Tolling other roads.. Spilka says it's time
Our own Karen Spilka is suggesting tolling other roads in the state. It's about freaking time. We ( our State) must look at ways to create a steady revenue source dedicated to mass transit. Hundreds of thousands of non residents work here and pay tolls in their State just to get to our State to work. And the age old truth has always been, only a certain group of drivers is being taxed to use the Pike. It's never been fair to us who live west of Boston.
Simply put, and I put this out there, if tolls are a good idea for my
district, my region, I believe we should explore the possibility of
expanded tolling, including possibly at our borders," Spilka said. "Our
best ideas won't matter if we can't find a way to make a 21st century
transportation infrastructure a reality - and find a way to pay for it."
posted by Jim Pillsbury @ 9:37 AM
10 Comments
10 Comments:
It's about time!
We should all contact Spilka's office, as well at Robinson, Lewis and Gentile to make sure this idea gets some traction.
How much money are we talking if we put more tolls on the roads? For me, it would increase my cost to commute to work as I use the Pike, 128 and Rte 3. So you better be making a lot of money if you want me to pay even more than I do now.
Tolling is a hot button issue but one we need to really look at. Our roads are a mess, including the Pike which people pay big bucks to support. So if we add more toll roads then we need to also make sure those tolls go to the upkeep of the roads. That is certainly not happening on the Pike. The potholes are big enough to swallow your car.
a few facts that are relevant imo. 5 million vehicles a day travel 154 million miles with 4.75 million vehicle owners living in Mass, while 200,000 live out of State. Since electronic tolling 21.5 million toll trips, the majority coming from the Pike.
If we could just get those who travel to our state to chip in a buck, we'd have a sizable chunk of money each month to borrow on. From 2015 to 2017, they found there were approximately 8,000 more cars a day on Interstate 290 in Shrewsbury. The number of vehicles on Interstate 495 went up by about 12,000 in the same time frame. On Route 128 in Woburn, it was even worse, with a jump of about 18,000 cars a day.
The highest priorities would be to fix what is broken now and do it quickly.
Traffic sucks and is getting worse. Maybe tolls would discourage some people from driving on these roads and make my commute better. It takes me more than 90 minutes each way every day to commute to Boston. That is an extra 3 hours a day in my car. That has been proven to be bad for us because of prolonged sitting without being able to get up, the stress of the traffic, and less time to relax. You work a 9 hour day (with that hour for lunch, have a 3 hour commute, and need 8 hours sleep. That is a total of 20 hours. Take out an our to eat dinner and that leaves you barely 3 ours a day to yourself. Don't know about you but that is not a lot of time to relax in the course of a day and that has been documented to raise blood pressure and add to stress.
All well and good to collect money but what about coming up with a plan to address to horrific traffic issues we face. Now that is something I could get behind wholeheartedly!
There are issues galore to deal with her in MA so you can pick and chose what to support but this one deals with equity for all drivers and it is about time those of us in MW got some equity. We should support this and it should pass but given no one else wants to pay like we do I doubt it will ever happen.
Beacon Hill will raise money somehow for transportation. Raising the gas tax every year hurts more local drivers than helps. I'm not sure if all the gas tax collected now goes totally for roads and bridges. I seem to remember back when someone found the money diverted, like the cigarette tax that was supposed to go towards helping smokers stop using. I'd rather we squeeze the outsiders first with the same toll they charge me to enter their State.
The only reason e here about this is the Senate President lives here. She hfeels our pain.
An 8 hour work day and 8 hours of sleep?!?! What dream life do you have?
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