With the current state of the economy and decreased tax collections, the State of Georgia is apparently looking for creative ways to fund services such as it's 511 Travel Information. Here's one of the 511/sponsor sign combos on GA 9 northbound just yards away from the Forsyth County line in the new City of Milton...



Besides the sponsor in the above sign, several other corporations have been sponsoring Georgia's 511 service. Here are a few other sponsors I've spotted so far around Metro Atlanta...

- BP in Roswell... and please don't go boycotting 511 because of it, mmkay?
- Krystal in Cumming
- Piccadilly Cafeteria in Chamblee
- State Farm Insurance, who also sponsors Georgia's Highway Emergency Response Operator (HERO) unit program.
- Zaxby's In Cumming

Being a "roadgeek", I do wonder if other states' 511 programs have also signed up corporate sponsors and advertised them just as Georgia has done.

Along the lines of corporate sponsorships, I do recall that sections of I-75 in southwest Florida have signs posted along sections that list corporate sponsors who have helped fund maintenance of various sections of that particular highway. Could this be the answer to raising more money for much-needed infrastructure maintenance? Could the sponsors' info be posted along the highways in a least intrusive manner such as seen in the above photo? It makes me wonder. How about you?

Already, state transportation departments (including GDOT) are pursuing so-called "public-private partnerships" for the construction of new roads and the enhancements of existing ones due to dwindling tax revenues. The State of Oregon has even experimented with charging its motorists a per-mile user fee for driving on its roads. (Click here for Oregon DOT's report.)

Frankly, the idea that the government can track my whereabouts using a GPS transmitter in a personally-owned vehicle (POV) is a wee bit scary, no matter what assurances they may give us that the information they collect will stay private. I think such technology should be limited to commercial trucks, who already are required under the International Fuel Tax Agreement (IFTA) to pay prorated motor fuel taxes based on how many miles (or kilometers in Canada) they have driven over any state or provincial highways.

For now, it looks like the future of road and road-related service funding is going to be a mixture of funds from both government and the private sector. So long as there is public oversight and public control of our roads, I don't have a problem with it... unless, of course, you want to put a GPS tracker in my POV.

On a lighter note, here's my latest video from Georgia Highway 515 in Gilmer and Pickens Counties...




That's it for now. Thanks for reading and please come back often.

 

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