Criticism
There is continued criticism among North Carolina legislators and citizens about the issue of toll roads in North Carolina, a state which has previously not had tolls for its modern roads. It has been a political campaign issue in state and local elections. Gerry Bowles, a Democrat made the issue of tolls on I-540 a major part of her campaign when she challenged 15th District incumbent Senator Neal Hunt, a Republican. Bowles launched her own (now-defunct) website, www.stop540toll.com, calling for the removal of tolls from plans for the extension of I-540. Bowles, however, lost the 2006 election to Hunt.
Some criticism lies with the proposed $2 toll on a 16-mile segment of the Western Wake Freeway. Proponents of the price cite Colorado's E-470 and its $3.75 charge for 16 miles as justification.
In October 2008, the authority was unable to issue bonds to fund the Western Wake Turnpike project as planned due to market conditions affecting municipal bonds such as those. Bonds were later floated, with the assistance of loans from the Federal Highway Administration in June 2009.
Read more about this topic: North Carolina Turnpike Authority
Famous quotes containing the word criticism:
“It is ... pathetic to observe the complete lack of imagination on the part of certain employers and men and women of the upper-income levels, equally devoid of experience, equally glib with their criticism ... directed against workers, labor leaders, and other villains and personal devils who are the objects of their dart-throwing. Who doesn’t know the wealthy woman who fulminates against the “idle” workers who just won’t get out and hunt jobs?”
—Mary Barnett Gilson (1877–?)
“In criticism I will be bold, and as sternly, absolutely just with friend and foe. From this purpose nothing shall turn me.”
—Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1845)
“It is the will of God that we must have critics, and missionaries, and Congressmen, and humorists, and we must bear the burden. Meantime, I seem to have been drifting into criticism myself. But that is nothing. At the worst, criticism is nothing more than a crime, and I am not unused to that.”
—Mark Twain [Samuel Langhorne Clemens] (1835–1910)