Wildly Unpopular

There is no doubt that the toll road to no where is wildly unpopular in Gaston County. Over 7,000 people signed a petition opposing the toll road to no where. A recent poll found that over 60% of Gaston County voters were strongly opposed to the back country toll road. North Carolinians are known throughout the country as being among the worst violators of toll booths in other states, which just proves the point that no local is likely to fork over the tolls between $2.20 and $4.40 that each trip will vacuum out of the old change pocket.

And don’t think out of towners are going to pay for the toll road, either. Under the proposed set up, you don’t stop and throw change into a bucket. Instead, you just keep driving under a magic wand that takes a picture of your license and sends a bill to your house. The problem: there is no way to force out of state drivers to put a check back in the mail.

It makes perfect sense to fix the roads and bridges we have already got instead of building even more roads and bridges we can't keep up. But it makes no sense to build a toll road that will bring no jobs and only promote suburban sprawl that will put more kids in our overcrowded classrooms.