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In 2006, a TxDOT regulation was created that would have led to a priority boarding pass for the Bolivar-Galveston Ferry. It was supposed to help cut down on congestion, but it was never actually implemented.
Now TxDOT is being called out for not doing enough to actually solve the congestion problem. Terri Hall with Texans for Toll-Free Highways said, "When a congestion problem has been festering for 20 years, yet taxpayers continue to pay gasoline taxes and all the other taxes we pay on our vehicles, this needs to be addressed."
Hall says charging $250 annually for priority boarding passes should never have even become necessary, and even if they were implemented, they wouldn't be a viable long-term solution. She said, "That is not good for our economy; it's not good for these companies that need to get their workers to work on time. So we need to solve this problem and think long term, not just short term."
She added that as long as the code exists in state law for these passes, TxDOT should implement them, and the only reason they wouldn't is because of bureaucratic laziness.
Hall also says that this is symptomatic of the fact that TxDOT doesn't respect Texas travelers, and they don't have a "customer service" mindset.
TxDOT for their part, claims that there simply isn't enough interest in the program. In a statement to KTRH, they said, "There was not enough interest in the $250 priority boarding pass system when originally presented about 20 years ago. The program was never launched due to lack of interest."