'Tessa, from Oil City, Opinon on I-80 Toll Plan'

Tessa, from Oil City, Opinon on I-80 Toll Plan

By Interviewer at 08/29/07 21:15

What city are you from

Oil City, PA

Do you think the toll plan for I-80 is fair? Why or why not?

I do not think the plan is fair, but then I don't believe we have been given a clear and tru picture of why it is necessary to bring about the tolls in the first place.

Do you think the toll will impact state police and emergency services on I-80? How?

Not really. I think the emergency crews will still be providing the excellent service they always have.

Do you think the I-80 roadway itself will be improved under the plan? Why or why not?

I do not. I bet, though, that Rendell will tell us all that I-80 will be a pristine travel route.

Do you think people will take alternative routes to avoid the tolls? What route?

Come on. If you made your living driving the highways like the truckers do, would you go around the toll roads? Of course you would and so will everyone else.

What do you think will be the biggest negative impact of making I-80 a toll road?

First, I think there will be undue burdens put on roadways that are not meant to be so heavily travelled. I think 322 and 8 come to mind right away and neither of those roads is in the best shape for the extra traffic. Second, I think that truckers are already faced with almost impossible odds to make a living with fuel prices as they are. This will just be one more quarter out of their pocket.

What positive advantage can you think of to tolling I-80?

Absolutely none

How does it make you feel when they state that a big portion of the dollars will go to funding mass transit?

I would say I could care less what the mass transit systems are like in Philadelphia and anywhere else for that matter. We don't use their mass transit. Let them figure out a way to handle it. We can't even AFFORD mass transit because our economy is so depressed we can't even find stable business to provide jobs in this area.

What do you think the impact on the truckers will be?

I think we all know the answer to that

How does it make you feel that the plan is going through even though it was opposed by other politicians in the affected area?

It makes me feel angry, just like all the other stupid decisions that those who hold power make every day. They are so busy with their power trips and SOMEBODY making money, they don't care what the effect on the average taxpayer will be. Two Mile Run County Park ring a bell here?

What do you feel is the real reason Rendell chose this action and who will it really benefit the most in your opinion?

Who knows. I think they couldn't find any other way to fund their pet projects so they find somewhere they can lay the burden down, which just so happens to be on the I-80 corridor businesses and families.

Voters in Pennsylvania and throughout the U.S. who oppose the tolling of I-80 and any other interstate built with and supported with federal funds should write to their elected U.S. senators and congressman and to Mary Peters, U. S. Secretary of Transportation. Neither Pennsylvania nor any other state should be granted approval to implement tolls on interstate roads that were built with and supported with federal funds especially without full reimbursement to the federal government and its tax payers.

Since Governor Rendell has admitted that Act 44 calling for I-80 tolling was not his choice, but a compromising measure, to fund road improvements and repairs, how, in good judgment, could he and our state senators and representatives support the tolling of I-80 without public input and without a completed impact study? Pennsylvania voters, who oppose the tolling of I-80, should actively urge Governor Rendell and their state senators and representatives to repeal Act 44 and withdraw the Pennsylvania Turnpike’s I-80 tolling application to the Federal Highway Administration.

If the tolling of I-80 is not stopped, Pennsylvanians who oppose the tolling of

I-80 should vote out of office not only Governor Rendell and those state senators and representatives who voted for the enactment of Act 44, but also U.S. Senators Robert P. Casey Jr. and Arlen Specter and their U.S. congressman if she/he chose not to stop the tolling of I-80.

Contrary to what some of our elected officials are saying, Harrisburg does have other options available to it than the tolling of I-80 to fund not only necessary bridge and road repairs and improvements, but also mass transit. And shame on those of our elected officials who are using nonsensical scare tactics such that substantial increases in gas taxes are their only other alternative to the tolling of I-80.

If the I-80 toll plan in Pennsylvania is approved and implemented and not supported by a meaningful impact study with comprehensive public input, I believe that I-80 tolling will:

• Establish an inflationary precedent that will expand throughout the U.S. unnecessarily increasing the cost of all goods transported by truck ultimately to be borne by every consumer. This would be contrary to our nation’s goals to minimize inflationary pressures and to improve economic prosperity.

• Have a negative impact on small and large businesses and to the local economies of all communities along the I-80 corridor from the Pennsylvania to Ohio borders whose economic impact could expand well beyond Pennsylvania s borders.

• Considering the other means already used by Pennsylvania such as gasoline taxes to fund road improvements and repairs, toll revenues represent an additional tax to be used for the for the same purposes.

• Result in more traffic congestion unnecessarily increasing gasoline and diesel fuel usage and poorer air quality. This would be contrary to our nation’s goal to reduce fuel consumption and to prevent any further environmental problems from global warming.

• Result in traffic volumes shifts off of the interstate to our local roads aggravating already existing local road traffic congestion and safety problems but also required local road maintenance.

• Indirectly fund other state needs such as urban mass transit repairs and improvements by diverting existing I-80 road funds for mass transit purposes and replacing these diverted funds with the I-80 toll revenues.

• Be putting the authority of I-80 in the wrong hands of the problematic Pennsylvania Turnpike Authority.

I think the toll on I-80 is worthless. I know plenty of people who travel I-80 daily and I know for a fact they will use backroads so they don't have to pay a toll on top of the raising gas prices.

****Most families are struggling pay check to pay check just to live because of gas prices and food costs, let alone, people who live atleast a half hour away from the nearest Wal-Mart aren't going to pay extra just to get there!

I think that the toll on I-80 is croc...We all have a problem with the cost of gas and we really dont need to pay even more to drive on I-80!! Me and my family travel on I-80 almost every day and I know that if they put a toll on it then their just going to be lossing money because people are going to travel a different way!! So I think that the toll on I-80 is very worthless!!

since the residents that live in the counties that I-80 go through are oppose to tolling that will help mass transportation in urban areas,I think the problem could be solve very easy by keeping the tax revenue that is generated in philadelphia and pittsburgh in that area,let these counties fund there education,welfare,health,water and park maintenance without funds being redirected from urban areas,there would be no need to go outside for mass transportation funds

Name:     (required)
Email:    (required, not published)
Comment: