A small but vocal group of East Austin activists protested the “economic racism” of Central Texas toll roads outside the Capital Area Metropolitan Planning Organization‘s meeting on Monday night. According to People Organized in Defense of Earth and Her Resources, the Central Texas Regional Mobility Authority‘s toll road plan contains six times as many double-tax toll lanes in East Austin as it does in West Austin.
This is the usual protest that CAMPO board members hear each month, from toll road opponents and libertarians alike. Susana Almanza of PODER points out that the east side of I-35 is overburdened with toll roads, that local residents will have little input into toll fees, and that more affluent residents to the west have been able to remove toll projects they don’t like from the toll plan, unlike their poorer neighbors to the east.
Almanza also pointed out that lanes just opened on U.S. 183 and SH 71 – those new main lanes that have made it easier to get to Wal-Mart and Bergstrom Airport – likely will be tolled eventually, despite the fact that they got in “just under the gun” in construction. “We’ve already paid for these roads, and these tolls are going to take us off these freeways,” Almanza said. “We want the majority of these roads to remain free.”
Others at the meeting noted that PODER has conveniently ignored the first phase of the toll road plans, which include plenty of roads in northern Travis Co. and Williamson Co., including U.S. 183A and SH 45. And while the William Cannon bridge is off the plan, Loop 360 could still be added after some study. Mike Heiligenstein, executive director of the CTRMA, notes that the TxDOT has given District Engineer Bob Daigh a directive to consider tolling for the south end of U.S. 183 and SH 71, even though portions were under construction. To Heiligenstein, that makes sense, because it will be the only way to complete the full length of the construction project in a timely fashion. Those lanes that were free and available before construction of the main lanes began – basically, the frontage roads – will remain the same free and available frontage roads they were before construction began.
Heilingenstein also points out that many who are likely to use the tolled main lanes will be people from the north and west who are headed to the airport. Regardless of where the roads are placed, everyone will be paying the cost, he says, adding that it would have been just as contentious if the east side had been excluded from the toll road plan.
This article appears in August 18 • 2006.