I have been reading lately that Lt. Governor Cagle, along with GRTA, are making recommendations to change the HOT lanes to reversible toll lanes and to begin tolling Ronald Reagan Pkwy to build a better connection to the 85 toll lanes. This means Lt. Gov. Cagle wants to abolish the current el cheapo system and spend a few hundred million dollars to build reversible lanes, and another few hundred million on bridge improvements to eliminate the center supports on the bridges that would cross the reversible lanes. Then we would place a TAX (toll) on the citizens of Grayson and Snellville to use the RR Pkwy. The problem is not that the RR Pkwy is ineffective but that the connection between I-85 and RR Pkwy is broken. Why not improve that area and leave the tolls out of the mix. I guess revenue in the state is way down, but I digress. Here we now have SRTA, GRTA and GDOT all working on road projects with what seems to be no communication between the three, and we are footing the bill. So here is my challenge....
Suspend the tolls along I-85 for 60 days open all lanes for all commuters regardless of vehicle occupancy or type and see what happens. My belief is that if you add the 6th lane back to traffic you will increase traffic flow by 15-18% and decrease congestion by the same margins. This would be an easy method for comparing current restrictive tolling systems to non-restrictive lanes and we would immediately see whether or not the toll lanes as well as the restrictive HOV HOT lanes are needed. There would be minimal costs to the State in that the only money spent would be advertising the change and the loss of toll revenues for 60 days. After 60 days the state can either tell me to shut up or can admit the error and save millions or billions on toll projects that could be used for local road repairs. If you act now the State could prove the need for T-Splost by proving me wrong, if you wait and hope that the citizens of Georgia will shut up and pay because they are used to it, I would strongly suggest that you abandon the T-splost idea as well as the idea of a second term as Governor. Your administration is making you look foolish and incompetent on Transportation issues; it’s time for you to listen to those who voted for you based on your promises.
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