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1. With all of the recent road construction over
the past 5 years in the area, it is hard to not
notice the increasing amount of toll roads in
Texas.

2. As more states find it hard to fund road
construction to fight off the rising levels of
traffic congestion, the popularity of toll
roads is growing rapidly.

3. The area of Dallas-Fort Worth is home to
more than 6.

4. 5 million people and now has one of the
largest networks of toll roads in all of North
America.

5. These toll roads are not the toll roads of the
past.

6. These toll roads are entirely built and
operated by private companies that
maintain the rights of the roads they built for
decades.

7. One such company, Texas Turnpike Corp., even
possesses eminent-domain powers granted by a
law that has since been rewritten, and has plans
of making the only privately funded, built,
operated, and OWNED toll road in the entire
country.

8. Many Texas residents are getting fed up with
the ever increasing expansion of toll roads.

9. Some claim that it is completely impossible
to go about their lives without having to pay
a toll somewhere.

10. While many of them are suggesting that the
state just stop sanctioning private companies
to build roads they cannot build themselves,
traffic congestion is a serious and still
growing problem in the area.

11. The main source of revenue to fund road
construction for the state comes from its 20
cent tax is placed on every gallon of gasoline
purchased.

12. However, those 20 cents have not changed
since 1991 and is a major cause for the lack
of funding.

13. Currently the U.S. has 5,400 miles of toll
roads, an increase of 15% since 2003, and
500 miles of that has been built in Texas in
the last decade.

14. With an additional twenty or more toll road
projects currently being planned or in
construction, that number can be expected
to rise more than 300 miles in the next five
to ten years.

15. With the state nearly $5 billion short of
transportation funding, there are few
alternatives to toll roads or higher taxes.

16. However, with large sections of major cities
being sectioned off by toll roads, public
unrest is becoming a major concern for
lawmakers and city officials.

17. Despite the growing frustration over toll
roads in Texas, if a more reliable method to
increase transportation funding is not found,
toll roads will continue to be privately built
for the state.