Some are calling it a political crisis, but no matter the cause of the trend, toll roads are about soon to be a ubiquitous fact of life in North Texas.
"Virtually every major Dallas-Fort Worth highway project includes plans for new tolls, in many cases replacing what have traditionally been free carpool lanes. By the time billions in planned construction is done, most of the area’s major corridors will either be toll roads or feature some sort of toll component," reports Brandon Formby.
"By 2018, North Texas will have more than 100 miles of managed toll lanes. They will be added on State Highways 114 and 183 in Irving. They will replace carpool lanes on Interstate 35E through Denton County and Interstate 30 on both sides of downtown Dallas."
According to Formby, the tolls are necessitated by a state legislature with no other solutions to funding shortfalls: "Texas lawmakers haven’t raised the state gas tax, the primary revenue source for transportation funding, in decades. They also haven’t developed a meaningful, long-term alternative funding source. When inflation and fuel efficiency in vehicles are factored in, Texans effectively are paying far less to fund transportation needs than they were 20 years ago."
FULL STORY: Era of the toll is about to dawn on Dallas-area highways
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City of Albany
UCLA Lewis Center for Regional Policy Studies
Mpact (formerly Rail~Volution)
Chaddick Institute at DePaul University
City of Piedmont, CA
Great Falls Development Authority, Inc.
HUDs Office of Policy Development and Research