I went to take a look at the segments of TX 130 that were opened in early November. Eventually it's supposed to go from Georgetown (north of Dell's home town of Round Rock) to Seguin down on Interstate 10 east of San Antonio, bypassing Austin and taking load off of Interstate 35. Driving under the flyover from 130 S to 290 W (pictured first), we headed north.

But we didn't actually get on SH 130 yet, because only the access road was open across Parmer. The announcements said 130 was open from 290 north. Well, sort of. That's politics! (And if I'd wanted this posting to be about just politics I would have posted it before the election.)

Seeing the Pfluger Lane toll plaza, we wondered how anybody who came unprepared would ever get off. No TxTag? No exact change? Congratulations, you're the new Flying Dutchman or Charley on the MTA of Austin! ( Did he ever return? No he never returned...) OK, it's true other toll plazas also have bill changers. PS: I hadn't realized Charley on the MTA was actually a campaign song for a Progressive Party candidate for mayor of Boston. He got a $10 fine for disturbing the peace because his sound trucks were driving around playing it. The candidate, that is; Charley never got a fare decrease and is still on the MBTA, last I heard.

And what does all this have to do with Worldchanging? There's nothing new about highway politics or ploys to get everybody to buy a toll tag.

The new part is probably going to be here, at the Blue Bluff toll plaza. See those dangling wires? Usually reliable rumor has it that they're going to be connected to solar panels on the roof. That's right: solar powered toll plazas. Not exactly revolutionary, and caused by more politics (local land owners wouldn't sell electrical easements to the highway), but unusual nonetheless.

-jsq