We need your help and signature on our petition. Without your help, we will all soon see 50 percent higher toll rates, and outof- control future increases are coming if we don’t do something now!
The Miami-Dade Expressway Authority (MDX) is proposing to increase the per-mile toll rate (presently .11 cents) on the Dolphin 836 Expressway to either .16 or .17 cents per mile, in effect a rate increase of 50 percent. They also will vote on incorporating Consumer Price Indexing (CPI) on all future tolls, a move that would allow them to automatically raise toll rates after 2015.
The MDS is planning to install 17 new Sun Pass tolling gantries on the Dolphin 836. This is part of MDX’s roll out of Open Road Tolling (ORT) that will allow them to capture tolls from 100 percent of the drivers that use the highway. It’s a move that is very similar to what they did on the 874 Don Shula and 878 Snapper Creek Expressways back in 2010.
We now know for a fact that MDX will realize a substantial toll revenue increase by the implementation of ORT on the Dolphin 836 and Airport 112 Expressways; by our estimate, well over 25 percent more revenue! MDX officials claim that presently about 45 percent of drivers on these two highways do not pay to use them.
We understand that there are no free roads and that roads have to be paid for and we are not asking anyone for a free ride or handout. But, we also don’t want to be forced to overpay, which is exactly what MDX is asking us to do, and with little to no actual information about the plan.
Please sign our petition asking MDX not to raise toll rates by 50 percent. They should learn to work with the increased revenue the ORT system will allow them without increasing the per mile rate by 50 percent! You can include a comment with your signature when you sign. Every signature will go directly to MDX, its director and board members, along with Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez and County Commission chair Rebecca Sosa.
You can share the petition on your Facebook page and re-tweet it on Twitter. We need 5,000 signatures in the next 30 days. I know we can do it with your help.
Please talk it up with your family and friends and ask them to sign the petition, too. Make your voice heard, we can make a difference! This is an outrageous and unjustified financial burden on the commuters of Miami-Dade County.
The MDS will hold a public hearing on March 19 at MDX headquarters to allow the public to make comments on their ratehike plans. We encourage everyone to attend and speak out about the 50-percent toll hike increase proposal, the ORT plan and the CPI rate indexing proposal.
For more information, email tgarcia@mdxway.com, call 786-277-9292 or write to MDX, 3790 NW 21 St. Miami, FL 33142.
We have set up a “toll funding alternative” hot line where you can call and give us your opinion about alternative methods of paying for the building and maintenance of our roads with a higher sales tax, a local gas tax or even a half-cent property tax increase to do away with expressway tolls in Miami-Dade County altogether. To express your opinion, call 305-814-7104 or email info@rollbacktolls.com.
Thank you for your continued support in the fight to be informed and to stop this “tollation” or tolling without representation. Please go to our website at www.RollBackTolls.com and sign the petition today.
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