"Toll roads are a lot like cockroaches . . ."

Only an Aussie could put it as straightforwardly and humorously as journalist Stan Denham does in this Australian news.com article.  His views are very much like those of us who have been subject to the same experience in Reston---and look forward to huge toll increases on the Dulles Toll Road (to pay for a railroad no less) and the possibility of tolls on Fairfax County Parkway.  Here is how Mr. Denham begins:

TOLL roads are the talk of town in Adelaide at the moment with calls for a fee to use the Northern Connector but, for the uninitiated, here's something to ponder.

Toll roads are a lot like cockroaches and cane toads: they sneak in and set up home when you're not looking, they never go away, and they multiply. This is a family newspaper, so I'll provide dollar figures rather than opinions, then you can be the judge.

Bitter experience is a great teacher. I grew up in Sydney and have mostly driven to work over the Harbour Bridge. The cost of a southbound trip back in the '70s and '80s was a very reasonable 20 cents, probably about a dollar in today's money, which went towards the cost of paying it off (from memory, motorbikes got away for 5c).

When that milestone was reached in 1988, and when we thought we'd finally be using it for free, some bright spark in the Greiner Liberal government realised it was still a good way to make an easy quid, so they jacked up the charge to a buck to help pay for the Harbour Tunnel, a private-public partnership.

Of course, the tolls kept rising as costs blew out and when the tunnel finally opened in 1992, they had to make the crossing charges - over or under - the same to stop rat-runners clogging up the bridge and taking money from the tunnel operators. . . .

Click here to read the rest of this bang-on article.  Enjoy--and take the point!