North Carolina Businesses Along I-95 Tally Tolling Impact

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Editor’s note:  $19.20 to drive across North Carolina and gas is more than $3.50 a gallon!  This will push more people to trains, buses and airplanes OR onto alternate routes.

Plans to charge a toll on Interstate 95 in North Carolina will make it more difficult for businesses to quickly and cheaply ship goods up and down the East Coast’s chief thoroughfare, critics say.

North Carolina, Virginia and Missouri all are considering tolls as a way to pay for expanding and upgrading interstates. Supporters say drivers from other states will pay much of the costs.

But like most highways, I-95 is itself a hub of businesses drawn to the asphalt link to markets from Maine to Florida.

Food Lion, Wal-Mart, and Lowe’s are some of the companies with North Carolina distribution centers, each employing hundreds of workers, near the highway. The world’s largest hog slaughterhouse operated by Smithfield Foods and one of the nation’s largest food-service distributors for restaurant chains built near the interstate.

Read more: http://lancasteronline.com/article/ap/602081_NC-businesses-along-I-95-tally-tolling-impact.html#ixzz1ojH6dDfe

Lower Providence Township Opposes 422 Tolling Plan

The Lower Providence Board of Supervisors unanimously approved a resolution opposing 422 tolling on Thursday evening.

To read the entire article and watch a video, check out the coverage from the Times Herald:

http://www.timesherald.com/articles/2011/07/08/news/doc4e172332ad403860680019.txt?viewmode=fullstory

Just Say No To Tolls On Interstate 80

The Federal Highway Administration has turned down Ed Rendell’s request to make Interstate 80 a toll road in Pennsylvania.  The road runs the entire length of Pennsylvania through rural counties with historically higher unemployment.

Rendell stated this was the third and last attempt by the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission to make I-80 a toll road.

We need some better “outside the box” solutions coming out of Harrisburg!

More Toll Roads Proposed By Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission

Evidently 422 isn’t the only local limited access highway being eyed for tolls.  The Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission is also looking at 476 (Blue Route), I-95 and the Schuylkill Expressway.

My thoughts…this is a bad idea.  It will congest traffic even further and push people to use surface streets and roads like 724 and Ridge Pike.

We are already paying a gasoline tax, amongst other taxes too numerous to mention.  People in this area aren’t “rich” either so where they get off thinking that is beyond me.  This greed and need to continue taxing people to death has to stop.  Let’s have some creative, outside the box thinking for a change.  This is a knee-jerk reaction that is not well thought out.

Even with EZ Pass, toll booths back up traffic.  You still have to slow down.  Getting to King of Prussia in the morning is already a hour long nightmare on most days

We should look at attracting business and industry to the population centers that already exist and substantially reduce our carbon footprint if we really care about the big picture.

Push For Tolls On Interstate 80 Accelerates

PennDot and the PA Turnpike Commission have sent additional material to the Federal Highway Administration in an attempt to push through a proposal to make Interstate 80 a toll road throughout the Commonwealth.

PennDot would lease Interstate 80 to the Turnpike Commission who would operate the toll administration.

This idea is being vociferously opposed by PA residents along Interstate 80 (this idea is getting about the same enthusiatic support as turning US 422 into a toll road in our neck of the woods).

I guess Interstate 80 will be another road to avoid if tolls are added.  Between the price of gas and the astronomical tolls it makes traveling very expensive.  When I travel to Harrisburg, it would cost me the same amount for gas as it would for tolls if I were to use the turnpike.  Taking the turnpike doubles the cost of each trip!  I take alternate routes!

I thought that’s what all these gasoline taxes were for??? Silly me!