PING!
How long before you have to show your vax papers to cross a bridge or get onto an Interstate Highway? How long until the police randomly stop people to check for vax papers under the guise of public safety? Asking for a friend.
How the country has changed. I remember when they removed the toll booths on the 520 floating bridge in Seattle when it was paid for.
Now these sort of tolls are indefinite and they even want to apply tolls to existing bridges for whatever excuse they can come up with just to get the free money.
I’ve driven in almost every country within these united states. There are a lot I’ll never see again, nor do I want to. Most are northeastern states, but the big one is California.
But then, I’m 67 and have a bit of a “been there, done that” feeling.
The dumbest part of the article is that the main topic - a possible nine bridges that might get tolls - with one exception are not identified anywhere in the article.
Anyone who has ever spent much time moving in and around Pittsburgh knows that crossing bridges is something you do frequently.
Unless the tolls were collected without human toll collectors, with an “EZpass” type system that can catch the vehicle ID as it moves quickly by, I can imagine traffic congestion will easily increase. But then there will be the issue of how much more costly driving around Pittsburgh will get, particularly for delivery type outfits and any service type outfit or person making frequent trips around the city in a work day. Even then that system has to accurately account for vehicles that do not have an “EZpass” type account, with a transponder in the vehicle associated with the account. I know New York and New Jersey have such a system but (1) I have no idea how it handles vehicles without a transponder that are vehicles licensed in other states, and (2) how much that will be an issue in the Pittsburgh area with the nine bridges under consideration for tolls.
Instead of tolls the state could permit the county that includes Pittsburgh to have an additional countywide gasoline tax. At least would spread the cost across a wider base, even though that contains the negative aspect of a tax on some folks who may never use any of the nine bridges.