Re:Mockingbird as a Toll Road
Not only will tolling Mockingbird drive thru traffic onto the side streets, but what about students at SMU, who use Mockingbird to get to the Highland Park Village, get to and from campus, etc? Any plans that would not toll residents should, in all fairness, include SMU students. Like it or not, they’re part of the community.
I wholeheartedly disagree with HP town engineer Meran Dadgostar when he says this idea merits consideration. This is probably one of the worst things town leaders could do from a PR standpoint. They need to kill this idea ASAP.
5 Comments to “Re:Mockingbird as a Toll Road”
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From a PR standpoint, this is suicide. But from how I read the article (and I could be wrong), it would be between Hillcrest and the Tollroad (so that would not include SMU) and they are talking about some fancy system where it tracks you when you enter and when you exit and if the time is short enough, you get charged. So, if you are going to HPV, you wouldn’t get charged. Neither would people coming to visit. DFW does something similar where if you come in one enterance and go out the other in less than 10 minutues (or something like that), they charge you more because you are just using the airport as a cut through and not picking up/dropping off. Like I said, I’m not defending it, but if that was the system, at least it seems like we’re only charging the people using Mockingbird for a cut-through.
SMU students don’t just use the section of Mockingbird between 75 and Hillcrest, and what if you are a Park Cities resident, will you get tolled if you drive to the airport on Mockingbird?
As I understand it, this toll fee would be paid by non residents. So, how would they determine who is a non-resident? A special tag? A scarlet letter? Boy, the HP popo(police) would have fun with that one. Non resident profiling.Ouch. A cost benefit analysis would determine that any toll profit would be lost by the cost of manufacturing a system to idenify non- residents. ANNNDDDDD…. as a non resident who has clients in HP, would the ‘bubble people’ pay toll fee’s to the city of Dallas to exit the ‘bubble? Hmm. I doubt it. I enter HP to shop there as well, so I support the economy already in the Park Cities, why should I have to pay more money to get thru there? Most of the vehicle traffic in HP is from people who do not live there; they are contractors, domestic help, delivery services, construction, landscaping, etc.- people that are invited by the residents…This is just wrong every which way but loose.
I don’t think it hurts for HP to consider it. If it’s as bad an idea as everyone here thinks, it will never happen. If the Mockingbird residents want it, I’d consider it. Much, much better than the tunnel idea.
If Highland Park does go through with this ridiculous idea of charging non-residents to use Mockingbird, the City of Dallas should immediately institute a toll system to charge Highland Park residents every time they enter Dallas.