...

Do not want.

Mass Pike has the most insane system of toll-taking. The lanes or either ezpass or ticketed - not both. So EZPASS users are often penalized as a result (backups in the ezpass lane due to merging can't be alleviated by having people go through ticketed lanes).

I suspect this effect is by design so that toll takers can squeeze out another 10 years of quite literally sitting on their asses.

I can't wait until the NYNJ Port Authority does this. I've been in horrible backups from NJ, even with EZPass, because they only had one toll lane open for cash, causing traffic to backup for miles. Of course it will suck for Tony Soprano and friends who will now have their movements tracked by computer.

ha ha ha, yeah right deval. you're going to dismantle the turnpike authority? didn't you already try that once?

It is much faster. Just keep driving, don't slow down, get billed later.

Or not have tolls. I've driven in plenty of places that don't have tolls and the roads were flat enough and had signage.

I used to live in Texas, and the high speed tolling is pretty nice, actually. Live in new england now and have had an ezpass in both areas.

What they did in Texas was create something akin to a rest area (a semi-exit to an area beside the highway) for the human-toll takers. So, people on the highway can just keep going at speed if they have the ezpass. If you don't, then you have to take the exit to the toll booths.

I'm not sure not accepting cash would be legal. It is legal tender for all debts. If you are charged AFTER you enter the road it is a debt at that point, so cash is required to be accepted. If they charged you before you got on the road they don't have to accept cash.

Auto tolling works.

We have a private highway run on Ontario called the 407 and it uses the Raytheon system.

never having to stop to pay, plus just getting a bill in the mail is nice. I don't see why you would want any other way.

Yunus: I'm not sure not accepting cash would be legal. It is legal tender for all debts. If you are charged AFTER you enter the road it is a debt at that point, so cash is required to be accepted. If they charged you before you got on the road they don't have to accept cash.

I think we're talking about the billing method. They would have to take cash when the customer finally does pay up, but I think they can refuse to take payment on the highway.

Babwa Wawa: Mass Pike has the most insane system of toll-taking. The lanes or either ezpass or ticketed - not both. So EZPASS users are often penalized as a result (backups in the ezpass lane due to merging can't be alleviated by having people go through ticketed lanes).

I suspect this effect is by design so that toll takers can squeeze out another 10 years of quite literally sitting on their asses.

Wrong. At many of the smaller toll plazas there are FastLane/Cash combination lanes.

Babwa Wawa: I suspect this effect is by design so that toll takers can squeeze out another 10 years of quite literally sitting on their asses.

Right, because I'm sure that's their dream job.

Good. Lay those damn toll collectors off. You would not believe what they make. They are union in Mass, and some of them make $100K/year with overtime. I'm not kidding. Look it up.

I am a fierce advocate of fair wages, collective bargaining, and lowering the gap between rich and poor in this country, but when you have actually made oppressively wealthy people out of toll collectors who don't even need a high school diploma, something has gone very wrong with the system. Some of that money needs to go to social workers living on $30K/year.

The aide said open-road tolling is solely being eyed for the Pike and not other highways such as Interstates 93 or 95, which currently have no tolls.

Yeah, right. Like the Massachusetts to Maine corridor isn't going to see a third toll in no time flat. Once it's automated, there's going to be toll collection gear on every street corner.

For the life of me, I can't figure out on what earth building and maintaining toll plazas and the related infrastructure is an efficient use of limited transportation dollars and people's time. I shake my head every time I travel through the states.

Maybe there's something I'm missing that can be explained to me on why this is a good thing.

Yunus: I'm not sure not accepting cash would be legal. It is legal tender for all debts. If you are charged AFTER you enter the road it is a debt at that point, so cash is required to be accepted. If they charged you before you got on the road they don't have to accept cash.

And if you are anal enough, you can drive out to the transit authority and pay in cash when they send you a bill later on.

What the Gov wants to do is get rid of the toll takers because in MA they can make upwards of 75K+ and people wonder why it is called Taxachusetts.

Yunus: I'm not sure not accepting cash would be legal. It is legal tender for all debts. If you are charged AFTER you enter the road it is a debt at that point, so cash is required to be accepted. If they charged you before you got on the road they don't have to accept cash.

In TX, we have several TXTag-only toll areas, and if you don't have one, they mail you a bill sometime in the next month, based on your license plate.

Yep, cash is legal tender.

TiltedKilt: Babwa Wawa: Mass Pike has the most insane system of toll-taking. The lanes or either ezpass or ticketed - not both. So EZPASS users are often penalized as a result (backups in the ezpass lane due to merging can't be alleviated by having people go through ticketed lanes).

I suspect this effect is by design so that toll takers can squeeze out another 10 years of quite literally sitting on their asses.

Wrong. At many of the smaller toll plazas there are FastLane/Cash combination lanes.

There are _some_ combination lanes. Not all of them - and the busiest ones, like the 95/Masspike interchange is a mess during rush hour because the cash lanes don't have ezpass sensors.

stickintehmud: Right, because I'm sure that's their dream job.

This just in: Not everyone has ambition.

Average salary of a Mass Pike toll taker is $71k, and the benefits are quite good.

Might as well do it. Only question is if the automated system is cheaper than the toll collecters.

Just need to find a job for th etoll collectors then. Some could presumably help the new system work. The rest....well, they're probably better than some of the DMV losers...

Technology's goal is to eliminate the need for most positions, to the point we can all sit back and relax. This is just another step down that path.

As a shareholder in Raytheon, I'm really getting a kick out of some of these posts...

Welcum to Whoostah, a dullah twenty five per.

Highway taxes should be collected at the pump, exclusively.

Babwa Wawa

71K, Dayum.

And they're still nasty, impatient, ill-tempered farknuts most of em'.

Boggling really that we haven't replaced toll collectors with automation yet, seeing as how it can't be healthy for someone to suck in car exhaust all day in cold/hot/windy box all day. Sounds pretty miserable I guess. But then again, for that kind of money, I'd do it with a shiat eating grin.

Good FSM, could you imagine getting laid off of a job like that and trying to find work, with say ten years of toll collecting experience getting paid at 71k? You'd never find work again. (unless you find somewhere else to collect tolls)

I take the T to work every day, so I don't care at all about these responses.

FTA: "Raytheon is one of the largest companies in the Bay State and has outfitted highways in Austin, Texas, and charged $229.8 million to install an open-road tolling system on the 612-mile Florida Turnpike Enterprise."

That's more than 375thousand dollars a mile, and I bet MA can't even get it that cheap.

When I lived in Houston, there were three separate types of toll lanes. Cash only, token only, and EZ-pass (I forget the real name), the first time you drove on the road it would cause great confusion.

Cooper420: Auto tolling works.

We have a private highway run on Ontario called the 407 and it uses the Raytheon system.

never having to stop to pay, plus just getting a bill in the mail is nice. I don't see why you would want any other way.

Yes, its a bit of a technical marvel. BUT

Note the private company who actually runs it got a really sweet, sweet, deal where if you get behind in payment they rat you out to the Ontario Ministry of Transport and they won't let you renew your license or tags until you pay in full.

What other private company has this power?

I wonder how much in campaign contributions bribes it took to get that little nugget added.

Farkin' greedy politicians.

Oh, and the 407 is horribly overpriced, anyway. Better to sit in traffic than to give the SPANISH corporation a dime.

Yunus: I'm not sure not accepting cash would be legal. It is legal tender for all debts. If you are charged AFTER you enter the road it is a debt at that point, so cash is required to be accepted. If they charged you before you got on the road they don't have to accept cash.

Reading this made me happy. Reminded me of a story way too cool to share on Fark.

But yeah, I don't understand why there couldn't be a lane left open for cash business.

/story wasn't really cool

Caesar's Ghost: What the Gov wants to do is get rid of the toll takers because in MA they can make upwards of 75K+ and people wonder why it is called Taxachusetts.

I'm calling BS on this. Do you have a credible source for this? Or is this something you've "heard"?

If this is true, I have a couple of unemployed friends to send that way.

It's like your 10 year old kid asking you for a fully automatic assault rifle. Yeah, assault rifles are damned handy things in a lot of situations. I'm just not sure that our government is mature and trustworthy enough to handle the responsibility that comes with it right now.

pugsleythegreat: Good FSM, could you imagine getting laid off of a job like that and trying to find work, with say ten years of toll collecting experience getting paid at 71k? You'd never find work again. (unless you find somewhere else to collect tolls)

Exactly - they aren't as stupid as they look - they know that there's no place in the private sector, and very few in the public sector where you can get paid $50k+ without having any education or skills.

And they have a very powerful union.

Babwa Wawa:

Average salary of a Mass Pike toll taker is $71k, and the benefits are quite good.

Hard to believe the State is flirting with fiscal insolvency of Californian proportions.

I wonder what the guy that sawdusts the puke on the floor of the State House pulls in.

unyon: For the life of me, I can't figure out on what earth building and maintaining toll plazas and the related infrastructure is an efficient use of limited transportation dollars and people's time. I shake my head every time I travel through the states.

Maybe there's something I'm missing that can be explained to me on why this is a good thing.

Well the idea of tolls isn't bad, it's a use tax. You use the highway, you pay for it. Though in this day and age having people sit in booths is a waste of money. Use cameras and just ocr the plates. The less than 5% or so that will go by unread is more than made up for in the savings of not having toll operators. Also the lack of a bottleneck means less fuel is wasted, and that does everyone better.

Open Mike Night: Caesar's Ghost: What the Gov wants to do is get rid of the toll takers because in MA they can make upwards of 75K+ and people wonder why it is called Taxachusetts.

I'm calling BS on this. Do you have a credible source for this? Or is this something you've "heard"?

Here (new window).

Or you could have googled "toll taker salary mass pike".

But I understand. Easier when someone else does the heavy lifting.

Babwa Wawa


Gee golly, if I made that kind of bank, I could easily survive on 30k and bank the rest, and retire in no time debt free.

/Damn this career of skilled labor that makes me a fraction of what toll-both Willy rakes in.

I travel to London quite a bit where they have the "Congestion Tax" if you enter the city. Cameras all over the place take a picture of the plate and it gets turned into a bill that is payed online and it's the ONLY way payment can be made. If payment is not paid by midnight of the day you entered the city, the charge doubles. Works well.

I asked a cabby if there was a way around it....hair spray on the plate

unyon,

Tolls roads are paid for by people who pay tolls; as opposed to taxes to pay for 'free' roads.

Look at the Orlando area, they are so against raising taxes that almost all of the highways are tollroads except I-4.

Wodan11: I used to live in Texas, and the high speed tolling is pretty nice, actually. Live in new england now and have had an ezpass in both areas.

What they did in Texas was create something akin to a rest area (a semi-exit to an area beside the highway) for the human-toll takers. So, people on the highway can just keep going at speed if they have the ezpass. If you don't, then you have to take the exit to the toll booths.

Where the hell is that? The only toll road I've been on in Texas is George Bush in DFW and it's not anything like you described.

How about collecting the money in a non-dangerous, pain in the butt, resource wasting manner?

Kar98: Wodan11: I used to live in Texas, and the high speed tolling is pretty nice, actually. Live in new england now and have had an ezpass in both areas.

What they did in Texas was create something akin to a rest area (a semi-exit to an area beside the highway) for the human-toll takers. So, people on the highway can just keep going at speed if they have the ezpass. If you don't, then you have to take the exit to the toll booths.

Where the hell is that? The only toll road I've been on in Texas is George Bush in DFW and it's not anything like you described.

Think of a giant overhead toll reading system which you travel at 45 mph or faster under. That picks up the signal on your E-Z Pass or whatever, on the right side of this overhead is a small toll plaza. This toll plaza is two lanes and operates on cash. The meat bags go through there to pay the toll and continue on their merry way. Or just G.I.S for the friggen thing.

Babwa Wawa: stickintehmud: Right, because I'm sure that's their dream job.

This just in: Not everyone has ambition.

Average salary of a Mass Pike toll taker is $71k, and the benefits are quite good.

A very nice pension too!

Poor Deval, he can't do anything right politically. Tries to save the taxpayers some cash by cutting the turnpike workers, gets shiat on. Tries to lower taxpayer cost by using civilian road flaggers instead of cops, gets shiat on by the cops and the AFL-CIO. Raises taxes after he vows to not cut schools to balance the budge, oh you know that's a double shiatting. Tries to get a casino here, gets shiat on.

Although with Cahill (I) in the race he'll end up winning again. Especially when his primary opponent is this beast:



I'm pretty disappointed with Deval at this point, voted for him but not again.

/Also, is it too much to ask to put all the Fast Lane booths on one side of the road (if they aren't going to make all lanes Fast Lane), and the cash slowbos on the other side?
//I'm looking at you Weston tolls!

Open Mike Night: Caesar's Ghost: What the Gov wants to do is get rid of the toll takers because in MA they can make upwards of 75K+ and people wonder why it is called Taxachusetts.

I'm calling BS on this. Do you have a credible source for this? Or is this something you've "heard"?

If this is true, I have a couple of unemployed friends to send that way.

Yes it's true. But your friends would have to be related to a local political hack to get the job...

Open Mike Night: Caesar's Ghost: What the Gov wants to do is get rid of the toll takers because in MA they can make upwards of 75K+ and people wonder why it is called Taxachusetts.

I'm calling BS on this. Do you have a credible source for this?
here you go

Funny, the toll road system was designed to cover the cost of making the roads with the express intent to stop collecting tolls when that debt is paid. Tax dollars are used to make toll roads, tax dollars taken via the tax on fuel, charging again via toll collection is you being taxed twice for the same thing...

unyon: For the life of me, I can't figure out on what earth building and maintaining toll plazas and the related infrastructure is an efficient use of limited transportation dollars and people's time. I shake my head every time I travel through the states.

Maybe there's something I'm missing that can be explained to me on why this is a good thing.

Only good thing about Connecticut: no tolls. We're the only state in this region with a modicum of common sense. It's irritated as all hell when driving through other states to see how much toll paying as permeated into their ever day life. Whatta bunch of morans.

Day_Old_Dutchie: Cooper420: Auto tolling works.

We have a private highway run on Ontario called the 407 and it uses the Raytheon system.

never having to stop to pay, plus just getting a bill in the mail is nice. I don't see why you would want any other way.

Yes, its a bit of a technical marvel. BUT

Note the private company who actually runs it got a really sweet, sweet, deal where if you get behind in payment they rat you out to the Ontario Ministry of Transport and they won't let you renew your license or tags until you pay in full.

What other private company has this power?

I wonder how much in campaign contributions bribes it took to get that little nugget added.

Farkin' greedy politicians.

Oh, and the 407 is horribly overpriced, anyway. Better to sit in traffic than to give the SPANISH corporation a dime.

Corruption is rife. The New Jersey toll system is quite possibly the worst ever in the modern world. They routinely don't pick up transponders or the coin machines don't read money being put in. There's a big sign saying if green light doesn't come up, beep horn, wait 5 seconds, and continue. Why they have those signs there I don't know because it doesn't make any difference to them, they still send you an "administration fee" (see not a fine, as it is being imposed by a private corporation).

You can appeal the "administration fee" but here's the kicker:

1. You have to pay the toll to appeal it, so already they are getting 100% more income

2. You can only appeal 1 ticket per year

The second one is absolutely mind boggling. They have no incentive at all to improve their system, as keeping it inoperable only increases more revenue, and they have the threat of the law and the monopolization of travel to enforce it.

A couple years ago, both times I had to drive through jersey one of the many toll booths failed and I was issued a ticket in the mail. So literally I had a 100% failure rate going through their toll system. I couldn't appeal the second ticket and the company wanted to keep applying late fees and threatened to report to my state to have my drivers license or registration on hold. Calling them was useless as I was just put on the line with retards making minimum wage with no other job than sit on the phone all day listening to gripes.

Why a private corporation can get this much power is beyond me. But then I read in the news shortly thereafter that the jersey state was pressuring EZpass to ratchet up fees to solve their budget crisis. lol.

Seriously, people in toll states have no idea how used they are. The freedom of being able to get on any highway, get off any exit, no government tracking, no stupid tolls, no government workers making 100K with no threat of being fired, no worthless customer service and inability to communicate with somebody with a modicum of common sense, no threats of holding your drivers license etc. It's funny watching all these posters quibble over their state's automated toll system. Just take the goddamn things down already.

Babwa Wawa: Open Mike Night: Caesar's Ghost: What the Gov wants to do is get rid of the toll takers because in MA they can make upwards of 75K+ and people wonder why it is called Taxachusetts.

I'm calling BS on this. Do you have a credible source for this? Or is this something you've "heard"?

Here (new window).

Or you could have googled "toll taker salary mass pike".

But I understand. Easier when someone else does the heavy lifting.

Thanks. I usually just ignore people who ask for sources in the age of Google.

Sure, Fireclown, they said. The government doesn't want to spy on your wherabouts, they said. The computing power just isn't there, they said. Tinfoil hat wearing ya-hoo, they called me.

Grrrr. Aint nobodys business where and when I get on the turnpike or any other road.