Readers take aim at highway planning and wonder what will replace the gas tax money when most cars are electric

On the gas tax: Find more money

The main sources for funding highway construction and maintenance (except for toll roads) are state and federal gasoline taxes. ("Myths about Texas road funding should be debunked," Oscar Trevino commentary, July 3)

Mr. Trevino points out that gasoline tax rates have remained the same for 25 years and are a diminishing revenue source.

That gasoline tax resource will decrease significantly over the next 15 to 20 years and then dry up completely as battery/electric vehicles (EVs) replace gasoline engine vehicles.

How will we replace this lost gasoline tax revenue to continue funding our highway system?

Increasing the tax on electricity would be inequitable and unworkable. State and federal legislators must work on this problem now.

Charles Foreman,.

Arlington

On the North Tarrant Express: Poor

There is no excuse for the number of people sitting in traffic daily at the Loop 820-Texas 183 merge, the Loop 820-Interstate 35W interchange, and along Loop 820.

The use of the word "myth" seems to imply that we are wrong to say this was poorly planned. We are not!

You know who should have known better than to accept this plan as a viable solution to the traffic nightmare we now have?

Members of the Regional Transportation Council and TXDoT.

—Bill Walley,

North Richland Hills

On Texas highways: need two-lane exits

After $1.6 billion in road work, why is Interstate 35W traffic still bottlenecked?

Since relocating 30 years ago, I have noticed that the Texas Department of Transportation builds exit ramps with more huge multiple thick steel girders for one section than a World War II battleship.

This is fine, but most of these exits are poorly designed. Only one lane?

Texas builds more roads than any state, yet TXDoT can't gauge traffic and puts in two- to three-lane ramps with all these huge expenditures.

Whomever is the leader at TXDoT, buy him a $1 ruler to use for the final blueprints & have someone say, "Ya think these ramps could be at least doubled with all that steel & traffic projections?"

—Stephen J. Salerno,

Fort Worth

On Texas wineries: Fearing climate change

The article June 28 made me wonder about vineyards in Texas. ("Wineries hedge against climate change, move to cool climates," Associated Press)

As a lover of Portuguese wines, to which some Texas wines are compared, I hope yours soon find their way to the Midwest.

Texas vineyards are subject to the threats from climate change just as those everywhere else. Fortunately Hurricane Harvey's damage was minimal, but there will be a next time, and a next. It's good that growers are being proactive.

But nothing will help unless we act aggressively to limit climate change itself.

If we don't get a grip on that, a world without wine will be the least of our worries.

—Carol Steinhart,

Madison, Wisconsin