Issue With Toll Road

Dear Editor,
    As many Austin drivers must be aware, construction has been taking place on highway U.S. 290. I have used this road for years as the last leg of a six-hour drive from my home in Louisiana down state 79. I have become painfully aware that the flyover from 290 to southbound I-35 is now tolled. When you elect not to take the toll road at this point, you are routed to a service road and a series of very long, untimed red lights, one at which you turn onto the service road of I-35, where you cannot enter proper until south of Airport Boulevard. Here is the kicker: Taxpayers paid for this stretch of road that is now being tolled. The Central Texas Regional Mobility Authority, whoever in hell they are, do not own that road for which they are now being able to charge drivers through this section of Austin. And how are they able to do this? Because all the media of Austin, including The Austin Chronicle, convinced voters 10-12 years ago to approve two unbelievable propositions: to have a toll grid encircle the city and the airport, and to continue nontransparent – that is, corrupt – city government. Congratulations, Chronicle, on your role in institutionalizing corruption and selling Austin citizens down the river to a corporation which is the front for a foreign monarchy. Not that a letter to a (media) editor is ever the instrument of direct change, but there needs to be an appropriate class-action lawsuit to put CTRMA back in its place: tolling roads they have actually built, and refunding illegally charged fees.