Talk of the Town

Long time devotes of St. Louis’ fourth estate know that the finest journalism in St. Louis is not provided by the Post-Dispatch, KMOX radio, or Channel 5, but via the Sound Off! section of the Suburban Journals. Now, it is commonly referred to as Town Talk, and it never fails to inspire, educate, and — most commonly — astound.  Anyway, there is a great snippet in this weeks version from someone who, as you will see, supports the use of tolls in transportation, as I do:

Charge tolls
I’m so sick of hearing about these bridges. Make them toll bridges. Make the roads toll roads. Why, as a taxpayer, am I paying for all of this work? I don’t even use these roads or bridges. The people who use them should pay. Most states have toll bridges and toll roads. What is wrong with St. Louis and Missouri? Are they that behind?

Now, I might have put it slightly differently, but the view is basically the same. People who use the roads and bridges should be the ones who pay more of the cost of those roads and bridges. We’d need to amend our state constitution to turn existing roads into toll roads, and we should give strong consideration to the use of public-private partnerships in providing our transportation needs. As the Clash said, "Over and out!"