[Sooth2222]

Clue? I've driven both many times. At $48.90 cash/$34.93 EZ Pass, the PA Turnpike a relative bargain compared to $16.00 cash/$11.08 EZ Pass for the Verrazano–Narrows Bridge.

High prices are no excuse for theft.

[5150 FREEPER]

Okay: my trip from Northern Virginia to Dubuque, Iowa, which I have had to do numerous times for family funerals & holidays can be done in several routes. Many think the toll roads are the fastest and most direct: perhaps.

But the route I take using a combination of state & interstate roads requires no tolls and adds only about 80 miles in distance.

That said, instead of taking 270 to 70 to Breezewood to PA Turnpike then OH, IN, IL turnpikes (can’t even imagine what those tolls are!) I take what I like to call “The Southern Route”.

That is, I take Route 7 to Route 15 in Virginia, go across the Point of Rocks Bridge on 15 to Maryland 340 to 70 West to 68 West to 79 North do a “dog leg” crossing into Ohio back on to 70 through Ohio to Indiana to 74 outside of Indie to Peoria to Quad Cities then up the great Highway 61 to Dubuque in Iowa.

No tolls, fewer speed traps/cops/hassles, cheaper gas, easier, straight road driving (I put in cruise control, hang in the right lane and do about 65) and for the most part, it is truckers who are great drivers. Can get great radio reception too.

Don’t pay tolls, stay off congested roads and it can be done.

[FredZarguna]

Your point that one robber charges less for tolls than another is irrelevant. The thrust of the article is that except for a mandate which never would have passed a legislature that had done its homework, PA Turnpike fares are too high; far higher than what is needed to meet the maintenance requirement for the road, which, by the way, until 1979 was the only reason the turnpike was allowed to charge tolls. Specifically, tolls could not be earmarked for the general fund nor even for other highway projects in The Commonwealth.

No "market forces" are involved in either the pricing of the PA Turnpike nor the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge. Monopolies built both and set their prices arbitrarily and well outside of any considerations of merchantability. The sole recourse of any consumer is not to use them. This is precisely why private entities are not permitted to form illegal monopolies.

As for the claim that you've "driven both [I80 and I76/I376] many times" color me skeptical. No person familiar with both roads would claim that one represents a viable substitute for the other.