"Toll Trap"

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The Dallas Morning News
Contributors: Yamil Berard, Tom Fox
05/13/2024

“Toll Trap” is an investigative series by The Dallas Morning News that reveals the wide-ranging consequences of more than 30 years of complex decisions that turned Texas into a national toll road behemoth."

"Investigative reporter Yamil Berard was curious to look at the various ways Texas drivers are affected by former Texas Governor Rick Perry and lawmakers' decision to relinquish control of thousands of miles of the state’s roadway system – the nation’s most comprehensive to make way for a population boom.

Texas leaders at the time expressed deep satisfaction knowing that not even one cent had come from taxpayers to build toll roads without understanding the serious implications of such a colossal and fast- tracked toll building spree.

Our investigation found, for example, that from 2001 to 2020, Texas churned out more miles of paid roads than nearly all other states combined. Picture this: If you stretched the state’s 852 miles of toll roads across the eastern U.S., they would pass through 13 states – from Maine to South Carolina. Then, to manage and operate these roads, lawmakers passed the most aggressive criminal laws that apply to motorists in the nation. Those laws also have created enormous tolling bureaucracies. Texas now has more toll operators than any other state, each empowered by state law to order jail sentences for Texans and block their ability to drive. Some have built unsafe roads, which have been left unchecked by the state of Texas.

The power handed over to toll operators has created the potential to upend the lives of millions who depend on Texas roads to feed their families and live normal lives. It’s also easy to rack up toll charges in the hundreds or even tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars, particularly if you run a construction or transportation-related business dependent on roads to deliver goods and services.

The News interviewed people such as Shane Hardin, who had to stop life-saving treatments after emergency quintuple bypass surgery because he could not afford to pay hundreds of extra dollars to drive on a toll road to have physical therapy and then still make it to work on time.

And Hector Hernandez, owner of a mid-sized Dallas recycling and garbage collection company, who had $124,000 removed from his bank account days before one Christmas morning by a toll operator that hired a high-powered law firm to sue him in a state district court for unpaid tolls on a handful of his fleet of 50 vehicles.

And Morris Shepherd who had to scramble to court one morning after receiving a letter that a warrant was about to be issued for his arrest over tolls he didn’t pay when his bank account was frozen after Amazon reported potentially fraudulent activity to his bank.

In its investigation, The News also learned thousands more faced similar problems, highlighting racial as well as socioeconomic disparities created by Texas’ toll building spree.

North Texas had become the epicenter for criminal enforcement of unpaid tolls, and a disproportionate number of people cited by Texas courts for failure to pay toll fees are Black, even though Black people make up only 13% of licensed drivers.

The toll roads also were hampering access for more than 1 million people in predominantly moderate- to low-income neighborhoods. Those people are surrounded by tolls and must drive several miles to reach a free alternative that is often among the most highly congested roads in the state.

In effect, Texas has created a system that streamlines the highways for the haves at the expense of the have nots. It’s not that Texas’ toll operators are hurting for cash.

Texas is home to the richest public toll operator in the nation and many that have the highest credit rankings among operators in the U.S. Some of Texas’ toll operators have amassed so much money in cash reserves they could offer millions of drivers free access to toll roads, the investigation found.

The investigation also revealed lax oversight by the state transportation officials over private toll road operators. Six people were killed in one of the deadliest car accidents in the state’s history while in a multi- vehicle pileup on a toll road managed by a private operator that could have been prevented with proper oversight and adherence to basic safety standards.

To deliver such a series, Berard read thousands of pages of legislative reports, transportation studies, as well as the financial statements and audits for toll roads operated by Texas’ three largest toll agencies since 1998. She spoke with dozens of urban planning specialists, tollway advocacy groups, public policy researchers and mobility engineers and examined roadway and toll data from state and population density information. She filed and read reports from open records requests and attempted to speak with all 22 members of the House and Senate transportation committees along with Gov Greg Abbott and other high- ranking current and previously elected state leaders.

Republican and Democratic lawmakers in the Texas statehouse have signaled their desire to reform the current system and are expected to take up the issue in the current legislative session."

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Additional PDFs of supporting content:

Toll Trap: How Texas’ explosive growth led to a toll-building spree
Texas tollway authorities show little mercy for Texans of color, vulnerable communities
Texas lawmakers under pressure to enact toll reform
NTTA files $8.6 million in suits targeting businesses over unpaid tolls
Private toll deal lacks transparency
Lack of accountability plagues fatal Fort Worth 2021 pileup
Unlike other states, Texas lags behind in toll discounts

Submitted by Alvie Lindsay.