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[quote user="Phoebe Vet"] While I do strongly object to the 50 year contract with Cintra, that was not the purpose of my post.  I posted as an illustration of how much automobile traffic is subsidized.  Cinta will incur all but $88 million of the $655 million construction cost but will get the authority to charge motorists to use both the one they are going to build and another lane that was built several years ago by taxpayers that is currently free to use.  Even under those circumstances, they apparently need almost $10 per motorist to use 26 miles of road in order to operate in the black and are unsure enough that it will be enough that the contract provides for public guarantees of up to $75 million if traffic count projections are not met.  Until Norfolk Southern backed out last week, the estimated cost of building the Red Line commuter rail along basically the same route was $452 million.  Before you claim that it is always paid by user fees in fuel tax let me point out that there will be no refund of those fuel taxes for fuel burned on that private road.[/quote] I never have claimed that fuel taxes pay the total cost of the nation's roadways. Fuel taxes, fees, etc., according to the CBO, pay for approximately 45 to 50 per cent of the nation's roadways. The remainder comes from property taxes, tolls, excise taxes, sales taxes - in some states, and general fund transfers.  As noted in the Charlotte Observer article, the free HOV lane does not meet federal standards, and the Federal Highway Administration is requiring NCDOT to rebuild it. The cost of the out-of-compliance HOV lane is sunk. Accordingly, financial analysts don't consider it. The key question is what is the optimum solution going forward to upgrade the highway. Apparently the NCDOT believes that it would be more cost effective to have Cintra rebuild the lane than have the state do it. Without access to the contract between Cintra and the state, it is impossible to know for sure. Roadways are not free, although many motorists believe that they are because they don't see the total costs of the roadways and how they flow through to the end user. They should! But given the political advantages of not showing them the true cost of driving, the politicians are not likely to show them.
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