The plan to turn every road into a toll road

The Dori Monson Show has obtained an internal WSDOT email that details the Transportation Commission’s effort to turn every road in Washington state into a toll road.

We first told you about this plan 16 years ago; we had a source who told us about the “20-year-plan” to toll every road in the state. You might pay $12 to drive into downtown Seattle during morning drive-time. You might pay 25 cents to drive to your neighborhood grocery store at midnight. Every road would be tolled.

At the time, politicians ripped me for the “false story” I reported. But, of course, we now know that it’s 100 percent accurate.

I have obtained a staff email sent by WSDOT Deputy Secretary of Transportation Keith Metcalf. In it, he details the four methods the commission will use with volunteers in a pilot program to test a road tolling plan:

Participants will have four mileage collection options to choose from for the test:

–a mileage permit (no technology involved – buy a block of miles and drive until you run out – will do quarterly reporting to confirm permit validity, either in person or via text);

–odometer read (report your odometer in person or via text quarterly);

–mileage meter (utilizes device that plugs into cars telematics port – comes GPS-enabled or not);

–and smartphone (uses an app on your smartphone to report miles).

Participants will get mock invoices so they can see how a RUC impacts them vs the gas tax, as well as to simulate the experience of being charged per mile rather than by the gallon of gas.

Does that sound good to you? Buying a “block of miles” every quarter and driving until you run out? Or having the state track your every movement in your vehicle? Reporting to them every three months?

They are doing this for two reasons:
1) They want more of our money. They told the car manufacturers they had to improve fuel efficiency. They told us to drive less or get electric vehicles. Then they complain about gas tax revenues going down.

2) But even more importantly, this is an attempt to control our lives and get us out of our vehicles. If you work in sales and call on clients, or if you are a tradesman — a plumber or electrician — you have your tools in your vehicle. You can’t take mass transit. If you are a parent, you might leave work and rush to get your kids to their piano lessons or their soccer practice. Maybe you’re a community volunteer and coach your kids’ basketball team. The social engineers in our state have contempt for those virtuous workers and families because a car is a necessity in our lives – and they despise those of us who don’t have mass transit as an option.

Turning every road into a toll road will crush a lot of poor, middle-class, and working-class families in our state. And you know, every tax that is implemented is jacked up as fast as possible. Look at the tolls on the Narrows Bridge and on I-405. Look at what has happened with the sales tax that was 4.5 percent when I was a kid and is now over 10 percent. If they can make every road a toll road, watch how fast those tolls rise in pursuit of their obsessive desire to get all of us out of our cars.

I’ve heard from couriers, from delivery and Uber drivers, from busy single-parents — a wide range of people who have told me how tolling every road will crush them financially.

We must do everything we can to stop this plan. I’ve been warning about this for 16 years. It is close to happening. I will do everything I can to stop it. I will need your help. Our collective voice must be loud and clear to oppose this continuing war on cars.

 

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