Kansas City Star Calls for Toll Roads

State and Local Government | September 28, 2009

By David Stokes | Read Time 1 minute

Combest today links to a great editorial in the Kansas City Star advocating that we pay for the proposed truck-only lanes on I-70 with toll roads. Not surprisingly, I agree with every word in it. I’m excited that the Star is supporting such ideas and suggestions as this:

That’s why this plan cries out for a different approach — namely, a toll road. It’s time for Missouri to get over its traditional aversion to tolls.

Or:

Tolls are user fees in their purest form. If you don’t use the road, you don’t have to pay.

I highly recommend the editorial, and look forward to the Show-Me Institute’s own work on transportation and tolling being a part of the debate.

About the Author

David Stokes

David Stokes is a St. Louis native and a graduate of Saint Louis University High School and Fairfield (Conn.) University. He spent six years as a political aide at the St. Louis County Council before joining the Show-Me Institute in 2007. Stokes was a policy analyst at the Show-Me Institute from 2007 to 2016. From 2016 through 2020 he was Executive Director of Great Rivers Habitat Alliance, where he led efforts to oppose harmful floodplain developments done with abusive tax subsidies. Stokes rejoined the Institute in early 2021 as the Director of Municipal Policy. He is a past president of the University City Library Board. He served on the St. Louis County 2010 Council Redistricting Commission and was the 2012 representative to the Electoral College from Missouri’s First Congressional District. He lives in University City with his wife and their three children.

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