How much more are they going to make it? It already costs more than a tank of gas for me when I go out to western PA
Its insane and it sucks too
Compare it with the KY Bluegrass Parkway which when it paid for itself ended the tolls.
State legislators from Pittsburgh and Philadelphia have written into law looting the turnpike to fund their welfare program mass transit systems. Rural legislators go along because they have looted the ‘pike to build useless interstate feeders to their little towns that they can name after themselves.
The mainline could be nicely maintained for a fraction of the tolls now being charged. The whole system is being looted from all sides.
We always choose the turnpike when we go down south as it is a great way to totally bypass a few big cities and the crazy traffic pile ups. Plus there is a lot less traffic and hardly any big trucks. Although I must say that the truck traffic has been ticking up the last few times we went on the turnpike.
Since we only travel the TP once or twice yearly, it is not a big issue to us if the rates increase. I imagine to locals it’s rough.
The thing we see sometimes are people who don’t know that one has to PAY tolls. I get it, I was young once too. :)
I try to keep a bunch of $1.s tucked around my car in case- just for that particular reason.
Sounds like the NY State Thruway. The first part of the Thruway from Utica to Rochester was opened in 1954. The project was to be financed through toll revenue bonds. Tolls were supposed to be eliminated once the bonds were paid off. The last of the bonds were paid off in 1996. Twenty years later, and tolls, which have gone up over the years are still being collected.
So, the Pa. Turnpike is a Socialist spread the wealth endevour.
From anywhere in NJ to Long Island (a pretty common drive that can be under a half hour one way) the minimum toll is over $30 round-trip.
ML/NJ
I remember back in the day when the Penna Turnpike was going to stop charging tolls once they had collected enough to repay what it cost to build the thing - one of the earliest government soak the public scams.....
told ya
Federal income taxes weren’t enough
State income taxes weren’t enough
County taxes weren’t enough
City taxes weren’t enough
Property taxes weren’t enough
Sales taxes weren’t enough
Utility taxes weren’t enough
Utility fees weren’t enough
Estate taxes weren’t enough
Gas taxes weren’t enough
And all the other taxes and fees I missed, they weren’t enough either.
No, someone came up with the terrific idea of tolls, and some of the stupidest people this side of a rubber room bought into it.
Sheesh!
Take note folks.
The Golden Gate Bridge was built with special bonds. An election was held in 1930, and it passed by a very wide margin.
Those bonds were paid off. Care to guess when? Those bonds were paid off in 1971, just 41 short years later.
It’s 2016 right now, and that 45 more years. That’s 45 years after the bridge tolls were eliminated right? HA!
People have been paying tolls on that bridge for 86 years now. They’ve been paying them longer after it was paid off than it took to pay it off.
http://goldengatebridge.org/research/BondMeasure.php
Here’s a link today’s costs. When you’re looking at the tolls, remember that those fees are passed off to people who buy anything that was carted across the bridge.
http://goldengatebridge.org/tolls_traffic/toll_rates.php
Wonder how much is siphoned off the public by the city of San Francisco each year, for crossing the bridge?
$!29,500,000 in fiscal year 2014/15.
http://goldengatebridge.org/research/crossings_revenues.php
When anyone asks you if you want to buy into a toll situation, please keep this in mind.
If you like tolls, drive to Florida where you can pass five toll booths easily on an afternoon drive. And when you return, you pass them again. Whoopieeeeeee...
Don’t you just love handing government your hard earned Shekels?
Hey, I drive that road every few years does anyone know “Do I need only an EZ pass now, can I still pay cash?”
It cost $6.10 to travel 45 miles on the turnpike from Allentown to Plymouth Meeting. If you use this road to commute to work it will cost you $12.20 every day day!
The filthy RAT Ed Rendell was governor of Pennsylvania in 2006. He looted the treasury first chance he got. That’s why we called him the governor of Philadelphia.
“Is it possible that a toll road could price itself right out of its market?”
Nope. They’ll be banned because they are racist. OR If they are not banned a subsidy will have to be given to compensate some peoples lack of ability to afford to travel on them which will defeat the purpose of charging a toll.
If the Pennsylvania turnpike is too expensive then drive on West Virginia’s I 77/I 64
I never understood why thousands of people would pay for the same patch of asphalt daily. The first turnpike I experienced was in PA.. It was rough and crowded. Kinda made me wonder if they took their milk jugs back after every serving and paid for the whole thing again. Still doesn’t make sense to me. A democrat thing, paying for bad to worsening conditions and paying more for i.e.
In a different Commonwealth, Massachusetts, hey don’t worry, the Mass Pike will be toll free once the bonds are paid off, so look forward to the 1980s when that will happen.
Actually at one time then MA gov William “Libertarian VP Nominee” Bill Weld, then a Republican, got rid oif the tolls in western MA.They have since been restored, as has the fee for car registration for drivers in good standing that he had waived.