Toll Roads in Texas

With all of the recent road construction over the past 5 years in the area, it is hard to not notice the increasing

amount of toll roads in Texas.

As more states find it hard to fund road construction to fight off the rising levels of traffic congestion, the popularity

of toll roads is growing rapidly.

Toll Roads Around DFW

The area of Dallas-Fort Worth is home to more than 6.

5 million people and now has one of the largest networks of toll roads in all of North America.

These toll roads are not the toll roads of the past.

These toll roads are entirely built and operated by private companies that maintain the rights of the roads they built

for decades.

One such company, Texas Turnpike Corp.,even possesses eminent-domain powers granted by a law that has since

been rewritten, and has plans of making the only privately funded, built, operated, and OWNED toll road in the entire

country.

Many Texas residents are getting fed up with the ever increasing expansion of toll roads.

Some claim that it is completely impossible to go about their lives without having to pay a toll somewhere.

While many of them are suggesting that the state just stop sanctioning private companies to build roads they can not

build themselves, traffic congestion is a serious and still growing problem in the area.

The main source of revenue to fund road construction for the state comes from its 20 cent tax is placed on every

gallon of gasoline purchased.

However, those 20 cents have not changed since 1991 and is a major cause for the lack of funding.

A National Problem With Toll Roads

Currently the U.S.has 5,400 miles of toll roads, an increase of 15% since 2003, and 500 miles of that has been built in

Texas in the last decade.

With an additional twenty or more toll road projects currently being planned or in construction, that number can be expected to rise more than 300 miles in the next five to

ten years.

With the state nearly $5 billion short of transportation funding, there are few alternatives to toll roads or higher

taxes.

However, with large sections of major cities being sectioned off by toll roads, public unrest is becoming a major concern

for lawmakers and city officials.

Despite the growing frustration over toll roads in Texas, if a more reliable method to increase transportation funding is not found, toll roads will continue to be privately built for

the state.