance, such as experimental drones being tested by the police, could complete the encapsulation of a population in theory.

[woo me with science]

6. I am angry

that this even comes to mind in the United States of America.. I am angry that I have fear of my own government.

I am even angrier that checkpoints seem entirely plausible in the context of everything else they have been doing lately.

[FarLeftFist]

22. Calm down. Breathe. I'm worried about your mental health, and no I'm not being snarky. I'm serious.

It's not normal to hear 'transportation bill' and spiral so out of control. How about waiting until you have actually been to that checkpoint before fearing it. I hope you get help.

Edit: I don't like the idea of more tolls either, but not nearly for the same reasons you seem to. Although it WOULD mean more good paying jobs, mostly union.

[nebenaube]

11. fix your link please... n/t

[Mojorabbit]

3. Ihate that they are shortening environmental reivews

esp if they are giving the state more leeway. Here in Fl that just means more wetlands trashed in the name of development. Meh

[DallasNE]

4. What Ever Happened To

Gas taxes to cover road construction. It is more fair because weight is the most important factor in road damage and the heavier the vehicle the worse the fuel economy and the more that driver pays. Charging a 3,000 lb vehicle the same as a 6,000 lb vehicle makes no sense. When was the last time the gas tax was increased? (Hint, it was last changed in October 1993). Plus, there is a substantial cost to construct, maintain and operate toll stations. There is no cost to changing the gas tax. I would propose a 3 cent increase for each of the next 5 years (to give people time to adjust how they travel).

[woo me with science]

7. Yes, it's a clumsy, expensive, and outmoded way of collecting money.

That's why, IMO, you have to start thinking about other reasons they might want a system of checkpoint plazas on our nation's highways.

And it's disturbing as hell to start thinking about that.

[dixiegrrrrl]

20. Actually, privatizing some tollbooths has been going on.

One good example is the Orange Beach Highway which was built by bond issue, but then sold to a private company, in some kind of county deal that was supposed to be good for the citizens.
the highway was supposed to be a "shortcut" down to the beaches.
But then 2008 hit, the economy went into the crapper, and the road did not have enough cars to make any money.

[Turbineguy]

8. There's only one answer to that...

[Earth_First]

16. +1

[YellowRubberDuckie]

9. I think it might be about time to start thinking about leaving...

If only I had the funds to go...

[Lydia Leftcoast]

12. Well now, from an environmental point of view

making people aware of the true cost of highways might not be a bad idea.

People grumble about how public transit and trains cost so much money, and yet they seem to feel that highways are "free."

[mac56]

15. +1

[Locrian]

13. I can guarantee you ....

that what happened in Indiana will happen to these new tollways: after construction, they will be "auctioned off" or sold to private businesses for a short term profit. Guarrraaaannttteeee.

[KamaAina]

14. You mean like they used to have in Connecticut?

The Connecticut Turnpike went toll-free years ago, after a truck driver plowed into a tollbooth at 60 miles an hour, touching off a firestorm that burned seven people beyond recognition.

The truck driver was named Kluttz. Seriesly.

[They_Live]

17. This is an awful idea.

It's a scam. Gasoline tax should be paying for this, not a regressive toll tax. Call your critters...
Call [phone] (Senate Switchboard) to STOP tolls on existing FREEways in ALL 50 states
--Ask your members of Congress to support the Hutchison Amendment to prohibit tolls on existing free lanes.

[woo me with science]

21. +1000000

[librechik]

18. OML. Does anyone know what poison pills are hidden in this bill?

[just1voice]

19. The hideous state of VA has already mentioned tolling I-95 all the way to Richmond

The insane repukes are incapable of even entertaining the idea that a toll would shut down a huge amount of commerce in the state.