HOLY CRAP! The PA Turnpike is EXPENSIVE!!!!

[mugs]

Originally posted by: markgm
Hehehe, when they put the tolls up, they said they would take them down once the thing was paid off. I guess that's why they keep working on it! That thing has to be a cash cow.

Edit: I wouldn't mind paying all the time either if in exchange for my toll they didn't put cops on it to catch speeders!

Toll roads aren't bad, they put the cost of maintaining the road (roads are expensive to repair) on the people who use them. If the money didn't come from tolls, it'd come from gas taxes or income taxes or whatever. It's not like the money goes into a big abyss under the toll booth.

 

[Krazefinn]

The central fl greenway is way more expensive than turnpike, as is the east-west. $6 to go 18 miles...
Same deal, run by private co (how do they get to take land via eminent domain?) that was supposed to drop tolls like 20 yrs ago....
now they just rebuild the booths every 3 yrs....and add more in between, while raising rates too.

I hate being held hostage for quarters on a jammed road. To think we pau road taxes on cars, tires , GAS, batteries, realestate, additional peeny or two sales tax, bonds, federal taxes ( [portiongiven back to states for certain road projects) and they still have to play these damn games???

 

[mugs]

Originally posted by: MIKEMIKE

Originally posted by: mugs

Originally posted by: kranky
Is I-80 an option?

He's coming from MI, which means going through OH, where I-80 has similarly high tolls.

i dont find it that expensive, you try to go through Chicago and you end up paying $5 for 10 miles...

he could always do I80/90 to 90 to?? or 80/90 to 80 to 480 back to 80 if he really wanted to save money..

I've never driven on it, but I went to college in Indiana about equidistant between 70 and 80, and I live in NJ. Some people from my area took the northern route home (80) and some took the southern route (70->76). As I recall, the tolls were about the same to get all the way across OH as they were to get across the majority of PA. But since then PA jacked up the tolls a bit. Imagine my surprise when my wife took a trip out to Erie and I had $34 worth of tolls on my EZ-Pass statement from that alone!

 

[dartworth]

Erie?

anyone from Erie?

 

[brtspears2]

240 miles for that price doesn't sound too bad.

Try up to $8.50 for 10 miles. Check out 91 Express lanes. http://www.91expresslanes.com/tollschedules_20060227.asp

Whenever I get near this toll road, I ask myself if I want to lose an hour of my life sitting in traffic or lose my money. I spent $1,300 in tolls in the last 12 months

 

[DrPizza]

I took the PA turnpike from Scranton down to NJ (Philly area).. $7.25 It really didn't bother me because the speeds were quite reasonable, and I didn't think the condition of the road was that bad. In comparison, drive on I-86 in western NY between Olean and Cuba. A couple weeks of doing that daily, and you'll be ready to have the suspension in your car re-built.

 

[shopbruin]

hmm the only toll we took semi regularly was the 73 from LA down to san diego and it was 3 bucks each way all the time.

now going up i think some other freeway from san diego, the toll varied depending on the time of day.

 

[mugs]

Originally posted by: brtspears2
240 miles for that price doesn't sound too bad.

Try up to $8.50 for 10 miles. Check out 91 Express lanes. http://www.91expresslanes.com/tollschedules_20060227.asp

Whenever I get near this toll road, I ask myself if I want to lose an hour of my life sitting in traffic or lose my money. I spent $1,300 in tolls in the last 12 months

Jeez, that's about the most complex toll schedule I've ever seen.

 

[ThePresence]

Good thing you don't travel over the Verrazzano Bridge often.

 

[kranky]

Originally posted by: mugs

Originally posted by: kranky
Is I-80 an option?

He's coming from MI, which means going through OH, where I-80 has similarly high tolls.

But he didn't complain about the Ohio tolls!

 

[Scarpozzi]

Originally posted by: Mill
Absolutely not. I paid like 27.50 EURO to some extremely angry Italian outside Milan. We'd only been on the toll road like 80 miles.

Tolls in Europe damn near bankrupted me!

That's why it's cheaper to take the train or the bus. It doesn't pay to drive over there unless you're just sticking to a local area and know where to park for free.

 

[Mill]

Originally posted by: Scarpozzi

Originally posted by: Mill
Absolutely not. I paid like 27.50 EURO to some extremely angry Italian outside Milan. We'd only been on the toll road like 80 miles.

Tolls in Europe damn near bankrupted me!

That's why it's cheaper to take the train or the bus. It doesn't pay to drive over there unless you're just sticking to a local area and know where to park for free.

Well I would've, but I had zero choice. It was when I picked up my new car.

 

[sao123]

Originally posted by: dartworth
Erie?

anyone from Erie?

Formerly from Youngwood(New Stanton tpk exit) now in Uniontown.

 

[ironcrotch]

Toll roads are the double shaft. We will use your money to build it, and then charge you to use it.

 

[sao123]

Originally posted by: ironcrotch
Toll roads are the way of building a highway you dont have the money up front to pay for. We will get a federal government loan to build it, and then charge you to use it which pays it off, and builds up a fund to maintain (snow removal, pothole fixing) it later.

fixed that bit of misinformation you happen to be spouting.

 

[Fireball77]

I drove it back in September.....there was construction going on all over the place. And we even had to pay to get off of the Freeway for a rest stop....anyways....they trip was worth it...not complaing, it was fun.

 

[sao123]

Originally posted by: Fireball77
I drove it back in September.....there was construction going on all over the place. And we even had to pay to get off of the Freeway for a rest stop....anyways....they trip was worth it...not complaing, it was fun.

you can get off to go to many plazas's...
but there are plazas every 30-50 miles which are owned by the turnpike commissions and there is no toll to stop there... because you can only get back on the turnpike....
no other entrances or exits to get there.

 

[Kanalua]

No tolls in Hawaii. Very surprised there isn't, they tax EVERYTHING ELSE!

 

[Aquaman]

Is there a website that lists all the tolls on US roads? I think that would be a useful site for people who want to go on an uber road trip.

Cheers,
Aquaman

 

[mundane]

I always wondered that after the costs of toll collectors / maintainence of their facilities, what the net gain was.

 

[jagec]

Originally posted by: MIKEMIKE

Originally posted by: mugs

Originally posted by: kranky
Is I-80 an option?

He's coming from MI, which means going through OH, where I-80 has similarly high tolls.

i dont find it that expensive, you try to go through Chicago and you end up paying $5 for 10 miles...

he could always do I80/90 to 90 to?? or 80/90 to 80 to 480 back to 80 if he really wanted to save money..

:heart:Skyway

Thankfully, the further west you go, the fewer toll roads there are, for the most part.

Originally posted by: mugs
Toll roads aren't bad, they put the cost of maintaining the road (roads are expensive to repair) on the people who use them. If the money didn't come from tolls, it'd come from gas taxes or income taxes or whatever. It's not like the money goes into a big abyss under the toll booth.

LOL, do you really think all that money is going into paying for the construction and upkeep of the road? Hardly.

 

[JDrake]

You need a lot of money when you're awesome.

 

[FoBoT]

use taxes are good. i think all interstates should be toll roads