Defending Our Property Rights & Freedom to Travel
ROAD DIET
San Antonio board to adopt plan to reduce lanes open to all
To shrink number of highway lanes on US 281
typical toll booth located on i-75 in southwest florida Well, it's supposed to be GREAT NEWS - news that US 281 is going to be done without TOLLS!

BUT, there's always a catch...

The Alamo Area Metropolitan Planning Organization or (MPO) will be voting Monday, September 14 on a resolution to do the US 281 project without tolls. However, the new proposal still involves converting ONE existing unrestricted freeway lane into an HOV-bus lane (a restricted lane), shrinking existing capacity rather than expanding it. Via Metropolitan Transit is insisting on the HOV-bus lane as a way to force commuters out of their cars and onto a bus (in order to support their new $15 million Park-n-Ride at the corner of Stone Oak & US 281). However, this bus/carpool lane is only for three miles. So who would go to the trouble to take a three-mile carpool or bus lane?

You've heard of the bridge to nowhere - well, this is the lane to nowhere!

Part of a 'road diet'
You may have heard Mayor Ivy Taylor unveil her vision for San Antonio a few weeks ago to the city council to put San Antonio on a 'road diet.'

Congestion weary commuters have been promised an additional general purpose lane on US 281 since the late 1990s. While we're thrilled the tolls are coming off this road, commuters desperately need that additional lane for the project to be successful in relieving congestion.

MPO votes Monday
The MPO meeting will be broadcast LIVE over the internet (thanks to our bill requiring it). So if you can't make it down there, you can watch it LIVE online here.

 
AAMPO Special Meeting
on US 281 Corridor 
Monday, September 14
1:00 PM
Via Metro Center
1021 San Pedro
San Antonio, TX

NOTE: Parking is scarce. Try street parking or the metered parking near San Antonio College a few blocks north of Via.

Take action road sign
URGENT ACTION ITEM
Contact Speaker Joe Straus and ask him to help us get an additional general purpose lane added to the plan. After a decade of fighting over this road, residents deserve to have the promised additional lane added to this roadway. We cannot support a plan to shrink existing highway capacity.

Please respectfully ask Joe Straus for help:
"Speaker Straus, thank you for helping us get the tolls off US 281. Please help is get US 281 across the finish line and add an additional general purpose lane to this congested corridor. Please do not let them take away one of our existing highway lanes and turn it into a restricted (HOV-bus) lane."

Call Speaker Joe Straus at (512) 463-1100** and email him at joe.straus@speaker.state.tx.us.

* Be sure to include your name and complete address in any written correspondence. 

** We're giving you his Austin office to call because his district office's voicemail fills up too quickly.
Tell the feds 'NO' to tolling existing interstates
Send an electronic letter to the House Committee
Capitol building Washington DC pink flowers garden USA congress US
Our friends at Alliance for Toll-free Interstates has sent out an important alert.

Please send members of the House Transportation Committee a note asking them NOT to expand tolling in the next federal highway bill.

You helped us stop the U.S. Senate from expanding interstate tolling, now you can help us stop it in the House!

QUICK ACTION ITEM
Send the committee a note in 15 seconds here.
TURF releases 2015 Report Card for the 84th Legislature   
Find out how your state lawmakers voted on tolls
TURF revealed its long-awaited 2015 Report Card from the 84th Legislative Session today.

Many voters want to know how their elected leaders did in delivering on their promises to restrain toll roads.

With campaign season in full swing in many areas of the state, it's vital for voters to know how their representatives voted while in office so they can hold them accountable. Now's the time to compare notes to what was promised and what was actually delivered.

Spread the word about TURF's Report Card on social media!
DFW transportation board seeks feedback on new funding
Tell them to REDUCE number of toll roads in its plans
before a conference the microphones in front of empty chairs. Note Shallow depth of field
The staff of the Regional Transportation Council (DFW's version of the MPO) polled its RTC board members on whether or not they should re-evaulate their toll plans/policies in light of the new non-toll funding becoming available.

It was dead even 50-50 on whether they should re-evaluate their current toll plans. The next question is very telling - it was 61% to 39% on the question of whether to use new funds to reduce the current number of toll roads or keep all of the tolls as is and merely use the new funds to ADD non-toll projects in the future. They also voted to keep all the rail plans on auto pilot and expand bus routes along the rail routes, diverting billions of road funds to rail.

These RTC board members need to hear from YOU!

RTC PUBLIC MEETING
Monday, September 14
6:30 PM
Irving City Hall
825 W. Irving
Irving, TX 75060

This meeting is to get public feedback on the RTC's recommendations for how to spend Prop 1 and Prop 7 funds. We need a BIG turnout to the meeting to give them an earful about the waste and misplaced priorities that don't work.

Give the RTC this message:
"Use our gas taxes and any new funds (Prop 1 and Prop 7) to take toll lanes OUT of the plan and make as many projects as possible non-toll now and into the future. Use the funds being diverted to rail to expand roads without tolls. Tolls increase the tax burden without voter consent, increase the cost of everything we buy, suck millions out of the local economy, and kill jobs and mobility for the vast majority of residents. Governor Abbott was elected overwhelmingly on the promise to fix our roads without raising taxes, fees. or tolls! Do what the voters want, remove tolls from the plan."

To submit comments via email, send to Jahnae Stout.  
SAVE THE DATE
Our next TURF gathering Sept. 24
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Be sure to mark your calendars for our next gathering. Plan to jump back in with both feet!

Next TURF Meeting 
Thursday, September 24 
Chester's Hamburgers
16609 San Pedro
San Antonio, TX
6:00 PM (for those ordering dinner)
6:30 PM (meeting begins) 
 
Get the latest scoop on toll roads, key campaigns, the federal highway bill, and latest property rights battles across Texas.  

BE IN THE KNOW... 

GET THE SCOOP FIRST! SUBSCRIBE TO TERRI'S COLUMNS 

Michael Morris: The man behind the largest toll network California-izing Texas 

READ MORE HERE.
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HEADLINES...
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Dallas driving up, commute times stay stable
Officials claim it's thanks to toll roads
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Cintra completes, opens LBJ tollway in Dallas
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California assembly passes bill to restrict gasoline use, reduce by 50%
Total control of driving on the horizon
  Read More... 
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DONATE TODAY
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With the 84th legislative session now over, our work continues educating the public about what their lawmakers did and how to hold them accountable at the ballot box. We'll also continue to help local communities fight toll roads in their backyard using the legal and political tools we've refined over a decade of advocacy. We provide vital materials like a Legislative Report Card and Voter Guide, all of which takes resources.

We'd appreciate a donation to support the work TURF does on behalf of taxpayers.

With HUNDREDS of toll projects planned in Texas, EVERYONE will be effected by these NEW taxes!

Or send in a check to:
Texans Uniting for Reform and Freedom (or TURF)
PO Box 29254
San Antonio, TX 78229-0254
"I...place economy among the first and most important of republican virtues, and public debt as the greatest of the dangers to be feared... Taxation follows that, and in its turn wretchedness and oppression."
--Thomas Jefferson,
Letter to William Plumer, 1816
© 2015 Texans Uniting for Reform & Freedom