Ok I thought I would chime in on this topic. Making 1604 a toll road is a bad idea in my opinion. The highway was already paid for with tax dollars, so the problem seems to be a failure to handle the amount of growth that has occured on that area over the past four or so years. Its not like the city of San Antonio didnt see this expansion, I am sure they were involved somewhat with the sale of some of the land.

The traffic on 1604 is not an “all of the sudden” type situation. The city of San Antonio is also not new to handling traffic problems. Since the mid to late 80s there has been construction on IH 10, and Loop 410 to expand each of those, and now they are working on the 10-410 interchange to handle more traffic (up to 60% more allegedly). I am sure there have been various other projects around the city that I failed to mention, but you get the gist of it.

Anyhow, simply making it a toll road would not guarentee the funds needed for expansion. The amount of traffic would drop considerably on that route so as a direct result of this loss of commuters on this road, fewer dollars would be generated via the tolls. So what then, raise the tolls? You see the problem here.

The beltway in H-Town is a perfect example that toll roads are not a “good” solution. I disagree with Josh on this point because it is not all that congested all the time. In December they raised the toll there from $1.00 to $1.50. If you ask some the Beltway 8 is a mistake, and others should learn from other peoples failures…like the local govenment of SA.

the beltway 8 can save sick amounts of time. on top of that, it can bring much needed money to the city. cause lets face it this city isn’t exactly like highland park (dallas).

this town also lacks HOV lanes, which is another major traffic reliever.

also, it depends on how much they plan on expanding 1604. you really cant have a toll road on 4 lanes, so if they make it at least a 6-laner, it might possibly work, even without the toll.

if san antonio wants to be a big city, they have to act like a big city. big cities dont have major highways that are a measly 2 lanes on each side.

as ford said though, its an easy solution, in theory it works, but usually turns out to be a money pit (beltway8 is losing money now).

SA has to do something, perhaps design a new road to handle sick amounts of traffic, or build over (as in higher than) existing business like dallas does.

now i could be just talkin out of my ass, but i think dallas has a better handle on things than we do. yes they still have traffic, but they have a much larger population. the best solution is still mass transit like a train. chicago rocks like that.