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Posted on 09/13/2021 8:51:00 AM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
After years of construction, with traffic-cone obstacle courses, tire-bursting potholes and white-knuckle steering along ever-shifting lanes, it might stand that the coming tolls for the rebuilt Interstate 4 would also bring the same level of dread. But drivers might be in for a pleasant surprise.
“We actually don’t know yet how much the tolls are going to be,” said Jared Perdue, the state’s transportation secretary for Central Florida. “There are a lot of unknowns and a lot of assumptions.”
But while final toll calculations are still underway, Perdue’s agency estimated recently that the I-4 toll lanes will now not be in as much demand and therefore, not reap as much revenue as had previously been predicted, and potentially lower tolls than once anticipated by the state. The rates could be much like those of the Central Florida Expressway Authority, a regional toll-road operator, which charges an average of nearly 14 cents per mile. Early on, I-4 tolls were projected to be as high as 68 cents per mile.
“A lot of factors have changed,” Perdue said of an unprecedented, monster road job for Florida that came to life nearly a decade ago.
Those changing factors are complicated and overlapping, and not previously presented in detail for the public by the transportation department. The key factor appearing to drive down toll rates, Perdue explained, was the overall ongoing upgrades to I-4. Through tweaks and redesigns employed early in the project, the regular lanes of I-4 were given the capacity to handle more traffic than originally envisioned -- meaning not as many drivers will be tempted to jump on the toll lanes.
(Excerpt) Read more at orlandosentinel.com ...
PING!
That’s how it starts.
Put the frog in the water and slowly turn the heat up until he’s boiling and doesn’t even know to jump out.
I-4, oh there were those the days when I worked for the Mouse, it was always congested.
I remember when I went to Orlando as a kid during the 70s I-4 was only two lanes each carriageway. When I have been back there recently it quite an adventure to make it through. The road is one big accident site.
Now it's something like $9 to drive the Mass Pike from the NY border into Boston for even a regular car.
A few years back, they removed the tollbooths and installed toll "gantries" which are banks of mounted cameras that can scan your license plate even if you are going 120 m.p.h.
Now the tolls just creep higher and higher because people are just flying under the gantries without a care in the world, with no clue how much the tolls are adding up to be.
Here's a little known fact. Law enforcement can provide the Mass Pike (managed by Raytheon) a list of license plate numbers and the state police will receive an email whenever one of those plates passes through a gantry and can dispatch a patrol car to come get you. So if you have any unpaid tickets or other warrants, do not use the Mass Pike!
Tolls on Interstate highway in Florida is news to me.
Live north of Tampa and always thought that I-75, 275, 95, and I-4 would always be toll free.
Thank you mouse — NOT
The privately owned toll roads in France helped to ignite the Yellow Vests protests in 2018.
I had to drive a trailer through the s hole of San Fransicko. Cost me over 100 bucks just to cross a few bridges.
When I was driving on I-4, it wasn’t bad until Orlando. That was from Tampa to Orlando.
I4 is still congested. I don’t care what time of day or night.. craziness.
At one time, some years ago, I commuted between the East coast and the East side of Orlando. Wasn’t bad but I exited at the greenway.
Hi.
Between you and me, if you ain’t movin on I-4 at 80 mph from Tampa to the mouse ears, get off the Interstate and take US 92.
Saves everyone hassle.
5.56mm
Bait and switch...
“Policy” when .gov does it...
Consumer fraud when .com does it.
Fortunately, they’re only tolling the four new lanes. Federal law wouldn’t allow them to toll the existing six lanes as well.
In those days “quarter tossing” should have been part of driver ed...
;-)
It has been a few years since I’ve been to Florida. We often took the Sun Coast highway(589) to Brooksville, Fl from Tampa. The toll road had started removing some of the toll plazas during the upgrade. Long term snowbirds had to buy transponders or pay online. If one was down there for a month or so a bill would show up at your home address. Florida didn’t intentionally stick it to out of staters for not having a transponder.
I feel the same way about I-75. Besides 41 and 301, there are plenty of other back roads. I use them myself when I’m in no particular hurry, or yet another accident has turned things into a parking lot.
I remember when they said once the East-West toll was paid off, they would remove the tolls...
That never happened..
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