Lol if your state has toll roads

The Something Awful Forums > Archives > General Bullshit > Lol if your state has toll roads

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thathonkey: Jul 17, 2012

They should charge people for riding bikes on streets and for walking on sidewalks imo

# ? Jun 30, 2015 23:06

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# ? Apr 24, 2024 09:15

Hackers film 1995: Nov 4, 2009; Hack the planet!

thathonkey posted:

They should charge people for riding bikes on streets and for walking on sidewalks imo

those fat cats at the epa wanna charge you for breathing and farting because it pollutes the air.

# ? Jun 30, 2015 23:08

thathonkey: Jul 17, 2012

How much would shitposting cost? :ohdear:

# ? Jun 30, 2015 23:11

Fat-Lip-Sum-41.mp3: Nov 15, 2003

the NE corridor has toll roads because 15-20% of the god drat US population has to drive on them

# ? Jun 30, 2015 23:12

Hackers film 1995: Nov 4, 2009; Hack the planet!

thathonkey posted:

How much would shitposting cost?

it always free my guy

# ? Jun 30, 2015 23:12

Ash1138: Sep 29, 2001; Get up, chief. We're just gettin' started.

you were warned posted:

Oh, there's that crazy bullshit with the flex EZ Pass, too! Where if you have 3+ people in the car, you can switch it to an HOV setting and they don't charge you. But you have to pay a fee to have that kind of pass. And they watch you to see if you actually have three people in the car.

I think that's the same company that owns the toll road that goes out to the far western suburbs, which is over $6 each way! And then there's another toll if you keep going east past the airport toward DC! I loving hate those roads, but I live so far from the city and the traffic is so bad that I end up using them sometimes anyway.

Yeah the Dulles Toll Road becomes the Dulles Greenway which has the super dumb $4 tolls, but it's owned by ANOTHER toll road company from Australia.

# ? Jun 30, 2015 23:17

Jastiger: Oct 11, 2008; by FactsAreUseless

thathonkey posted:

How much would shitposting cost?

2020 they are going to assess a surcharge per shitpost for causing global warming. Increased methane and all.

Snatch Duster posted:

Iowa? isn't that some dirt farming poo poo state? lol

get the gently caress out son

iowa is garbage

GARBAGE!

Mad about tolls itt.

# ? Jul 1, 2015 00:04

Wicker Man: Sep 5, 2007; Just like Columbus...; Clapping Larry

Which ones are owned by foreign companies? Always thought that was hilarious.

# ? Jul 1, 2015 00:17

texaholic: Sep 16, 2007; Well it's floodin' down in Texas
All of the telephone lines are down

Return Of JimmyJars posted:

I love tolls because it keeps the poors outta my way

hell yeah brother

# ? Jul 1, 2015 00:19

Spazzle: Jul 5, 2003

thathonkey posted:

How much would shitposting cost?

# ? Jul 1, 2015 00:34

ChairmanMeow: Mar 1, 2008; Fire up the grill everyone eats tonight!; Lipstick Apathy

Jastiger posted:

What state?

PA (65mph) OH(70mph)
my trip is 2 and 1/half hours 5.75 into ohio and 12.65 back

# ? Jul 1, 2015 00:56

CaptainSarcastic: Jul 6, 2013

We need to institute a fly-over state tax, and make the poo poo states between the coasts pay for their crimes.

# ? Jul 1, 2015 01:55

ChairmanMeow: Mar 1, 2008; Fire up the grill everyone eats tonight!; Lipstick Apathy

CaptainSarcastic posted:

We need to institute a fly-over state tax, and make the poo poo states between the coasts pay for their crimes.

they are more afraid of you then you are of them

# ? Jul 1, 2015 01:56

Bugdrvr: Mar 7, 2003

CaptainSarcastic posted:

We need to institute a fly-over state tax, and make the poo poo states between the coasts pay for their crimes.

I agree with this. I'm not sure how much more punishment they can stand after having to actually live in said poo poo state but I'm sure we can come up with something.

# ? Jul 1, 2015 02:12

Jastiger: Oct 11, 2008; by FactsAreUseless

ChairmanMeow posted:

PA (65mph) OH(70mph)
my trip is 2 and 1/half hours 5.75 into ohio and 12.65 back

Every day?

# ? Jul 1, 2015 02:23

ChairmanMeow: Mar 1, 2008; Fire up the grill everyone eats tonight!; Lipstick Apathy

Jastiger posted:

Every day?

2-3x a month it's not bad

# ? Jul 1, 2015 02:27

glowing-fish: Feb 18, 2013; Keep grinding,
I hope you level up!

Someone posted asking why toll roads need change and don't take credit cards:

Toll roads are on the East Coast of the US, where using technology to do things is not encouraged because the people there are sludgy and tradition bound.

Of course, there is a lot of high tech stuff on the East Coast, but it doesn't come native to the people there. They have to be trained to it. Its like a dog, you can teach a dog to not poop inside, but the dog doesn't really know why and would rather be pooping wherever. Same thing with East Coast people and any new idea. They can adjust to it, but they never really internalize it or use it spontaneously.

# ? Jul 1, 2015 02:40

OXBALLS DOT COM: Sep 11, 2005; by FactsAreUseless; Young Orc

glowing-fish posted:

Someone posted asking why toll roads need change and don't take credit cards:

Toll roads are on the East Coast of the US, where using technology to do things is not encouraged because the people there are sludgy and tradition bound.

Of course, there is a lot of high tech stuff on the East Coast, but it doesn't come native to the people there. They have to be trained to it. Its like a dog, you can teach a dog to not poop inside, but the dog doesn't really know why and would rather be pooping wherever. Same thing with East Coast people and any new idea. They can adjust to it, but they never really internalize it or use it spontaneously.

more like anyone who actually travels frequently has EZ pass and an EZ pass account. for you ferners who don't know, ez pass is an rfid transponder you stick on your car and it works in most states that take tolls

also credit card companies charge money to process credit cards which is a ripoff.

# ? Jul 1, 2015 03:26

Jastiger: Oct 11, 2008; by FactsAreUseless

Mange Mite posted:

more like anyone who actually travels frequently has EZ pass and an EZ pass account. for you ferners who don't know, ez pass is an rfid transponder you stick on your car and it works in most states that take tolls

also credit card companies charge money to process credit cards which is a ripoff.

Complete gobbledegook to us Red Blooded Americans that don't pay no Big Brother tax to use our federal highway system.

ChairmanMeow posted:

2-3x a month it's not bad

Does your company pay for it? Or is it to see family?

# ? Jul 1, 2015 03:33

Burt Sexual: Jan 26, 2006; by Jeffrey of YOSPOS; Switchblade Switcharoo

Wicker Man posted:

Which ones are owned by foreign companies? Always thought that was hilarious.

Every one I know is at least half owned by illegals or foreign companies they call them.

# ? Jul 1, 2015 03:34

OXBALLS DOT COM: Sep 11, 2005; by FactsAreUseless; Young Orc

also the point of tolls is to get money from out-of-staters who use your roads, which is a proud american tradition

# ? Jul 1, 2015 03:35

gnarlyhotep: Sep 30, 2008; by Lowtax; Oven Wrangler

Jastiger posted:

Dude get off my nuts, rude.

Sounds like living in Iowa has you upset

# ? Jul 1, 2015 04:12

Cactus Ghost: Dec 20, 2003; you can actually inflate your scrote pretty safely with sterile saline, syringes, needles, and aseptic technique. its a niche kink iirc

the saline just slowly gets absorbed into your blood but in the meantime you got a big round smooth distended nutsack

gently caress the ROW posted:

california is just a select few extremely rich homos splashing around in a pool of deseperately poor homos

i have lived in ca most of my life and as one of those desperately poor homos i can attest to the truth of this

Cactus Ghost fucked around with this message at 07:55 on Jul 1, 2015

# ? Jul 1, 2015 07:52

gnarlyhotep: Sep 30, 2008; by Lowtax; Oven Wrangler

OMGVBFLOL posted:

sometimes i daydream about hurling molotovs at a billionaire's house or taking a crowbar to any of the multitude of supercars i see parked on the street

do it

# ? Jul 1, 2015 07:55

Cactus Ghost: Dec 20, 2003; you can actually inflate your scrote pretty safely with sterile saline, syringes, needles, and aseptic technique. its a niche kink iirc

the saline just slowly gets absorbed into your blood but in the meantime you got a big round smooth distended nutsack

i dont know what you're talking about, i would never do such a thing, nor express any desire dto do so

# ? Jul 1, 2015 07:58

Cactus Ghost: Dec 20, 2003; you can actually inflate your scrote pretty safely with sterile saline, syringes, needles, and aseptic technique. its a niche kink iirc

the saline just slowly gets absorbed into your blood but in the meantime you got a big round smooth distended nutsack

cease this libellous assault

# ? Jul 1, 2015 07:58

My Q-Face: Jul 8, 2002; A dumb racist who need to kill themselves

Jastiger posted:

I also didn't have my trip interrupted to slow down to get Der Furhers Highway Pass brought to you by Big Brother.

Der Fuhrer's Highway System is distinctly toll-free, and efforts to have it turned into a toll road are consistently beaten in the ballot box. :colbert:

Malf posted:

ANYWAY what I'm saying is, maybe more people would use toll roads if you could pay with a modern payment method. I don't think i've ever used a toll road in the UK where I couldn't pay by card.

I was driving through France and my friends told me I could just swipe my card at the toll booths, but then I got there and despite what the commercials told me, they didn't take Visa or Mastercard, but they did take American Express! "Everywhere you want to be" my rear end!

My Q-Face fucked around with this message at 08:05 on Jul 1, 2015

# ? Jul 1, 2015 08:02

My Q-Face: Jul 8, 2002; A dumb racist who need to kill themselves

Oh, and if you really want to Lol, most Toll Roads in the Mid-Atlantic (PA, Virginia, even Ohio, Illinois and DC) and many in the North East and elsewhere are actually owned and operated by China. Like the US built them and now China owns them for the next 20 years, collecting all the profits and leaving the state on the hook for maintaining them when the lease is up. (Most Highways in the US are built to last 20 years before needing to be repaved)

# ? Jul 1, 2015 08:14

Jastiger: Oct 11, 2008; by FactsAreUseless

My Q-Face posted:

Der Fuhrer's Highway System is distinctly toll-free, and efforts to have it turned into a toll road are consistently beaten in the ballot box.

I was driving through France and my friends told me I could just swipe my card at the toll booths, but then I got there and despite what the commercials told me, they didn't take Visa or Mastercard, but they did take American Express! "Everywhere you want to be" my rear end!

Who wants to be on a toll road in France? Visa wins this one.

Do you have any information on the companies that own the toll roads? I find this completely hilarious and depressing that the state can build all of these roads, charge extra to drive on them on a per-state basis, and then send all of that sweetie toll road profit to a company not even in the same country. Like seriously what in the gently caress.

# ? Jul 1, 2015 12:02

My Q-Face: Jul 8, 2002; A dumb racist who need to kill themselves

Jastiger posted:

Who wants to be on a toll road in France? Visa wins this one.

Do you have any information on the companies that own the toll roads? I find this completely hilarious and depressing that the state can build all of these roads, charge extra to drive on them on a per-state basis, and then send all of that sweetie toll road profit to a company not even in the same country. Like seriously what in the gently caress.

Old newspaper clippings from 8+ years ago. (This is just one of them)

http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/nation/2006-07-15-u.s.-highways_x.htm

quote:

WASHINGTON (AP) � Roads and bridges built by U.S. taxpayers are starting to be sold off, and so far foreign-owned companies are doing the buying.
On a single day in June, an Australian-Spanish partnership paid $3.8 billion to lease the Indiana Toll Road. An Australian company bought a 99-year lease on Virginia's Pocahontas Parkway, and Texas officials decided to let a Spanish-American partnership build and run a toll road from Austin to Seguin for 50 years

Few people know that the tolls from the U.S. side of the tunnel between Detroit and Windsor, Canada, go to a subsidiary of an Australian company � which also owns a bridge in Alabama.

Some experts welcome the trend. Robert Poole, transportation director for the conservative think tank Reason Foundation, said private investors can raise more money than politicians to build new roads because these kind of owners are willing to raise tolls.

"They depoliticize the tolling decision," Poole said. Besides, he said, foreign companies have purchased infrastructure in Europe for years; only now are U.S. companies beginning to get into the business of buying roads and bridges.

Gas taxes and user fees have fueled the expansion of the nation's highway system. Thousands of miles of roads built since the 1950s changed the landscape, accelerating the growth of suburbia and creating a reliance on motor vehicles to move freight, get to work and take vacations.

In 1956, President Eisenhower pushed to create the interstate highway system for a different: to move troops and tanks and evacuate civilians.

The Bush administration's plan to let a foreign company manage U.S. ports met a storm of protest in February. But plans to sell or lease highways to companies outside the United States have not met such resistance.

John Foote, senior fellow at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, said the government can take over a highway in an emergency. But he objects to selling roads to raise cash.

But that is just what Chicago has done.

Last year, the city sold a 99-year lease on the eight-mile Chicago Skyway for $1.83 billion. The buyer was the same consortium that leased the Indiana Toll Road � Macquarie Infrastructure Group of Sydney, Australia, and Cintra Concesiones de Infraestructuras de Transporte of Madrid, Spain.

Chicago used the money to pay off debt and fund road projects. Skyway tolls rose 50 cents, to $2.50; By 2017, they will reach $5.

The Indiana Toll Road lease is a better deal, Foote thinks, because the proceeds will pay for urgent projects such as road and bridge improvements.

That need is precisely why cities and states have begun to look to foreign investors.

Between 1980 and 2004, people drove 94% more highway miles, according to Federal Highway Administration statistics. But the number of new highway lane miles rose by only 6%.

Washington is not likely to produce more money to build roads. The federal highway fund � which will have a balance of about $16 billion by the end of 2006 � will run out in 2009 or 2010, according to White House and congressional estimates.

About half the states now let companies build and operate roads. Many changed their laws recently to do so.

So Illinois lawmakers are examining privatizing the Illinois Tollway, New Jersey lawmakers are considering selling 49% of the state's two big toll roads and a gubernatorial candidate in Ohio wants to sell the turnpike.

Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels, who championed his state's toll road deal, now wants investors to build and operate a toll road from Indianapolis to Evansville.

Patrick Bauer, the Indiana House's Democratic leader, says such deals are taxpayer rip-offs.

Bauer believes Macquarie-Cintra could make $133 billion over the 75-year life of the Indiana Toll Road lease � for which Indiana got $3.8 billion.

"In five, maybe 10 years, all that money is gone, and the tolls keep rising and the money keeps flowing into the foreign coffers," Bauer said.

Orange County, Calif., got burned by a toll-road lease for a different reason.

The road, part of state Route 91, was built and run for $130 million by California Private Transportation Company, partly owned by France-based Compagnie Financiere et Industrielle des Autoroutes. The toll road opened in 1995.

Seven years later, Orange County was looking at gridlock. But it could not build more roads because of a provision in the lease. So it bought back the lease � for $207.5 million.

To encourage more domestic investment in highways, former Transportation Secretary Norman Y. Mineta made a pitch to Wall Street on May 23.

"The time is now for United States investors � including our financial, construction and engineering institutions � to get involved in transportation investments," said Mineta, who left office July 7.

U.S. companies are getting the message.

San Antonio-based Zachry Construction Co., along with Cintra, received approval on June 29 for a 50-year lease to build and run a toll road from Austin to Seguin for $1.3 billion.

That is part of Texas Gov. Rick Perry's vision to attract more than $80 billion in private funds for roads by 2030. He wants a new tollway from Oklahoma to Mexico and the Gulf Coast, and one from Shreveport, La., and Texarkana to Mexico. Cintra-Zachry reached a $7.2 billion deal last year to develop the project's first phase.

Not everyone in Texas buys the idea. Harris County officials recently voted against selling three toll roads. Also, independent gubernatorial candidate Carole Keeton Strayhorn opposes Perry's toll road plan.

"Texas freeways belong to Texans, not foreign companies," she said.

# ? Jul 1, 2015 12:40

dougdrums: Feb 25, 2005; CLIENT REQUESTED ELECTRONIC FUNDING RECEIPT (FUNDS NOW)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kansas_Turnpike

This one right? Apparently it was built before the interstate system, and then given a designation. I wondered the same thing myself.

# ? Jul 1, 2015 13:22

Jastiger: Oct 11, 2008; by FactsAreUseless

My Q-Face posted:

Old newspaper clippings from 8+ years ago. (This is just one of them)

http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/nation/2006-07-15-u.s.-highways_x.htm

A profit of $33.8 BILLION of which the state gets like 3%. I don't get how that is defensible. IF its THAT Profitable to run the road and collect the tolls, why aren't the states getting that money to fill their coffers?

# ? Jul 1, 2015 13:33

My Q-Face: Jul 8, 2002; A dumb racist who need to kill themselves

Apparently because the State can't "justify" raising toll prices like a private company can.

# ? Jul 1, 2015 13:45

MisterFister: Jul 6, 2003; Sticking it to THE MAN, assuming THE MAN is an innocent casual dining restaurant.

There's a connector in my town that's like half a mile long and if you take it it's 3 dollars.

# ? Jul 1, 2015 14:45

COPE 27: Sep 11, 2006

THE DOG HOUSE posted:

i spent $450 a month on tolls going about 30 miles a day. think about that, op

sounds like someone hates freedom

# ? Jul 1, 2015 15:56

Moridin920: Nov 15, 2007; by FactsAreUseless

Jastiger posted:

A profit of $33.8 BILLION of which the state gets like 3%. I don't get how that is defensible. IF its THAT Profitable to run the road and collect the tolls, why aren't the states getting that money to fill their coffers?

because the governors and state legislatures are buddies with the people that run the companies that end up getting the contract lol

# ? Jul 1, 2015 16:45

i was reloading: Aug 15, 2015; by zen death robot

i live in a toll road state

Florida

who's laughing now???

# ? Jul 1, 2015 16:52

UnfortunateSexFart: May 18, 2008; ð» ððð« ð·ððð·
ð ð ð ð« ð®ð ð¾ð ð ð¡ððð

The only toll road near me is this bridge, which goes to the exurbs/rest of Canada. Basically forms a moat around Vancouver to keep the eastern poors out. It's great.

edit: scanners scan your license plate so you don't have to slow down. What is this "I wish toll booths would use credit cards" nonsense lol

UnfortunateSexFart fucked around with this message at 17:40 on Jul 1, 2015

# ? Jul 1, 2015 17:37

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# ? Apr 24, 2024 09:15

Cactus Ghost: Dec 20, 2003; you can actually inflate your scrote pretty safely with sterile saline, syringes, needles, and aseptic technique. its a niche kink iirc

the saline just slowly gets absorbed into your blood but in the meantime you got a big round smooth distended nutsack

Reverse Centaur posted:

The only toll road near me is this bridge, which goes to the exurbs/rest of Canada. Basically forms a moat around Vancouver to keep the eastern poors out. It's great.

edit: scanners scan your license plate so you don't have to slow down. What is this "I wish toll booths would use credit cards" nonsense lol

nobody really wants to be the politician that says "these 50-60 middle-class jobs? I want them gone" so it's just up to the bureaucrats at whatever agency administrates the toll booths, and loving lol if you think someone in an american government agency is going to take literally any initiative ever about anything

# ? Jul 4, 2015 01:09

The Something Awful Forums > Archives > General Bullshit > Lol if your state has toll roads

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