Reporter Yamil Berard scoured through thousands of pages of court records, documents from the National Transportation Safety Board, and videos of that tragic day in February 2021 when 130 cars, trucks and semis piled up along a stretch of the North Tarrant Express. Early morning commuters, unaware of the black ice beneath them, crashed one after another along two lanes bound by concrete barriers on both sides. The horrific scene spanned the length of three football fields.
The best argument to toll every Interstate quality highway is that the toll revenue acts as a pretty good use tax. It is the reason why most toll highways are in better condition than free ones.
And figuring out how to fund free highways in the future is going to be a lot harder when the number of gas vehicles goes down and the gas tax, a pseudo use tax, isn’t enough to fund maintenance.
And empty. At least in my drives, they are far less traveled.
It depends on where. There are some toll highways that are 12+ lanes wide.
This is the core problem. If you want a use tax for driving, attach it to vehicle ownership (Canada does this with plate stickers, for example). If you make it specific to which roads people drive you just end up with fast roads for some and slow roads for everyone else, and a whole lot of under-utilized infrastructure capacity.