Comments on Advance Indiana™: $3.8 Billion In The Bank

best regards, nice info » »

2006-08-28T00:55:00.000-05:00

best regards, nice info
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When do we get to hear about Northwest Indiana? T...

2006-07-01T09:27:00.000-05:00

When do we get to hear about Northwest Indiana? There, the toll road relieves traffic on the Borman (I-80/94), although driving there is still no fun. If truckers (who are hit with the bigger toll increases) change routes to the Borman, or (even worse) US-30, it will only be harder to get around in NW Indiana. Add the failure to plan for the Illiana Expressway and the persistant lack of a North-South highway that functions and you're looking at the place that is actually getting screwed. In contrast with South Bend, the toll road is used by commuters in NW Indiana, and it keeps the Borman (used by even more commuters) from being completely stopped, all the time.

Even when people in Southern Indiana are paying tolls on the new stretch of I-69, the Indianapolis area will still escape tolls alltogether, since the Statehouse Republicans specifically exempted the stretch between Indy and Martinsville from tolls. When will the people of Indianapolis start having to pay their fair share of road costs?

Well folks in the southern half of the state are g...

2006-06-30T13:32:00.000-05:00

Well folks in the southern half of the state are going to have to pay tolls on the new I-69 highway so that should help even things out.

Theoretically, we could figure out what the averag...

2006-06-30T13:27:00.000-05:00

Theoretically, we could figure out what the average Northern Indiana motorist pays in tolls over a year and, once the toll road was paid off, impose a tax equivalent to that amount on everyone in the State and use that money to pay for infrastructure.

Politically, however, that's probably not feasible since citizens have been conditioned to freak out over anything called a tax whereas they won't raise the same fuss about paying a private company something labeled a "toll."

But then you still have a rate hike and no improve...

2006-06-30T10:18:00.000-05:00

But then you still have a rate hike and no improvement to existing roads, toll or free.

I agree that we should toll 465 and construct a modern mass transit system. Better yet, toll people who are getting on I-69 between Noblesville and 465. You wouldn't even need a toll booth...people could walk car to car since the average speed is 1/2 mph anyway.

In my mind, the right thing to do would have been ...

2006-06-30T09:22:00.000-05:00

In my mind, the right thing to do would have been to raise tolls enough to pay off the existing bonds on the toll road and, once they were paid, make it a free highway like the rest of the state's Interstate system. I think free highways lend themselves more to economic development than do toll roads -- for example, I don't think Honda would have picked Greensburg if I-74 were a toll road.

I was the previous Anonymous... just wanted to cor...

2006-06-30T08:32:00.000-05:00

I was the previous Anonymous... just wanted to correct myself on something -- apparently, the northern IN counties' roads were funded by the toll road revenue. Regardless, the toll road acct was in serious debt and had a low balance anyway.

No one has to use the toll road -- not to mention ...

2006-06-30T08:08:00.000-05:00

No one has to use the toll road -- not to mention that something like 66% of toll road users are from out of state!

As far as what Broden and what's-her-face are saying, it's funny that no one says anything about the fact that northern Indiana wasn't benefitting financially from the toll road in the first place! I spend a lot of time in northern Indiana, and I swear they are the most impossible people to satisfy. NOTHING pleases them unless it's status quo.

Doug--If it were my decision, I-465 would be made ...

2006-06-30T00:33:00.000-05:00

Doug--If it were my decision, I-465 would be made a toll road and the revenues would be used to build a mass transit system to serve the entire metro-Indy area. I wouldn't invest another dime in new roads in this area. We need an elevated train to bring people to and from the city period. Our metro transportation system is a total failure at this point. The bottom line is that the I-31, I-69 and Hoosier Heartland are long overdue projects. The GOP has a plan that will work, and the Democrats have offered nothing.

If the road construction is going to benefit the e...

2006-06-29T21:30:00.000-05:00

If the road construction is going to benefit the entire state, then the entire state should have paid for it.

But the political will was lacking for a general tax, so they went this route which, politically, feels like less of a tax.

I don't think the correct metric is to compare dollars per capita between Indianapolis and South Bend. Rather it would seem more appropriate to compare toll expenses per capita and allocate funding accordingly.

Don't get me wrong, it's a great deal for Lafayette. We'll get some roads constructed, I won't pay a dime in tolls, and my taxes won't go up. But somebody's paying more than they really should have to for my good fortune.

Would motorists in Indianapolis really be so sanguine about this if, instead of I-80/90, it was I-465 on which tolls were going to be jacked up for the next 75 years so that road projects in the rest of the state could be completed? Under such circumstances, I just can't envision Marion County residents taking it in stride as being all for the good of the state.