Cypherpunk@nyc. wrote:
>
> Dweezil Dwarftosser <f4wcsm> wrote:
> > gracie28 wrote:
> > >
> > > Column: Point of View
> > >
> > > TTA rail: fair price for a new freedom
> > > [... ] Even the heavily traveled toll roads and bridges in
> > > the New York City metropolitan area can't break even.
> >
> > Which is, of course, a bald-faced lie.
> >
> > All of NYC's toll bridges, tunnels, and parkways were
> > fully paid-for (via tolls) within ten years after they
> > were erected. In fact, one of the NY natives' chief
> > complaints is that tolls are still charged, decades
> > after the routes have been paid-for.
I'm reminded of the old Dave Berg cartoon in Mad Magazine, in
which a motorist at a tollbooth indignantly protests to the toll
collector that he knows that the road and its maintenance has
been paid for several times over, and the collector responds
that that's right, and now the motorists are paying the tolls for
the maintenance and staffing of the tollbooths.
> > Similar toll roads outside NYC (Westchester, LI, etc.)
> > and in neighboring NJ also are long paid-for; the tolls
> > not only pay for upkeep and expansion, they are a
> > significant revenue source for the states.
But at least one parkway in Westchester did have its toll booths
removed in the 1980s. There's not even a trace of the old toll
plazas there now.
Some good points about the need for commuter rail in the Triangle... 
