Toll Roads the Wrong Path

Letter to the Editor, The Ledger (Lakeland, FL)

Toll roads are the results of poor planning by our government representatives. Cost is far more than toll-free roads, and they provide less service. Our toll-free interstate highway system is the result of having done it right a half-century ago.

Polk Parkway is one of many nearby examples of having done it wrong. Tolls cost $3.75 to travel its length. A car typically uses $2.50 worth of gas in that distance, including 37 cents in gas taxes. Gas taxes were intended to pay for roads. However, we pay tolls costing 10 times as much as gas tax.

Good planning could have provided funds for toll-free use of the future Central Polk Parkway. Instead, it will cost us far more in tolls, and fewer people will use it.

I'd rather pay a little more gas tax and avoid the huge cost and inconvenience of toll roads.

JOHN WING

Lakeland