by stevenc » Thu Aug 30, 2007 08:56:22 PM
Well, to me "toll roads" are acceptable if:
1) The road is/was built by the party/parties who collect the toll payments (this is the way it was done in 19th-century Ontario!).
2) IF the road in question was built at taxpayers' expense, any toll income goes back to the governmental body who paid to build the roads (this is the way the Pennsylvania Turnpike has operated since 1940...!)
3) The toll road is somehow superior to any "free" government-constructed roads serving the same points...!
The 407 fails on points one and two, and MIGHT pass on point three. Realistically, the 407 (having been sold off to an OVERSEAS company who still insist that license renewals MUST be unavailable if they are owed any money...?) is the
same thing as, for example, the city of Toronto selling off all its municipal parks to a Slobbovian holding company, who then get
the rights to collect entry fees (which THEY get to set...!) at each and every entrance to every park...while it is still left to the muncipal Public Works dep't. to maintain said parks!
One quick applicable question...! Should a developer decide that a piece of land now occupied by the 407 would be an ideal site for a 357-story condominium building...can the 407 corporation sell him/her/it that land, at a profit, and then have the province build a new, re-routed highway which detours around the new tower...?!
...stevenc