Login
or
Register
Home
»
Trains Magazine
»
Forums
»
Passenger
»
A different Approach All together
Edit post
Edit your reply below.
Post Body
Enter your post below.
<p>[quote user="ontheBNSF"]</p> <p>[quote user="Sam1"]</p> <p>[quote user="John WR"]</p> <p>[quote user="Sam1"]There is no reason why the government has to own all the roads. In Texas, overseas investors have built or are building some toll roads.[/quote]</p> <p>But Sam, BNSF did not propose private ownership of "some toll roads." He proposed private ownership of every single road in the country, from the local roads at the end of my driveway and yours to Interstate 80 which runs from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean. He also proposed private ownership of all other transportation but that is small potatoes compared to every single road in the whole of the United States. And yes, it would be possible to begin a toll at the end of each person's driveway and put it on every single road a driver travels on. But I hope you agree that would be a massive undertaking and would would create a lot of issues that we cannot even imagine. Is there any state or any country that even comes close to doing that? [/quote]</p> <p>You will note that my comment says that there is no reason why the government has to own <strong>all the roads.</strong> And that is all that I said. In addition, in I pointed out that an increasing number of roadways in Texas are being built by private owners and operators. They are being built under the direction of the Texas Department of Transportation. </p> <p>I don't agree with everything BNSF said, but I believe his views are worthy of consideration. Having said that, it raises an interesting question. Could every roadway in America be tolled. Yes! With GPS and computer technology, you could track the movement of every vehicle by Zip Code, upload the data, and bill each user for his or her use. Would it be politically feasible. Nope! But how we bill people for road use, irrespective of who builds and operates the roadways, is going to change.</p> <p>Fuel taxes are the largest single source of revenue for state and federal highways. But they are not keeping up with revenue needs as Americans opt for more fuel efficient vehicles. So we are going to have to find a different way to bill the users for road use. Rick Williams, who was the Texas Transportation Commissioner, told me that tracking vehicle use by some automated technique will be necessary if we are to raise sufficient revenues going forward.</p> <div style="clear:both;">[/quote]</div> <p>Why do people keep saying that I want to privatize all transportation I explicitly said that city rail and local roads should remain publicly owned. I never suggested privatizing city streets. [/quote]</p> <p>Because they did not read or think about what you said. I congratulate you for raising a worthwhile point of view. </p>
Tags (Optional)
Tags are keywords that get attached to your post. They are used to categorize your submission and make it easier to search for. To add tags to your post type a tag into the box below and click the "Add Tag" button.
Add Tag
Update Reply
Join our Community!
Our community is
FREE
to join. To participate you must either login or register for an account.
Login »
Register »
Search the Community
Newsletter Sign-Up
By signing up you may also receive occasional reader surveys and special offers from Trains magazine.Please view our
privacy policy
More great sites from Kalmbach Media
Terms Of Use
|
Privacy Policy
|
Copyright Policy