Posted on 07/17/2010 8:56:06 AM PDT by Willie Green
E-ZPass customers will get price break over those paying cash
A toll increase on the Pennsylvania Turnpike in January likely will make it the most expensive long toll road in the nation.
The turnpike commission on Wednesday approved a 3 percent increase for users of E-ZPass electronic fare collection and 10 percent for cash customers, effective Jan. 2.
That will raise the cash cost of driving the turnpike to 8.5 cents per mile, highest of the 11 U.S. toll roads of 100 miles or longer. Currently, the Pennsylvania and New Jersey turnpikes are tied at 7.7 cents per mile.
Shorter toll facilities, including highway spurs and bridges, typically have higher per-mile costs. A March survey by the Pennsylvania Turnpike found 10 facilities with per-mile rates of 27.8 cents or more, including a 6-mile highway in California whose users pay 45.8 cents per mile.
The Pennsylvania Turnpike has ascended to the top among longer toll roads largely because of a 2007 state law requiring it to help fund non-turnpike transportation programs. Since then, the turnpike has given the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation $2.5 billion to pay for highway and bridge work and mass transit.
That amount is the equivalent of more than three years' worth of turnpike toll income. The turnpike took in $700 million last year.
The law, Act 44, envisioned a stream of revenue from higher turnpike tolls and new tolls on Interstate 80 flowing from the commission to PennDOT.
(Excerpt) Read more at post-gazette.com ...
It is also one of the worst maintained.
Having just driven the length of it, the road is in excellent condition, when you enter Ohio the road and scenery immediately drops about 10 notches.
That said, the article explains the tolls are 3 times the actual cost of the road.
Oh, but the costs are justified.
There are never any traffic jams, there’s never any construction, and the road surface is as smooth as glass. Not.
As bad as the Turnpike is, it’s still better than taking the train.
I don’t have to hope for a spot in an overcrowded parking lot and I don’t have to worry about my car being stolen or vandalized while it’s there. Overnight parking? Nope. Can I carry anything large or heavy on the train? Nope.
In my car, I can go anywhere in the state. Can’t do that on a train, and I never could, not even in the “good ol’ daze”.
You can never borrow enough money from our descendants to upgrade rail service sufficient to give me the mobility and convenience that a car gives me.
Sorry.
No Willie, those rail systems NEVER turn a profit. Why create them? And as for toll roads, states raid their gas tax funds for their pet projects, then come running to us to replace those funds.
Not no, but HELL NO!
I visited Florida a few years back. There you run into another toll road ever few miles. Going across and down the state may make you hit four to six toll booths.
What a fricken rip off.
How come Maryland charges $1.50 monthly fee for an EZPass and there is no charge for a TollTag in Texas?
When my dad was little, they would drive up to near the turnpike, and watch the cars go by! This was in the 1940s, and I guess it was cheap entertainment...
Used to go to Atlantic City from the Burgh.
No Willie, those rail systems NEVER turn a profit. Why create them?
Public Infrastructure isn't supposed to turn a profit, Ron.
Our airways and airports don't "turn a profit."
Our highways and roadways don't "turn a profit."
Our rivers, canals and waterways don't "turn a profit."
So why act like a silly libertarian and insist that passenger rail systems "turn a profit?"
Remember in NOvember to take out the trash!!!
this is the third raise in fees since Jan. 2009 and there will be an ANNUAL RAISE from here on.............
But no annual raise in our income...sad days for this country.
Yes but they turn a federal highway into a toll road. You already pay federal taxes, you pay federal gas taxes, you’ve already paid to use the federal road.
Lately, I have the same opinion about flying. Flying has the same disadvantages that rail has, but it is much faster. But with security, airport locations, getting transportation at the destination, and lack of flexibility in changing flights, many of the speed advantages are eliminated.
If I am going to a city for a day trip and it is less than 5 hours away, I will still drive than fly.
Because unlike the other modes of transportation they are flexible, can be rerouted easily, and do not have to interfere with other transportation systems. The land grants that have to be acquired, rights to use track, upgrading track, the extreme costs for expansion and adding stops, and then for the billions spent the ALWAYS low ridership numbers, the extreme subsidization that is required per rider...
do we really need to continue? Trains are outdated, 19th century modes of transportation, you can’t carry crap with you, you can’t leave when you want, you still need cars or something else to get to your final destination, and can’t reroute themselves when problems occur.
Why people have love affairs with such systems is beyond me. Too much Logan’s Run as a kid.
Spare me Willie. You and I both know the Turnpike is infested with overpaid employee’s and nepotism. Not to mention PennDOT who regularly has half the damn lanes shut down. PA’s state flower (the orange safety barrels) are always blooming on the turnpike. Maybe they should PRIVATIZE it all.
Easy killer. PA is beautiful state with tons of good people. Our biggest problem is the elderly voters and shenanigans in Harrisburg and Philly (yes, Allegheny is in the mix too). Watch PA in November.
Because unlike the other modes of transportation they are flexible, can be rerouted easily, and do not have to interfere with other transportation systems. The land grants that have to be acquired, rights to use track, upgrading track, the extreme costs for expansion
You can "easily reroute" a river, highway or airport without having to acquire land?
So what brand of pixie dust do you use for that???
:^)
Another toll ‘benefit’ is that you are forced to use the toll rest areas, because there are so few exits and it costs too much to exit and re enter. The toll plazas have McDonalds that are more expensive than regular McD’s and they don’t take coupons. The Popeyes is also more expensive, with no discounts. Everything is overpriced compared to the exact same product off the tollway.
You can turn a boat around or go to a different port or dock. You can reroute a plane and land somewhere else. You can take any of a thousand different roads if the one you wer going to take has problems.
I think you’re the one on drugs being for such high cost, high subsidy, low ridership fixed path transportation systems. If not, you’re extremely ignorant. People want to be in control of where and how they get to places. They want to be able to haul things with them when necessary. When they want to go somewhere, they want to actually get there, not be dropped off a mile or two away and then have to make their way there.
You might see the romance in all of this but most others do not. Not at the price tags to build and subsidize the extremely poor ridership numbers that are always inflated.
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