Stop Plans For Future Florida Electronic Tolling Grid

If you have not heard of this alarming news from your local newspaper, then it will be ideal that you read the following and consider its implications and future possible outcomes. The Jeb Bush administration and Miami-Dade Expressway Authority (MDX ) have plans to replace Cash Toll booths with electronic grids in the Florida Highway system by the year 2010 unless we work to prevent this. Dolphin Expressway, Snapper Creek Expressway, I-95, Airport expressways, etc... will all be replaced with a вpay as you go plan...the longer you go the more youвll payв (Andriuk). This new tolling grid will affect everyone, but it will mostly affect middle to lower class drivers. The financial consequences on the middle to lower class drivers will be significant. Significant enough as to force drivers not to take expressways, which will in turn create more and more traffic on our local roads.

The quote below is taken from the Miami Herald publication:

вThe plan calls for tolls to be collected at several key points in the expressway system where none currently exist:

в Drivers heading to Miami International Airport from the beaches or Interstate 95 will pay a 50-cent toll on the westbound Dolphin and Airport expressways.

в A 50-cent toll will be collected in both directions on the Dolphin Expressway between the exits for Northwest 107th Avenue and Northwest 87th Avenue.

в A 45-cent charge will be levied in both directions on the Snapper Creek Expressway.в (Miami Herald)

For example, a person living on or about 107th avenue 14st NW will be required to pay a $2.00 toll fee per day if they have work in the Ft. Lauderdale area to travel only through Dolphin Expressway . This will amount to a $40.00 monthly toll fee based on 5 day work day. Additional fees apply to obtain a Sunpass. This is certainly a disadvantage for a low income family.

Furthermore, failure to have a Sunpass, an appropriate tool for the Electronic Toll Grid, will result in a $25.00 fee and a required appearance in traffic court. Our government claim that this will eliminated highway traffic congestion but at what expense? What this will actually do is In turn it will surely increase local road congestion for those unwilling/unable to pay this outlandish fee. Moreover, those who require use of the highway as the simplest and only means of travel to the workplace will surely suffer detrimental monetary set backs.

The government needs to prevent this outcome. We must inform both administrations of the inevitable financial hardship and local road congestion that this tolling grid plans will create. Please sign this petition, list your concerns, voice your opinion. The government must find other means that will not continue to affect the lower/middle class families of Florida.