Posted on 11/28/2017 8:17:21 AM PST by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
Finding a pay phone along the Pennsylvania Turnpike is no easy task, with fewer than three dozen spread over the 360-mile span, plus its extensions.
Soon, it will be impossible.
“Slowly, we have been eliminating the pay phones as construction work takes place at the interchanges,” said Renee Colborn, a turnpike spokeswoman. “Approximately 15 pay phones have been eliminated this year, which leaves a total of 28 pay phones at various locations.”The culprit behind the pay phone's demise along the turnpike is the same as elsewhere: the cellphone.
For that same reason, turnpike officials in September began removing more than 1,000 emergency roadside call boxes . When first installed in 1988, motorists placed 18,000 calls a year for help. Last year, they were used fewer than 800 times.
Nearly every American — 95 percent — owns a cellphone of some kind, the Pew Research Center reports.
Public pay phones in the United States peaked in the late 1990s, when more than 2.1 million were in operation. Fewer than 100,000 remain, according to the latest figures available from the Federal Communications Commission.
Pennsylvania has fewer than 7,000, down from about 35,000 a decade ago.
That the days are numbered for the last remaining pay phones along the turnpike isn't surprising to Debbie Maffett, one of the two remaining employees at the American Public Communications Council, a trade group in Alexandria, Va., that represents some of the 600 to 700 independent operators still in existence nationwide.
“I've seen the numbers drop dramatically over my 14 years here,” Maffett said. “If there is a situation where a cellphone isn't working, a pay phone is worth it.”But it often costs more than it is worth, she said.
(Excerpt) Read more at triblive.com ...
OH is a steal compared to the PA anymore. As I said elsewhere, cash fare is about .15 smile for the PA... nothing else comes close
I used to date a girl back in the 80’s that worked for a pay phone rental company.
not only is the business long gone so is the building..
The emergency phones along I-95 here in MA are long gone.
As a kid i’d kill the time by counting them as we drove by.
Here in MA cost per mile is outrageous compared to the national average and PA is worse?
WOW
I-68 through Western Maryland to I-79 in Morgantown has become a popular alternative from D.C. and Baltimore. No tolls on any of that.
I've seen the sign for that highway when I'm on I-70 but when I tried to plot a course using it the entire trip would add over 100 miles and the resulting time increase, plus some of the highways looked as if they were small 55 MPH roads that would add even more time.
The Pennsylvania Turnpike has been making using the Turnpike less and less utilitarian. They started by taking out rest stops years ago. A tired truck driver now has to continue for long distances when the rest stops provided a place to pull over when he felt sleepy. Now they are taking out public telephones. The Pennsylvania Turnpike is becoming a less friendly environment for travel. I do not know who is responsible for these changes, but it is not smart.
about .15 a mile, and going up again January 1
Oh, i thought you were talking about cost/mile in road maintenance..
“According to the study, Massachusetts spent an average of $675,939 per state-controlled mile — a figure exceeded by only Florida and New Jersey.
The national average in 2013 was $160,997 per state-controlled mile. The costs typically include capital and bridge spending, maintenance expenditures and administrative costs.”
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