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Thursday, May 19, 2011
I'm just saying...
You
know what I'm saying?
know what I'm saying?
Delaware is 20 minutes away from here.
It's a state with three counties, only one of them inhabited and that
one by one city. Which means they're nothing but levels of government;
federal, state, municipal (Wilmington), "greater Wilmington" a.k.a. New
Castle County, and townships, of course, all piled on top of individual
citizens. Does it work? No. DelDot, the offending agency here, is a
tri-state joke (NJ, PA, and DE). We all know that Delaware traffic
signage is designed to get you lost and that DelDot "improvement"
projects invariably involve years of main artery shutdowns with no
visible signs of progress ever. On any given day, about half of the
lanes of the Delaware Memorial bridges to and from New Jersey are
closed for maintenance, although, oddly, there's rarely a DelDot truck
or worker in sight.
Lately, it's gotten much much worse. On the Friday of Easter weekend, I tried to cross the bridge and discovered that it was down to one lane. It took me more than 45 minutes to traverse one mile of bridge approach. When I finally got onto the bridge, there was still no sign of actual work being undertaken. Just a cop car or two and a miscellaneous truck parked in one of the lanes. But I think I now know what that travesty was all about:
Delaware Memorial Bridge tolls set to rise
July 1
May 18, 2011|By Paul Nussbaum, Inquirer Staff Writer
Auto tolls on the Delaware Memorial Bridge are slated to increase by $1, to $4, on July 1 following unanimous approval of the new tolls by the Delaware River and Bay Authority commissioners Tuesday.
Higher tolls are needed to pay for repairs and upgrades on the bridge that connects New Jersey and Delaware at the southern end of the New Jersey Turnpike and I-295, officials said.
"The effects of age and heavy use mandate substantial capital improvements in order for the DRBA to continue to provide safe and efficient travel" over the bridge, DRBA chairman Bill Lowe said in a statement.
May 18, 2011|By Paul Nussbaum, Inquirer Staff Writer
Auto tolls on the Delaware Memorial Bridge are slated to increase by $1, to $4, on July 1 following unanimous approval of the new tolls by the Delaware River and Bay Authority commissioners Tuesday.
Higher tolls are needed to pay for repairs and upgrades on the bridge that connects New Jersey and Delaware at the southern end of the New Jersey Turnpike and I-295, officials said.
"The effects of age and heavy use mandate substantial capital improvements in order for the DRBA to continue to provide safe and efficient travel" over the bridge, DRBA chairman Bill Lowe said in a statement.
Yeah, the bridges need work. Ha ha. Who doesn't get it by now? The suckers don't want that one-lane stuff. Soften'em up for a few months with long delays and mucho inconvenience. Then they'll be happy to hear that repairs will be made with a 33 percent increase in the toll. Private sector capitalist enterprises struggle to keep inflation in single digits, even in a time of runaway gas and food prices. Governments just fart in your face and raise prices by a third because they always have the option of mafia-style protection: you wouldn't want anything bad to happen during your daily commute, would you? Would you?
You know what I'm saying? I think you do.
Delaware. Home of "Jovial Joe" Biden. Who cares so much about the little guy.
F___ off, Joe. Yeah. That's what I'm saying.
