Place at main entrances and exit roads for (Wisconsin). Why should Illinois have one just about a mile south of Wisconsin, coming this way?

WI residents pay almosy double of what every other state pays on gasoline tax. Wheres all that money go? How can other states survive with no tolls and half the gas tax?

I read that previous comment and thought - who in the heck capitalizes every other word? Then I saw it. Oh.
Can't....escape....the....mediocrity.......

AND NOW MORE evidence for the DESPERATE need for TOLL ROADS in WISCONSIN, Greg - today's Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has an informative article, "Gas tax short of covering roads" - http://www.jsonline.com/news/statepoliti.... I expressed my own support of TOLL ROADS in WI in my WE THE PEOPLE blog last Tuesday (10/4) - http://gazettextra.com/weblogs/we-people.... I read with APPRECIATION Stan Milam's column in last Saturday's (10/8) Gazette. LET'S OPEN THE TOLL ROADS ASAP! Here we go... John W. Eyster

Because they want to be cool just like Illernois! I hear they are building business left and right with all the tax increases.

I would suspect that 10%+ of the Janesville population does not work in Janesville. If the toll does pass, I believe that we will see the ghost town that people already conceive us to live in post GM.

A resound NO. NOT a good idea. We are supposed to be a state that is open for jobs. How can we expect people from other states to come to WI and pay just to come and leave from work everyday. Ridiculous.

SuperDave wrote, "Just remember that, once installed, tolls rarely "go away". Even when it's promised that they will."

You are absolutely correct.

Combining ideas of Minan and realitybyte would get the job done. “Occasional” users would use the “on-off ticket” mechanism, and frequent users would benefit from I-Pass, or open road tolling.

Better minds than mine might think of a way to keep graft and nepotism at bay; absolute open meetings, bids, etc. Maximum transparency and accountability. Good grief, do we need a Constitutional amendment to keep the creepy governors’ hands off discreet funds? Remember Doyle? Thompson?

The toll road would never go away, true. Just as the original 3% sales tax was to go away after just a few years. But the toll revenues, like the sales tax, will continue to add the muscle needed for better road upkeep.

Also, let’s enforce all our traffic laws uniformly. No “warnings”! Across the board. Revenue plus safer highways would be good. Fine those semi-trailer bullies and charter buses that weave lines as though they were driving sports cars. Not enough state troopers? Great jobs program, eh!

Last, let’s think about license tags for boat trailers, snow mobile trailers, and general utility trailers, etc. An appropriate user tax, in my opinion. Every tire on the roadway wears the pavement. Size and weight classes, as per motor vehicles, would be workable. If I don’t want to pay such a tax, my boat would stay in the garage. And let’s enforce Wisconsin law that requires us Badgers to have a plate on the front of the vehicle.

Just remember that, once installed, tolls rarely "go away". Even when it's promised that they will.

Highways will be obsolete in two years. Part of Obama's next economic stimulus package is to give General Motors a $40 billion grant to develop a Jetson's-style aerocar:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Jetsons...

Minan:

Have you driven in Illinois using the open road tolling? Instead of stopping to get a ticket and stopping again to pay you DON'T stop (or even slow down). It is way better than the ticket option and it makes throwing change into a basket look like something that a caveman would conceive. I do agree that a third lane is needed in many sections of the interstate system.

Tollways breed nepotism and corruption, and those are the lesser of the evils. The bigger crime is that the roads are still crap. As Casey Stengel often said, "You can look it up."

Sigma -
Are you crazed? A tollway stop every 3 - 5 miles? So using your logic a driver would need to pay a toll roughly eight to ten times between Janesville and Madison on 39/90. Where do you get this information? I don't know any states where the distance between tolls is this small. Think, man, think before you type.

Hello:

I rarely use the interstate and yet I'm sure I pay for it in taxes. I think it's only fair that those who use it pay for it. I was not able to get a driver's license so I consider myself handicapped in that regard. I think we should let buses go for free to encourage use of public transportation, which uses less gas, is more efficient, and has fewer things to upkeep (tires, bus itself, the road will have less wear and tear with fewer vehicles etc.).
The interstate is nice for buses and semis but I think the private vehicles should be cut down. I don't think tourism in Illinois, for example, is really affected by tollways (do you ever hear "boy I'd like to visit Illinois, but I don't want to pay the tollway"?), so I don't think it would seriously affect tourism in Wisconsin. I'm interested to hear others' ideas in this topic.

This was something that should've been floated 10 or 20 years ago, before so many state and US highways were upgraded to expressways.

Examples:
- WIS 26 between Janesville & Oshkosh
- WIS 29 corridor between Eau Claire and Green Bay
- US 53 corridor between La Crosse and Superior
- US 151 corridor
- US 12 corridor between the Dells and Elkhorn

You're not going to get I-39/90 tolled, or I-94 north from Illinois. The feds don't support tollways, and good luck getting them to let you convert a free road to toll. Pennsylvania's been trying it with I-80 for years. Every proposal they send the feds is rejected. And guess what: their roads are horrible, as bad or worse than Illinois roads. Perhaps tolling is not a panacea?

Bottom line: you're going to pay for good roads one way or the other. Raise the fuel taxes, enact a per-mile tax on electric vehicles, and move on!

jv93: Boyle and his cronies kept robbing the hiway funds for non hiway projects like bike trails and non-transportation projects that one of the reason the roads are so bad.

Having both toll roads AND gas taxes makes sense.
Having a gas tax makes sense because it places a higher burden on those that deserve paying more. Typically larger vehicles put more wear and tear on the roads and should be taxed more. Larger vehicles tend to get lower mileage and therefore burn more gas and pay more taxes. If you have a smaller, more efficient vehicle but drive many miles you also don't escape paying your share. The gas tax works because it doesn't care if you are driving on a toll road or not or if you are a WI resident or not.
Tolls work because those using the roads are the ones forced to pay (WI resident or not). Local residents know alternative routes and can (in many cases) avoid paying tolls. Out of state tourists that are trying to avoid interstate tolls must resort to local highways and may end up patronizing local businesses more.

We don't need tolls. Simply raise the gas tax. Doing so would raise money, promote fuel efficiency, and reduce pollution. Wisconsins pays only 32.8 cents/gallon while ILL. pays 42.8 cents/gallon. Rates include enviromental fees, storage tank fees, and other sales taxes. see:http://www.taxfoundation.org/taxdata/show/26079.html

Hey Sigma...ever hear of an I-Pass ? Duh !

If toll roads would improve keeping up the infrastructure and maintenance lets do it. The Illinois toll road is far superior with its three lanes in place and they do a much better job of cleaning snow and ice. We need the dedicated finance sources that can’t be tapped by politicians

you know how much fuel you waste stopping every 3-5 miles? Over a year it adds up to a lot.

If it is done right then the State can make alot of Money, dont have the standard toll plaza every 3 to five miles, just have them when entering the state at the different border crossings, so only those entering the state have to pay tolls, and if your someone that leaves the state to work then that is your way of paying some taxes to the state that the average worker pays thru income tax.

No tollways in wisconsin please.

No, I'm against the tollways. Anytime I go to IL, I avoid them by using backroads. IL roads aren't any better than ours.
If the state used the road repair money for actual road repairs, we wouldn't have a problem.

I have always hated the Illinois tollways (hated with a passion). Plus I never thought that Illinois roads were any better than those in Wisconsin.
However, if WI reduces its other taxes that are SUPPOSED to be used for road work (and are paid for mostly by WI residents) then WI tollways would be an option. The biggest benefit would be that out-of-state drivers would pay a larger portion of the costs for WI roads than they do now. Just think of all the cash flowing into WI road funds from the flatlanders coming north to vacation every weekend. Again, this makes sense ONLY IF the current types of taxes are reduced or eliminated.
PS. Open road tolling using the IPASS system would be a must. There is nothing worse than getting stuck behind somebody that is searching under their floormats for the change needed to pay the toll.

"Tollways, the study suggests, would help offset those enormous costs." Really? Last I checked the transportation fund by way of gas taxes was set aside for road repair and such. Hey...where did that money go?

Let me see ???? Economy in the pits .... jobless rate high ... gas prices high ... less gas tax because less people going to work or taking vacations. What should we do? Oh, create tollway (a.k.a. taxway) --- just another hidden tax so that people using them to go to work can have higher transportation costs. Plus add another disincentive for vacation travel. Oh, I forgot .... drive more fuel efficient cars also but then less gas tax so have to penalize people for doing that. Government planning at its finest as usual.

btw, Truck drivers already admit avoiding the Illinois tolls.

If every city has $50,000 just laying around to throw at stupid projects... use that money.

I'd favor tolls, but on non-residents only.

Didn't we just discuss this last week? The answer is "no". It's just another tax and for someone like myself it is disparate because I work across the border.