How much will this cost us?

Dog Trainer wrote:
I think we pay plenty period. The Allocation of those funds is what is wrong.

I think this one hits squarely on the nail head.

We have a toll road here, in Illinois. The citizens were told, the road would pay for itself in twenty years, at which time, the tolls would end. That was in 1955. Here we are, almost 40 years past that pay off date, tolls are higher than ever, corruption is rampant, and the toll road is in same disrepair as all the rest.

elidodge@msn.com wrote:
Last time I went from Balto. Md. to Bost. Mass. pulling my tamden T.T. using I 95 cost over $100.00 in tolls ,and these roads areterrible ( try the G.W. bridge)

x2 And the rates have gone up. I just calced the same route and if I tow my toad, it's $163 to get the Mass state line. I didn't bother calcing the Mass tolls as it was only like 7 or so bucks last time.

Just to get out of Maryland, between the tolls on 95 (and that's not a long stretch) and the Francis Scott Key bridge is 36.00 bucks.

If other states follow suit, buckle up. Between gas and tolls, it's getting expensive to take long trips.

Gee, I love Michigan! No toll roads or even Interstates with tolls and only one in state toll bridge. Big Mackinac huge 5 mile long Bridge (that makes the Golden Gate Bridge look small) across the Straits the connects the L.P. and the U.P. 3 toll bridges to Canada (International-2.8 miles, Blue Water-1.2 miles, and Ambassador-1.5 miles) and 1 mile long tunnel 75' under the Detroit River, The Detroit-Windsor Tunnel.

We hate toll roads! They are a ripoff and most we've been on are in bad to terrible condition! Pay to have a terrible bumpy road? No thanks!

Last time I went from Balto. Md. to Bost. Mass. pulling my tamden T.T. using I 95 cost over $100.00 in tolls ,and these roads areterrible ( try the G.W. bridge)

QUOTE: "What's amazing is how many of you take advantage of the senior citizen discounts and half price for camping.There is a cost for those things too but you're really not paying your fair share.But then many of you seem to be hot to trot to pay extra to drive on our roads.Doesn't make sense to me.I would much rather pay a small increase in the gas tax ever few years than pay tolls."

OK - if and only if you buy into the "social values" morally and ethically afforded to those of our society that can't perform as well as others, either mentally or physically, we need to rest this particular point as worthless.

For example, when Uncle Sam pays veterans for injuries that prevent 'normal work for pay', it also says (and other 'help programs too') that you CANNOT earn wages above a very limited amount. (Speaking here about a veteran brother and a mentally disabled son). IF you attempt to gain employment, and ultimately to carry on a 'normal life', those programs drop the recipients. So, it makes disadvantaged men, women, and children never earn a paycheck, hide earnings, or in general fail to pay "that fair share" ... the feds and states give such individuals discount - NOT because anyone "deserves a discount" but more because in order to receive assistance, those persons are NOT ALLOWED to earn up to their potential (an individual earning potential) even tho that person might be able to earn a bit more than the program allows, but not as much as a "normal person" can earn in a lifetime.

So, when you talk about 'paying the fair share' -- raising the price of EVERYONE who uses the services (Campgrounds, etc) one dollar, instead of removing the half-price for disabled and seniors feature truly spreads the cost, instead of making the disadvantaged lose half-cost discount all at once.

Far as the roads go, WASTE is the major culprit. How many of us have seen the proverbial "ONE guy digging, FIVE guys watching". And that doesn't even count the office personnel. And I speak from personal experience as a building contractor performing contract work with the state road builders (In a younger life) watching that waste IN PERSON.

We need some management, and some trainers, but federal and state projects stand at the top of the heap with wasted time. And don't even get me started on the waste in health care.

Perfect example - and blew my mind. Left Colorado Friday and headed east into Kansas. Happened to be a very windy day. So windy, I took a break in a Kansas rest stop, waiting for it to pass at least a little. Was really blowing.

SO, a guy in a state truck drives in with a bed filled with leaves and dirt, trash etc, gets out. He takes out a wide, flat shovel, sets up a couple orange cones, and a fires up a gas blower -- proceeds to "blow off leaves and dirt in the parking lot" ... of course, the leaves and dirt are blowing right back at him. Very healthy wind.

BUT, his job is 'blowing off the parking lot" so he's sure gonna do it. After he blows this trash around for a while (Up one line and down the other, a pattern, moving cones as he goes), an hour at least and Mother Nature blowing it back at him. He arrives at the rear of his pick-up.

Now, gotta realize this guy's been trying to blow this dirt and trash into a pile (that's how it's done) and then shovel it into his truck. BUT, when he gets to the truck bed, he has NO pile. SO, he looks around at the parking lot, nothing changed since he arrived, in fact, Mother Nature has been doing his job and blowing the leaves and dirt into the fields next door. He picks up the shovel, looks around for his pile, and finds nothing. So, he turns in a circle (I kid you NOT) and shrugs his shoulders. Tosses the shovel, cones, and gas blower in the back, gets in this truck and hauls out of there.

He's been better off doing his reports, washing his truck, cleaning the office, whatever, but Friday is the day (come rain, shine or wind) he's scheduled to blow off this rest stop parking lot, and he's for sure gonna do it Friday. Believe me, when he started, that parking lot did not have a leaf, a piece of dirt, or scrap of trash on it.

At least he was alone, and didn't have another guy watching him ... True Story, and you heard it first right here on RV.net ...

When I look at the overall cost of tolls to drive from FL to ME it's incredibly inexpensive to me. Very few states have any tolls at all on I-95 and the ones that do have em, it's only at specific spots, not the whole state's length. At least according to this site:

I-95 TOLLING SUMMARY BY STATE

When I drive to the Connecticut shore from NYC on 95 it currently costs me about $2.75 in tolls; $2.50 at the Henry Hudson Bridge to leave Manhattan(sort of a sigh) and a whole .25 cents on the New England Thruway to enter I-95. I could avoid the 2.50 by driving across the Cross Bronx Expressway but that is noooooo way to start a relaxing vacation in my life.

I wouldn't mind paying more for the nation's traffic infrastructure.

Mich F wrote:
I didn't realize states were charging tolls on I95.

Maryland
Delaware
New Jersey
Pennsylvania
New York
Mass
Maine

And they aren't cheap either. Especially when you are towing a toad.

Now that they figured out how they can collect tolls at speed, it will be easy for the states to put up their own toll system and join something like EZPass.

travelnutz wrote:
OTR trucks pay 3-10+ times the fuel tax of the average car/light truck based on MPG's alone. License fee yearly is approx 35 times as much as a car/light truck. Truck pay the lions share or the fuel taxes and license fees in this nation while being a small percentage of the vehicles used our nation's roads. They are more than paying their own way!

While charging their customers a fuel surcharge. License fee 35 x average car and put 20 x as many miles on federal roads. The difference is the avg car is 3500 to 4000 lbs while the class 8 truck weighs 80K lbs loaded. Who do you feel damages the road more?

NJRVer wrote:
They think that the same billions of dollars today buys the same that it bought 40 years ago.

I don't think billions of dollars was even invented yet 40 years ago.

Bruce

It's funny how some on here complain how much money is collected but don't equate that to how much things cost.
They think that the same billions of dollars today buys the same that it bought 40 years ago.

It takes energy to build roads. Energy to run the equipment and energy to make the materials and energy to keep the lights on in the architects and engineers offices as they design the roads.

Anybody here paying the same now for gas, diesel, oil, electricity, wages that they were paying 40 years ago?
Anybody still in the work force care to cut your pay and work for wages from 40 years ago?

Yeah, didn't think so.

That's why it costs so much to build and maintain anything