>You are right, as long as these types keep getting elected,
>not much will change.
It's not just about voting. It's also about awareness. The general motoring public doesnt care whether a candidate is for or against trucking. They arent looking at that. Their tolls are inexpesive, 25 cents is not a big deal to them. And so what if the truck tolls get raised? They dont drive a truck, so why should they care?
That's also the problem with the Highway Funding Act. Most people just dont know what's in it. I talked to a variety of people from non-trucking backgrounds and they havent even heard of the act, let alone that it will give states the right to raise tolls on existing highways. The way I put it to them was this: (I live on the southside of Indianapolis, In)
"Say you get a great job downtown tomorrow. You live here in Greenwood. So you hop on I-65 to go north. Pay a toll, say 25 cents. You hop on I-70 to head west, pay another toll, 25 cents. Then, as you hop off I-70 to get to West street, pay another toll, say 10 cents automated exit toll. You just paid 60 cents, one way just to go to work. Then after you come home, you've paid $1.20. Well $1.20 a day, 5 days a week, 50 weeks a year and you've just paid the city $300.00 just to be able to go to work. And you will still be driving on the same crappy roads, fighting the same traffic, or worse. But we have around 1.5 million people that live in or work in indianapolis. And some official is going to pocket or pork barrell around $450,000,000.00 a year just from those tolls. Now do you want to know more about the Highway Funding Act?"
They all say the same thing: "THAT'S BS! Why havent I heard of this before?"
To which I reply, "Because you're not a trucker, and/or you dont pay attention to your government. Simple as that. The info is out there. Now spread the word, write the media, call and write your legislators and change it, if not for the transportation professionals, do it for yourself and your children because once a toll goes in, it never comes out."
Knowledge is power? LOL, not hardly. Knowledge WITH ACTION is power. Knowledge without action is trivia.
Wise man once say, "He who drives truck in white pants...soon drives truck in dirty white pants."
