Everyone has encountered one in their life, and everyone hates them...the dreaded toll roads. Reuters is reporting that a new debate on toll roads is being sparked by a toll road in Colorado where the organization over the highway formed agreements with the local government to slow down another free, competing road (story here). Ten years ago, the local government made an agreement with the organization planning a new toll road to slow down the free, public road by installing three new signal lights and slowing down the speed limit from 55mph to 40 to, of course, encourage business on the new toll road. Talk about bull! How dare this "organization" and town of Commerce City enter into such agreements. The idea of government is to represent the wants and desires of the people. I really doubt that the people of this town wanted their lightly-traveled road to be slowed down so that they had to pay a fee to get around faster; I certainly wouldn't care that fair representation. I know that my family and I recently traveled along I-77 in West Virginia and got more than tired of paying stupid tolls to drive on a road that was crumbling like a cookie. Why should we have to pay a toll while traveling on highways in the US? Isn't the highway system suppose to be a public service to benefit everyone? We pay plenty in taxes every year; our government is suppose to use that money "wisely" and provide the people that they represent with basic services. I would consider driving from place-to-place a basic service that everyone should be able to enjoy, not just people that can throw away $10 to travel on a road (not to mention the evil gas prices). Our country has grew and prospered in part because of our magnificent highway and interstate system; it has made commerce and travel much easier and safer. Now as we move more and more to tolled roads, can that prosperity from the roads continue? Can our great country continue to grow with the increasing taxing of Americans? That's basically what the toll is: another tax to burden Americans (another regressive tax, by the way). I guess that just another reason to move to Tennessee...we have no toll roads (at least, I have never encountered one in my extensive Tennessee travels).
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