Posted on 10/21/2006 8:02:06 AM PDT by Disturbin
Fact: not a single Mass Pike toll taker has suffered a tragic career-ending injury since the bombshell announcement Wednesday afternoon that the tollbooths west of 128 may be coming down next summer.
This can mean only one thing. The hacks don’t yet take the threat to their gainful unemployment seriously.
Because if they were in fact worried, the carnage would have already begun in the toll plazas. Stools would be collapsing, cash drawers would be dropping onto flat feet, kinsmen of state reps and city councilors would be tumbling into holes, or slipping on ice or straining their backs, depending on the season.
But really, why should the Pike hacks be sweating? Just consider some of the local pols who can be counted upon to fight tooth and nail against any attempt to snuff the Mass. Turnpike Authority.
Boston Mayor Mumbles Menino, Medford Mayor Mike McGlynn, House Speaker Pro Tem Tom Petrolati, Reps. Tony Petrucelli, John Fresolo, Paul Kujawski and Michael Kane, ex-Sen. Cheryl Jacques (rhymes with Fakes), Governor’s Councilor Chris Iannella Jr. and Register of Probate Chris Iannella, state Auditor Joe DeNucci, ex-Worcester Mayor Ray Mariano ... do you get the picture?
All of the above have either relatives, people with the same last name or campaign contributors on the Pike payroll. Relatives, mostly. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg, and doesn’t even include all the ex-selectmen and selectmen’s relatives and freelance coatholders like Dave "Red Dog" Balfour, late of the MDC.
No wonder almost all of the hacks are with Deval. Together We Can ... keep the toll takers stealing and going out with fake injuries.
Sure, it will require some effort to keep the tollbooths open. But hey, the hacks have already padded the Pike board once, increasing the number from three to five.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.bostonherald.com ...
In some cases, west of the city, the operating costs of the tolls are greater than the revenue generated by them.
This is not all that uncommon. Do the math one day, as you sit in an endless line at the tollboth, waiting to give the state employee 50 cents.
And then, figure in the hourly pay rate (or worse yet, the billing rate!) of all the other people, sitting in cars, waiting to give the state employee 50 cents. Add to that the cost of gas, and wear and tear on all those vehicles.
Pretty soon, you'll figure out that it is costing society at large about twenty dollars for every dollar collected. We all know that government is inefficient and stupid, but there should be a limit!
That's not the way the Mass Pike works.
You get a ticket when you get on, and pay by distance.
"That'll be $2.35, sir"
That's why there's so much change-making.
The Fundamental Limit Theorem of Political Calculus in MA states "There is no such limit"!
Grab a stopwatch, and see how long it takes that toll taker to collect his $2.35. If it is more than 75 seconds to cycle each car, he's losing money, and the state would be better off just shutting the tollbooth down.
Think of it this way, though; by keeping the tolls, you have the cost associated with making change for that car, but you also have the much lower cost of having a Fast Lane take money from other cars. No toll, no tolltaker, but also no free cash from Fast Lane users.
I don't know about how your Fast Lane works in Massachusetts, but I know that in New Jersey, the EZ Pass system became so featherbedded and inefficient, they managed to lose money on that, too!
How about this... The state can just contract with private individuals, and they can set up tollbooths and keep whatever the collect.
Here in Chicago, the toll ways are switching to open road tolling. Your credit card is electronically dinged when you go through the gate. Don't know what is happening to the toll takers. The Skyway toll road was just sold to some Spanish company.
Here's the problem with Fast Lane in Mass, as I see it.
They give you the transponder box for your car. There's a battery inside. Sometimes the transponder doesn't register when you go through the toll, due to a low battery or just bad angle and whatnot. In those cases (which for me is most of the time), they can't determine your entry and/or exit point from the Pike, so they bill the max amount to your account.
As the battery gets low, this is frequent. If you're not paying attention, you could be charged way more than the normal toll.
Not only do we have the Fast Lane(s), but they still have to pay toll takers for the other lanes, which back up because a lot of people don't want the transponder. And once there is a backup at the toll taker lane, sometimes you have to wait in line behind those clowns for a while before you have a clear opportunity to go through the Fast Lane whose purpose is to eliminate lines. That is Massachusetts for you!
Sometimes you have to wait five minutes while a retarded driver searches their car for the toll money and/or gets directions. That is always a treat.
There isn't so much a limit, as there is a line where it stops being stupid and starts being a calculated pay-off.
They still want to keep the toll booths for inside the Metro area of the city.
This proposal is for the toll boots west of the city. LOL, they promised to take them down in 1983, now we're just asking that they keep their promise. The roads out west have already been paid for, so the western toll booth revenue is being used in the city, partly to avoid putting toll booths in the South Shore where, for some unknown reason, there have never been tolls even though there is insane traffic on those roads.
yet there are posters even on this site supporting a new tollway that will bisect Texas
Even after they installed the fast lanes, they never laid off one toll collector. I think they even hired more!
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