Dillon Pyron wrote in message . ..

Austin is about to get 8 new toll roads. TXDoT says they have no
other alternative. They are holding "public hearings" and getting
plenty of flack (like putting tolls on already paid for roads to pay
for other roads) but are basically saying it's a done deal.

We have one nearby that is going BK. Sounds like the tax-payers are
going to have to bail it out what was supposed to be a self supporting
road. Now that the real estate developers have cashed out of the new
serviced areas, they can turn the burden of the road over to
tax-payers.

The theory is that heavier vehicles cause more damage to the roads.
And heavier vehicles use more fuel, thus paying their "fair share".
Unfortunately for all of us, they get to pass those costs on to the
consumer and write them off on their taxes. We don't.

Thats perfectly fine, some goods will find less energy intensive ways
of moving such as trains. The closer you connect the cost of a
service with the use of the service, the more efficient its use will
be.

In Austin, we pay a 1/2 per cent sales tax to support the mass transit
authority. They have been pushing light rail for several years, in a
city that doesn't easily support a fixed base transit structure. But
"other cities have it", so we must, too. Meanwhile, the buses run
mostly empty with the exception of a few express routes.

Seems silly to have a general tax when a gas tax would raise revanue
and increase ridership.

Agreed. Gas just hit $1.90 here. This may motivate car pool/van pool
thinking, but most people still prefer the "freedom" of their car.

Of course people prefer the freedom of a car, just like I'd prefer the
freedom to not have to drag my butt to work every day.

My wife has a 25 mile one way commute. We had considered moving
north, but the houses are at least 50% higher for the same thing. So
we're looking at a hybrid for her.

Thats one of the things that subsidized gas has encouraged- extended
suburbs. Why live in the city when you have a car and cheap gas?
Likely your time in the car costs more than the gas.

Check on some real people's mileage on those hybrids. I've heard both
good and bad about the actual gas milage. Apparently the EPA measures
gas milage by extrapolating from exhaust pipe emmisions rather than
actual road tests.