A portable solution

The Wilson Daily News reported yesterday on the proposal to place toll booths every thirty miles along I-95.

Friend and JLF president John Hood likes the idea, but as the paper notes, "Hood said engineering concerns exist about retrofitting an existing highway for tolls. He said if a new road is built with tolls in mind, construction of the highway and its exit and entrance ramps reflect that purpose."

That may be, but then, you could also do what they do in China, and plop down one of these portable toll booths wherever you feel like it. If it doesn't work out like you want, just snatch it up and put it somewhere else.

For that matter, you can add and subtract them at will. Need more repair money between mile markers 121 and 138? Drop an extra booth or two. Traffic too fast between Fayetteville and Lumberton? Add more toll booths and slow it down. Business slow in Kenly? Put three or four between US 301 and US 264 at Wilson, and I'll bet commerce picks up ... along with the collective blood pressure.

And you're not even considering the possibilities along the secondary roads. What fun.