Rep. Frank Wolf has long protested the cost of driving on The Greenway and he called it, highway robbery. Angela Petry who lives in West Virginia drives The Greenway daily and is outraged over the price–$5.55 each way. She wrote her protest song. The Greenway is the only privately owned road in Virginia. So much for private ownership of roads. I will just say on my old government own highway.
Does that make me a socialist?
Sorry about the quality of the video. Its a listen not look kinda video. If someone wants to tell me how to fix it, I will.
We have privately owned toll roads here in Richmond. Two of them.
@Cargosquid
who owns them?
Did McDonnell misspeak or did I mishear?
Doesn’t make you a socialist. I avoid the Greenway like the plague. They don’t want to know what I expect for what they charge. But I can chose not to use it….no problem. What I’m not so sure about is the “hot lanes” on 495. Roads, I do believe, are in the constitution, so a legitimate government function. Obama says we all owe something to the Federal Government because of roads, which is, like everything he says, complete horsecrap. Roads are his actual job. Healthcare isn’t his job.
The HOT lanes–yeah, they’re all about carpooling and conservation, at least for those who can afford them. Until too many people carpool and the vendor’s profits drop. Then our tax dollars have to make up the difference. It’s in the agreement.
Selling off our infrastructure to foreign-owned companies is a stupid idea. We’ll pay forever and ever.
I dont think the Greenway was ever ours was it?
yes, the beauty of these private-public partnerships – we not only pay for the road, but we pay a private company a profit for 80-100 years to run the road. I guess it is similar to a toll on a bridge that is not removed after the bridge is paid for, but at least then, the money goes into more road investment.
What gets me with the HOT lanes, is that you have to pay for the EZPass – so, they save all this money by reducing people, but now want to charge us to save move money. And, having EZPass is required for the HOT lanes.
Its not robbery if you consent.
The HOT lanes will be great when I’m running late for a meeting. I’ll then expense it as a charge to a client who will then in turn up their cost to downstream consumers. So the unfortunate souls trapped in the normal lanes get to pay 2x for my quick trip.
Brilliant!
..can you tell I’m not a fan of HOT lanes?
Toll roads, bridges, canals, ports, locks, privately owned water treatment plants and other utilities are an important part of our development history as a nation — from our earliest colonial history. The railroads and maybe the electric and telephone companies are really the only major exeptions that I can think of where the goverment did not ultimately displace the private sector. I doubt that we would be were we are today if that private investment and risk in our infrastructue had not been made. Health care and the internet are next for government take-overs and all you have to do is sing a little protest song and claim an entitlement.
I object more to the double taxation and subsidy of government owned toll roads where the tolls are not calculated to recover ownership, operations or maintenance and are not subject to audit and review as public entities.