Are Toll Roads even needed? By Bill Barker

Statement by Bill Barker, AICP at the San Antonio-Bexar County MPO June 26, 2006

Mr. Chairman and members of the Transportation Policy Board, thank you for allowing me to speak to you. In 1980, I spoke at the national conference held in San Antonio addressing this issue in response to the gasoline shortages of 1979.1

Data from the Federal Highway Administration shows that vehicular travel on all roads in the U.S. in April 2006 was down from April 2005.2 This is the second year in a row that this has occurred in spite of population growth and economic expansion.

Economists tell us that, over a short period measured in months, every 10% increase in the price of gasoline results in about 1.6% reduction in gasoline consumption.3

Given a longer period of time, say 15 years, the same 10% increase in the price of gasoline will result in a 4 to 10% reduction in consumption. Thus, gasoline consumption can be expected to be dampened by about 20 to 50% over what it would have been over the next several years due to the 54% gasoline price increase we have already seen from April 2004 to April 2006. 4

Currently, the U.S. is running ahead of conservative projections by CIBC World Markets5 which show U.S. gasoline prices to climb to the $4.00 level by the year 2010.

Longer term responses to price increases are greater because households and businesses have more options – like moving. For example, friends of mine recently moved from Encino Park beyond Loop 1604 to the inner city Jefferson neighborhood and reduced their driving and gasoline consumption by two-thirds.

Per capita gasoline consumption in San Antonio is 19% higher than the average large U.S. city.6 Because of this, and the relatively low personal income level here, the September Forbes magazine listed San Antonio in the top 10 cities hardest hit by gasoline price increases.7

While other U.S. cities have successfully pursued policies to reduce petroleum dependence, with a few exceptions, San Antonio has done the opposite.8

$115M was spent by San Antonio households and businesses in 2005 on Middle Eastern oil for transportation.9 This money leaking out of local circulation for imported oil reduces the region’s economic multipliers.10

Besides weakening our economy, higher gasoline expenditures put us at a competitive disadvantage with other, more fuel efficient, cities around the world.

Because rising fuel prices increase the cost of transportation projects, cost-benefit ratios must be re-examined. As the price of transportation increases, development patterns and travel behavior change, and funding from motor fuel excise taxes and, to some extent sales taxes, is lessened.

I encourage you to thoroughly examine this issue. Thank you for listening.

1 Transportation Research Board conference held April 13-16, 1980.

2 April 2006 was down 0.4 percent compared with April of 2005. Similarly, vehicular travel in April of 2005 was 1.3 percent lower than April of 2004. Traffic Volume Trends April 2006, Federal Highway Administration, June 2006.

http://knowledge.fhwa.dot.gov/cops/hcx.nsf/All+Documents/D49C17B8D7407A13852571930042C3FA/$FILE/MonthlyReport42006.pdf

3 Charles Komanoff, Gasoline Price-Elasticity, May 30, 2006, http://www.vtpi.org/gasoline_elasticity.xls

4 The average retail price of regular unleaded gasoline in the U.S. went up from $1.81 per gallon in mid-April of 2004 to $2.78 per gallon in mid-April of this year. http://www.eia.doe.gov/oil_gas/petroleum/data_publications/wrgp/mogas_history.html

5 Jeff Rubin, “Not Just a Spike,” Occasional Report #53, CIBC World Markets, Toronto, Canada, April 13, 2005. http://www.odac-info.org/bulletin/documents/NotJustASpike.pdf

6 “Who drives the most and the least among large U.S. metropolitan regions?” Commentary by Robert Dunphy, Urban Land Institute, (http://experts.uli.org/Content/ResFellows/Dunphy/Dunphy_C09.htm)

7 Sara Clemence, “Gas Crisis Cities, “Forbes, September 29, 2005, http://www.forbes.com/finance/2005/09/29/gasprices-cities-driving-cx_sc_0930home_ls.html

8 Naomi Friedman1, Energy and Smart Growth: It’s about How and Where We Build, Translation Paper Number Fifteen, Funders’ Network for Smart Growth and Livable Communities, 2004. http://www.eesi.org/publications/EnergyandSmartGrowthPaper.pdf

9 Environmental Working Group, “Stuck in the Sand: How Trillions Spent on Highways Keep America Dependent on Middle East Oil,” http://www.ewg.org/reports/stuckinthesand/execsumm.php

10 Jon R. Miller, M. Henry Robison, and Michael L. Lahr, Estimating Important Transportation-Related Regional Economic Relationships in Bexar County, Texas, Economic Modeling Specialists, Inc. for VIA Metropolitan Transit, San Antonio, Texas, October 1999 http://www.vtpi.org/modeshft.pdf

IT’S THE LAW! FEDS PAVE THE WAY TO TOLL AND PRIVATIZE THE INTERSTATE HIGHWAYS

This from Bob Dacy:

IT’S THE LAW! FEDS PAVE THE WAY TO TOLL AND PRIVATIZE THE INTERSTATE HIGHWAYS

By Bob Dacy

June 29, 2006

On July 29, 2005, President Bush signed a bill which permits and promotes the charging of tolls on existing and planned interstate highways, bridges, and tunnels. Before the passage of the bill, known as SAFETEA-LU, or “Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users”, it was generally illegal to charge tolls on roads built with Federal funds. What’s more, the tolls collected will be automatic, requiring universally compatible toll transponder tags on every vehicle.

SAFETEA-LU makes possible a variety of programs, all aimed at forcing Americans to pay to travel. To wit:

* “Interstate System Reconstruction & Rehabilitation Pilot Program” allows the tolling of existing interstate highways, bridges, and tunnels to fund repair of existing highways.

* “Interstate System Construction Toll Pilot Program” authorizes tolling existing facilities on the interstate system to fund new interstate highways.

* “Value Pricing Pilot (VPP) Program” allows new tolls on existing toll free facilities such as high occupancy vehicle (HOV) lanes, tolls on new lanes added to existing highways, and electronically collected variable tolls on existing and new toll facilities.

* “Express Lanes Demonstration Program” allows tolling to finance new lanes. Automatic toll collection is REQUIRED and revenue collected may be used to provide a reasonable rate of return on PRIVATE financing, operation, and maintenance costs.

* “High Occupancy Vehicle (HOV) Facilities, SAFETEA-LU Section 1121 (23 USC 166)” authorizes states to build high occupancy toll (HOT) lanes on interstate and non-interstate facilities.

Although most of these programs are experimental, the mindset they demonstrate and the precedents they intend to set will have devastating consequences on all Americans. The mindset is that Americans are lab rats in a maze, who must be tagged and tracked everywhere they go. Cockroaches control the maze. The consequences to the heretofore taken for granted freedom to travel and to individual pocketbooks are ominous.

Imagine for a moment what must have been going through the minds of the six-legged elites when they thought up this diabolical scheme. The question is “How do you destroy the national sovereignty of the United States, merge it with the rest of the western hemisphere, build the infrastructure system needed to link up the entire landmass, confiscate private property on a wholesale level, spy on everyone’s comings and goings, and trick American suckers into paying for their own demise all in one fell swoop ? The answer: TOLL EVERYTHING!

As with any diabolical plot, many problems and obstacles had to be removed in order to insure success. As the Wicked Witch of the West once said, “The question is `how to do it`. These things must be done delicately, or you’ll hurt the spell”.

The first obstacle is that it is generally illegal to toll federally funded roads. No problem…just sneak section 1604 into a telephone book sized highway bill and no one will notice. Everyone knows Congressmen and Senators do not actually read the bills they vote on.

How do you get the super rich elites to go along with the plan? Simple…give them a piece of the action. Construction contracts will go to selected insiders and toll facilities will be given to private investors. We will call it “public-private partnership”.

But wait! State by state, the local politicians must be persuaded to pass legislation to further the scheme. How to do it? Tell the contractors to write the necessary legislation, line the campaign coffers of key legislators, convince the Governor of each state that it was his idea via more campaign contributions, and sneak the bills through the state legislatures when nobody is looking. After all, state representatives do not read the bills they vote on either.

Yet another requirement in order to pull this off is to keep the unwashed masses in the dark It would not do to have the sheep to find out they are about to be shorn. So how do you keep the press quiet? No problem…we control the press! The watchdog will remain asleep, and no one will find out until it is a done deal. Besides, when the cretins begin to realize what is going on, they will complain to their local transportation officials and wonder why no one is listening. Just don’t let the slaves know that the “massa” barking the orders resides in New York City at the headquarters of the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR).

But the Constitution stands in the way of the plot. What to do about the pesky supreme law of the land which prohibits the taking of private land and handing it over to other private entities? How fortunate that the globalist infested Supreme Court, in June of 2005, legislated from the bench by re-writing the takings clause of the 5^th Amendment in Kelo vs. City of New London. Now the Supremes say it is okay to force people to sell their land to private developers who promise a kickback to the government, we are free to proceed with the tolling of America.

Still one more problem must be overcome. We must propagandize transportation officials into believing this is a great idea so they can sell it to private investors and politicos nationwide. ADVERTISING is the key. We will get the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials to put up a website called www.innovativefinance.org. It will be a veritable “how to” encyclopedia of fascism, but we will call it “public-private partnership” because “fascism” does not roll so well off of the tongue. Multi-millionaire highway contractors and local politicians will be able to swill at the federal trough to their hearts content. It will be a win-win setup for everyone except regular Americans, who are just being set up.

This malicious plan is being implemented all across America. Such plots survive and thrive only in the dark. It is time to turn on the lights and watch the cockroaches run. In Texas, pro-toll politicians have been replaced with anti-toll newcomers. This trend must continue, and spread like a wildfire of truth throughout the country. The alarm clock is ringing. Wake up. Get up. Open your eyes. Get out the roach spray. Fumigate your house. Go wake up your neighbors.

Mayor Nyle Maxwell Doesn't Know who Pays Alliance Administrator.

Sal,

Mayor Maxwell did not have additional information other than what I
offered in my initial response.

Olivia

-----Original Message-----
From: s costello [mailto:salcostello@yahoo.com]
Sent: Thursday, June 22, 2006 6:17 PM
To: Olivia Robinson
Subject: RE: Alliance of Cities

Hello Olivia,

Could you please ask the Mayor if he knows if she is
compensated by anyone for her work for the
organization he is a part of.

Thank You,
Sal Costello

--- Olivia Robinson <orobinson@round-rock.tx.us>
wrote:

> Mr. Costello,
>
> Peg Croslin is not compensated by the City of Round
> Rock for her
> administrative work for the Alliance.
>
> If she is compensated, it is not by the City of
> Round Rock.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Olivia Robinson
> Office of the Mayor & City Council
> City of Round Rock, TX
> 221 E. Main Street
> Round Rock, TX 78664
> 512.218.5403
> 512.218.7097 fax
> orobinson@round-rock.tx.us
> 
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: s costello [mailto:salcostello@yahoo.com]
> Sent: Tuesday, June 20, 2006 3:23 PM
> To: Olivia Robinson
> Subject: Alliance of Cities
>
> Hello Olivia,
>
> Who pays Peggy Croslin today for the administrative
> work she does for "Alliance of Cities"?
>
> Thank You,
> Sal Costello
> 512.288.9991
>