City, County & State Want New Toll Lanes On I-35W

Anyone who lives in or near Tarrant county knows that Interstate 35W north of downtown has been inadequate for the traffic it carries for several years now. It only has two lanes, and it needs to have at least two more [making a total of four lanes going each way].

When Tarrant county got a huge multi-million dollar bond proposal passed earlier this year, they said part of the money would be to "fix I-35W". I thought at the time this meant they would widen the freeway, and I'm sure a lot of others thought the same. After all, that is the "fix" that is needed. But we were wrong. Evidently the money was just for repairs and not for widening the freeway. I still think they were misleading when trying to get the bond proposal passed.

Now they are doing something even worse. Fort Worth and Tarrant county officials have joined with state officials to push a proposal that would widen I-35W and Loop 820 with new TOLL LANES! It's not bad enough that these officials support that boondoggle called the Trans-Texas Corridor, now they want to build new toll lanes inside the county.

It seems like these officials never pass up an opportunity to squeeze another dollar out of their constituents. What do they have against poor and working folks? Do they just not like us, or just can't be bothered with thinking about us?

I'm sure these officials have plenty of money to throw around and spend on taking a toll road. After all, you pretty much have to be well-off to even run for political office these days. But there are lots of working people who really can't afford the extra expense of taking a toll road to work and back. They're still going to be crammed into the two existing lanes, while the rich speed by in the new toll lanes.

The working people pay most of the taxes, and they deserve to have a decent way to get to and from work. But it seems that everything the city, county and state does nowdays is geared toward helping the rich. Widening I-35W and Loop 820 is badly needed, but it is ridiculous and unfair to do it by adding toll lanes.

If we need to raise the gas tax a little to pay for new and improved roads, then we should do it. That would be a lot cheaper for most people than toll roads. This is just a bad idea, and it should be stopped before it gets any further.