Candidate Barack Obama made few concrete statements on the subject of transportation during the 2008 campaign. Now that his cabinet has been sworn into office, President Obama has turned his attention to filling the lower-level positions that are frequently responsible for making major policy decisions. At the US Department of Transportation, these new appointees all share a love for speed cameras and toll roads—especially Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood’s new number two man. “With great pleasure I want to bid a hearty welcome aboard to our new Deputy Secretary, John Porcari,” LaHood wrote yesterday. “And, though he’s been on duty less than a week, he already has done some heavy lifting for us.”
Porcari, 50, was confirmed by the US Senate on May 22 and serves as the Transportation Department’s chief operating officer, overseeing day-to-day operations. Porcari has the formal administrative experience that LaHood lacks. Most recently, Porcari headed Maryland’s transportation agency where his main accomplishment was spearheading the effort to install speed cameras on every freeway in the state with fines of $2000 per ticket.
As late as April, Porcari was out defending the successful passage of legislation allowing speed cameras in “work zones” that have no workers. The legislature, however, opted for a significantly reduced fine from Porcari’s original proposal.
“Marylanders will be safer traveling our highways thanks to legislation authorizing speed cameras in construction work zones,” Porcari wrote in a letter to the Baltimore Sun newspaper. “And with clear signs offering advance warning of speed cameras, this will not be a matter of ‘gotcha.'”
Like his new boss, Porcari is also a major fan of imposing tolls on roads. So too is the newly confirmed Undersecretary for Transportation Policy, Roy Kienitz, 46. Kienitz was formerly the Deputy Chief of Staff for Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell (D) with responsibility over transportation issues.
Rendell credited Kienitz for the state legislation that would have allowed the imposition of tolls on Interstate 80 and sold the Pennsylvania Turnpike to a foreign toll road consortium. Both plans ultimately failed. Kienitz is also a board member for “Building America’s Future,” a group that lobbies on behalf of government officials to promote toll roads as infrastructure projects.
Such projects were what Peter H. Appel, 44, worked on for the consulting firm A.T. Kearney. The Senate confirmed Appel as Administrator of the DOT’s Research and Innovative Technology Administration on April 29. Appel’s former firm is one of many that stands to profit from the twenty-two percent overhead cost added to every tolling project.
“A.T. Kearney has a broad transportation client base, including railroads, airlines and airports, shipping lines, ports, motor carriers and toll roads,” the company explained in a summary of the areas in which it does business.
President Obama has also nominated Victor M. Mendez to be Administrator of Federal Highway Administration. Mendez, who awaits confirmation, was most recently the Director of the Arizona Department of Transportation where he coordinated state agencies and interest groups for the roll out of the state’s freeway speed camera program.
I will not vote for you if you support tolls or cameras…oh wait…we can’t vote for you!
This sucks.
For an administration that has 2 car companies, they are very anti-car. It’s going to be harder to sell (more expensive) cars to people who will receive $2000 tickets from robots under administration control. The administration sure sounds like they don’t want us driving cars around much. As I have said before, part of freedom is being able to move around. The administration sounds like they are interested in much less freedom.
Traffic cameras? You mean that a Democrat wants to increase government control?! Well, I never!
Toll roads are okay with me, to an extent. To pay for a road’s use doesn’t bother me too much, if it’s reasonable. From my experience, toll roads are usually quite well kept, and less congested (unless we’re talking about the Dallas North Tollway!). As long as there are alternatives, toll roads wouldn’t hurt my feelings at all.
tced2:
“For an administration that has 2 car companies, they are very anti-car.”
No, they are pro power. As in power for themselves over you. They want power over your retirement, your health care, and now your ability to be mobile. Whether it’s power to force their will on your vehicle choice or to get you into public transportation, the goal is to make you dependent on them. Once that is done it’s very dificult to throw them out because of FUD. What happens to your healthcare/retirement/transportation/whatever if you vote for the other guy/party?
superbadd75:
“Toll roads are okay with me, to an extent. To pay for a road’s use doesn’t bother me too much, if it’s reasonable.”
Don’t be too sure. According the Newspaper article link in the story above, collecting tolls costs $22 for every $100 collected. And that’s using the most modern advances (like speedpass/ezpass). To do the same revenue collection via the state gas tax, it costs 88 cents per $100. But toll roads are sure a great place for political patronage!
http://www.thenewspaper.com/news/24/2438.asp
superbadd75 : Toll roads are okay with me, to an extent. To pay for a road’s use doesn’t bother me too much,
Except the tolls aren’t going to pay for the road’s use. They’re going to pay, (a) as mentioned, the overhead to the politically connected toll equipment companies, and (b) for new choo choo trains, bus driver salaries and bicycle paths.
You will see no new roads nor any maintenance beyond the bare minimum because all the new rail/bus boondoggles require massive subsidy to operate.
95% will be robbed to subsidize 5%.
windswords: It may cost more to collect the money from tolls versus fuel tax, but the toll money supports the roads you pay to use, not every road. Every toll road I’ve ever been on is maintained much better than the free roads in the same area. Not to mention the fact that traffic just seems to be less of an issue on tollways for the most part. Sure, the money collection may be less efficient, but when it goes directly back into the maintenance of that road, it’s worth it. What does bother me is seeing foreign companies being hired to run these operations.
concerning tolls,
I have no objection to toll roads.
But I would like a clear and complete accounting of the current funding. Exactly how much is taken in by the gas tax? Exactly how much is spent on roads/bridges etc? The Congress has been guilty of using the “surplus” of the gas tax revenues for other things. If there is truly a “surplus” then why isn’t it being spent on roads? instead of adding tolls? Congress is doing its usual job of obscuring the real picture of revenues and expenditures with repsect to gas taxes and road building/maintenance.
“windswords: It may cost more to collect the money from tolls versus fuel tax, but the toll money supports the roads you pay to use, not every road. Every toll road I’ve ever been on is maintained much better than the free roads in the same area. Not to mention the fact that traffic just seems to be less of an issue on tollways for the most part. Sure, the money collection may be less efficient, but when it goes directly back into the maintenance of that road, it’s worth it. What does bother me is seeing foreign companies being hired to run these operations.”
As we’ve pointed out, most of this money isn’t going to go back to maintaining roads.
Perhaps TTAC needs to start an “Obama Administration Boondoggle Watch” series.
Toll roads SUCK bigtime for many reasons. First, a huge amount of the funds are used to pay for the collection and then the inevitable employee benes/pensions. Here in IL they have their own reich, answerable to no one.
Second, toll roads actually suck funding from “competing” roads. No attempt is made to fund bridges or such that would make a non-toll road faster or more popular. So if youre not on the nifty toll road, youre sitting.
Hence, the toll road “industry” has brain-washed us, our legislators and transportation depts. into NOT pushing for what SHOULD be done…raising fuel prices/taxes a dime or a quarter to easily cover ALL these costs and eliminate this crap.
And cameras are just another BS project these dipsticks come up with to make us “safer” and generate more self-fulfilling revenue, instead of pouring concrete and steel.
I drive over the speed limit much of the time, but I’m a careful speeder–the last speeding ticket I had was in 1977. Like other careful speeders, I manage this by maintaining high alertness and avoiding distractions. When I’m driving, that’s all I’m doing.
Speed cameras, especially mobile ones, dramatically increase my disadvantage. It’s insightful that increasing the obvious costs of driving (both high and frequent speeding fines and tolls) will discourage automobile use. While I think this is a good thing environmentally and for society as a while, it also means I am less likely to buy a performance-oriented vehicle. In fact, I’m less likely to own a car at all.
Every toll road I’ve ever been on is maintained much better than the free roads in the same area. Not to mention the fact that traffic just seems to be less of an issue on tollways for the most part.
Um, not in my experience. In fact, just the opposite. The Penn Turnpike was a joke until the last 2-3 years. And most toll roads in the Chicago Metro area remain jokes.
I’m one of the few libruls here in this sea of tax-hating-over-my-dead-body libertarians that dominate the front page and commentariat. And yet, on this issue, I find a lot of common cause with you.
I work for an agency in DOT, one closely associated with cars. Hmmmm, which one could that be? I can tell you this: most rank and file gubmint people who’ve been working car-related transportation issues for decades *hate* toll roads. They see them for what they are: a diversion.
That being said, the “leadership” not just of USDOT but many many other DOTs see toll roads as a way to abrogate their responsibility to maintain them. Furthermore, given the fact that many states are now filled with extreme crackpot Republican-controlled legislatures, they find a much more sympathetic ear to these insane ideas…
Until said Republican State Representative gets an earful from his constituents in East Anklescratch. The vast bulk of the public hates toll roads and while we might not have the kind of influence at the Federal level, we do at the State level. That’s mainly because the “toll road industry” really ain’t one and thus, doesn’t have the lobbying clout to buy off state representatives.
The traffic camera industry, that’s another story.
The Illinois Tollway system is being revamped nicely. That’s more than you can say for the free roads in Illinois.
Other than that, bah on toll roads.
grog : “That’s mainly because the “toll road industry” really ain’t one and thus, doesn’t have the lobbying clout to buy off state representatives.”
Tell that to the toll road lobbyists who successfully bought off Blagojevich to build not just a toll road, but an extra-toll toll lane within an already existing toll road. “Green lanes.” So you can also stop the Republican v. Democrat on this issue. Both parties have sold out: toll fiends like Corzine, Blago, Daley and Gregoire aren’t Republicans. Neither is Bloomberg.
Um, not in my experience. In fact, just the opposite. The Penn Turnpike was a joke until the last 2-3 years. And most toll roads in the Chicago Metro area remain jokes.
OK, if you say so. Then toll roads in the North, especially those run by government bodies like the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission, are terrible. Toll roads in the South, and more generally those run by Public-Private Partnership contracts like the George Bush Turnpike in Dallas, tend to be, while perhaps expensive, very well maintained. The Dallas North Tollway, mentioned above, is operated directly by the government agency (the North Texas Tollway Authority) and sucks massively compared to the publicly-owned, privately-operated (by Infrastructure Corporation of America from TN) George Bush Turnpike in the same area. Complain about profits, but the privately-operated toll roads at least have nice roads.
As we’ve pointed out, most of this money isn’t going to go back to maintaining roads.
“Most” of the gas tax goes to maintaining roads. Just a significant portion does not. With toll roads it can very; publicly managed toll roads can of course do whatever they want with the money and siphon off the funds. Privately managed toll roads split the tolls between investing in the road and profit, and paying the public government for the lease (perhaps up-front).
Don’t be too sure. According the Newspaper article link in the story above, collecting tolls costs $22 for every $100 collected. And that’s using the most modern advances (like speedpass/ezpass). To do the same revenue collection via the state gas tax, it costs 88 cents per $100. But toll roads are sure a great place for political patronage!
First off, in many places tolls cost a large amount per toll collected because they charge too-low tolls. The collection cost is fixed per car regardless of toll size. Most of the road charge so low tolls because they’re government-run. The Indiana Toll Road was a particularly egregious example; when government run, collecting the tolls actually cost the state money because the tolls hadn’t been raised in years.
But many of you are missing part of the point of toll roads. The point, agree or disagree, is also to reduce congestion on the particular road. A gas tax doesn’t do that; to the extent that a gas tax reduces congestion, it reduces it everywhere. And to a certain extent, a gas tax encourages people to live in denser areas, which can exacerbate congestion in urban areas. There’s an entirely different argument of whether widening the road would be sufficient to avoid congestion in those areas. In some areas it would be, but eventually you run up to practical limits in how wide an interstate can be.
And anyone thinking that the gas tax and public “free” roads aren’t a “great place for political patronage” is insane. The transportation bill is one of the exemplars of pork barrel politics. Would the Bridge to Nowhere have gotten funding as a privately-operated toll road? No, because no private company would be willing to operate it.
When revenue is ostensibly collected for certain purposes, it has a funny way of NOT getting to the intended purposes.
The term ‘general fund’ is a nice way of referring to the taxpayer pocket being picked. It’s also a convenient way to show that the government isn’t collecting enough tax/fees and needs to increase revenue.
See, it’s never a spending problem in their eyes.
RichardD:
Except the tolls aren’t going to pay for the road’s use. They’re going to pay, (a) as mentioned, the overhead to the politically connected toll equipment companies, and (b) for new choo choo trains, bus driver salaries and bicycle paths.
You will see no new roads nor any maintenance beyond the bare minimum because all the new rail/bus boondoggles require massive subsidy to operate.
95% will be robbed to subsidize 5%.
Thank you!!!!! I’m glad I’m not alone with this assessment!!!
If anyone needs a concrete example of this, see my former home state of New Jersey – where nepotism, cronyism, and political patronage are not just words – they are a way of life…:(
johnthacker: But many of you are missing part of the point of toll roads. The point, agree or disagree, is also to reduce congestion on the particular road. A gas tax doesn’t do that; to the extent that a gas tax reduces congestion, it reduces it everywhere. And to a certain extent, a gas tax encourages people to live in denser areas, which can exacerbate congestion in urban areas. There’s an entirely different argument of whether widening the road would be sufficient to avoid congestion in those areas. In some areas it would be, but eventually you run up to practical limits in how wide an interstate can be.
A gas tax hike is 100% the way to go. If congestion is a problem, more people will use public transportation, or not live in the areas that have all of the congestion.
There is a toll road I could take to and from work which would save me 10-15 minutes one way. It would also cost about $1000 a year, and they are increasing rates. At about $4 a day (3 tolls each way), it will not save me a gallon of gas a day, or at current prices, more than a gallon of gas a day.
If everyone paid more for gas, we would have more efficient cars, less pollution, and better roads all around.
Toll roads are a rip off. While some of the money goes to the road, some to overhead, a lot is actually invested in other toll roads so that the toll authority can expand.
johnthacker : But many of you are missing part of the point of toll roads. The point, agree or disagree, is also to reduce congestion on the particular road.
No it isn’t. For those of us who haven’t drunk the Kool-Aid — provided free of charge by foundations underwritten by toll road companies — the purpose of toll roads is obvious:
1. Private profit for the companies that run them.
2. Political benefit from the politicians who steal public land to build them.
Don’t get me wrong, I love private profit. But toll roads DEPEND on congestion to create profit. Namely, free roads must be miserable for toll roads to operate properly. Stop looking at the nice little tree and realize you’re ruining the entire forest.
Adam Smith figured this out around 1776 and has an entire chapter in the Wealth of Nations dedicated to the scam of toll roads and how the road maintenance stops the closer one gets to the expiration of the long-term contract. We’re back to where we once were.