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Riding these ferries will cost you money, although the state isn't saying how much it would charge. In any case, there will be no free ride out of Juneau.

If you don't own a car, can't drive, or would rather not, you're out of luck. Transportation planners say they expect someone would start a private bus service along the road. That's a great expectation considering that currently there is no bus service of any kind to the Auke Bay ferry terminal. (A one-way cab ride from downtown costs about $30).

If you have a car and like the idea of driving north, you might consider an upgrade. As a 15-year resident of Haines now living in Juneau, I can say with authority: reliably driving around the upper Lynn Canal in winter requires a four-wheel-drive with high clearance and four studded snow tires. (Subarus can be dicey.) Weather and road conditions only get worse going north.

Here's a real-life example. On Nov. 28, 2003, the day after Thanksgiving, my wife and I drove through deep and swirling snow from our Haines home to the Haines ferry terminal, 13 miles away. Visibility was about 15 feet. Though we were driving a four-wheel-drive pickup with four new, studded snow tires, we were relieved to get on the ferry and sleep through to Juneau. To drive south in such conditions along a narrow, cliffside road would have been unthinkable.

This storm was not exceptional for Haines, which has fewer plows and considerably more snow than Juneau. Road conditions are the reason most Haines residents take the ferry south to Juneau rather than driving north to Whitehorse, Yukon, on winter weekends.

Besides requiring chains or a four-wheel-drive vehicle, the drive to Whitehorse means packing sleeping bags, food and water in case of weather or engine problems and making a phone call ahead to Canada Customs to check on road conditions. Snow closes the road regularly, sometimes for several days at a time.

Road supporters complain about ferry fares, and with good cause. Ferry travel, especially with a car, is expensive. Fares rose as the Republican majority cut ferry funding for the past decade. Recently, former state Sen. John Torgerson, one of the biggest opponents of ferry spending, was appointed to write the system's business plan.

It's not conspiratorial to believe that some of our leaders would gladly bankrupt the ferry system, then, citing its sorry state, declare it a failure. It's an old political trick to gut public services then direct the public's money to your friends in the private sector, all under the guise of budget cutting.

Pushing road projects statewide, the current administration has voiced its belief that roads bring progress, tapping into the same delusional optimism of pre-Dust Bowl farmers who believed rain followed the plow.

Were this true, Los Angeles would be the pinnacle of civilization and Venice a forgotten backwater. Haines has had a road to the Lower 48 for more than 50 years and progress arrives there no sooner or later than it does anywhere else in the state.

Singer Tom Waits said, "The large print giveth and the fine print taketh away." The same folks who took away your Longevity Bonus and would take away your permanent fund are now offering improved access to Juneau.

Beware.

• Tom Morphet is a Juneau resident who maintains a home in Haines.