Posted on 07/17/2010 8:56:06 AM PDT by Willie Green
E-ZPass customers will get price break over those paying cash
A toll increase on the Pennsylvania Turnpike in January likely will make it the most expensive long toll road in the nation.
The turnpike commission on Wednesday approved a 3 percent increase for users of E-ZPass electronic fare collection and 10 percent for cash customers, effective Jan. 2.
That will raise the cash cost of driving the turnpike to 8.5 cents per mile, highest of the 11 U.S. toll roads of 100 miles or longer. Currently, the Pennsylvania and New Jersey turnpikes are tied at 7.7 cents per mile.
Shorter toll facilities, including highway spurs and bridges, typically have higher per-mile costs. A March survey by the Pennsylvania Turnpike found 10 facilities with per-mile rates of 27.8 cents or more, including a 6-mile highway in California whose users pay 45.8 cents per mile.
The Pennsylvania Turnpike has ascended to the top among longer toll roads largely because of a 2007 state law requiring it to help fund non-turnpike transportation programs. Since then, the turnpike has given the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation $2.5 billion to pay for highway and bridge work and mass transit.
That amount is the equivalent of more than three years' worth of turnpike toll income. The turnpike took in $700 million last year.
The law, Act 44, envisioned a stream of revenue from higher turnpike tolls and new tolls on Interstate 80 flowing from the commission to PennDOT.
(Excerpt) Read more at post-gazette.com ...
And were a Commonwealth, not a state.
“The one in FL might not be 100 miles long.”
No we have some long roads from the keys to the tip of the pan handle is a long ways the turnpike is in the upper 400’s in length.
Well, I can sympathize with you on the sentiment. However, I’m not overly sure that all of Penn is ‘shithole’....maybe just the eastern seaboard part, the ‘urban’ areas and other places like that bastion of academic fraud, Penn State (ala Michael Mann - I’d have said professor but that’s just a bullshit lie). Western Penn may be quite nice and not so ‘shithole’ I don’t know....
They should make an effort to clean up the plazas also.
“Highway tolls... another good reason to upgrade passenger rail service across Pennsylvania!”
BS, just a reason to stay out of that socialist sinkhole.
People ov Penn: get smart.
.
Highways shouldn’t necessarily turn a profit, but gas tax dollars should pay to keep them up. If those funds aren’t raided, the gas taxes will support the infrastructure.
I know that freeways and roads cost lots of money, but the outlay is spread over decades, not a cash payout within thirty days of completion. Bonds are floated, and they are serviced with gas tax dollars, or should be.
Airports do have income. They collect a considerable fortune from parking, hub access, direct ticket taxation, security assessments per ticket etc. Once again, infrastructure fees are spread out over decades, using the same bond process.
As for our rivers, what fees do the state or federal governments have to pay out for them? They are a natural resource. Canals do charge fees for passage. Boat licensure and property taxes associated with those boats reap a fortune for the states.
If we use your model for continual rail subsidy on all routes regardless of the feasibility of sound profits, why not expand to other businesses as well?
It’s in the public interest to have as wide a variety of restaurants too. Should we keep them open if they’re not turning a profit? How about super-markets, certainly an important public service in the interest of the public being well fed. Should we keep them open, if they can’t turn a profit? I could come up with a long list of concerns that are advantageous to the public, that we should keep open regardless of profit. Should we?
I’m not approaching this from a Libertarian point of view, although Libertarians may agree with me. I’m approaching it from a sound fiscal stance. If something is so damned important, or integral to the public, the public will pay the freight when it comes to keeping the concerns going.
If the public won’t pay the freight to keep the concerns going, then the concerns should be abandoned.
We should not have funds stolen from us, to keep unprofitable concerns open.
For non-bridge/tunnel my guess is the toll on I-95 in Delaware. If my memory is right its around $5 for a I think what is 5 miles of road.
Why is it, do you think, that privately maintained infrastructure can make a profit but socially mainted infrastructure cannot?
The government could tax passenger train tickets to subsidize the cost of maintaining roads. After all, "Other People's Money (OPM)" works so well for railroad welfare. It should work just as well in reverse.
Where's my pie, Willie?
Live in the Colorado Springs area and drive up to the airport (DEN) from time to time, better fares. I avoid I-470, taking I-225 instead. Mileage wise it's about the same, although rush hour traffic can slow your trip. I-470 doesn't have a congestion problem, even in rush hour traffic for obvious reasons ... the tolls are ridiculous.
BTW it's probably about 15 miles. As a native, it was wonderful when they put the toll on the State line only.
Users of roads pay for the roads ... and the trains!
Passenger trains are expensive parasites that must be discontinued.
Why is it, do you think, that privately maintained infrastructure can make a profit but socially mainted infrastructure cannot?
Here are two privately maintained highways that went belly-up:
South Carolina toll road in rare Chapter 9 bankruptcy
California Privatized toll road goes bankrupt using taxpayer money
Pataki's privatization of Stewart International Airport also went bust and the Port Authority had to buy back the lease from the incompetent private operator.
Gee, Willie, the other day you were extolling the virtues of the Turnpike Commission over PennDot.
Here, take a gander at THIS:
The Pennsylvania Turnpike has ascended to the top among longer toll roads largely because of a 2007 state law requiring it to help fund non-turnpike transportation programs
IOW, the Turnpike Commission now has to pay money to help support PennDOT in addition to turnpike operations.
So? It just shows how corrupt the entire political system is in PA, that under Fast Eddie Rendell they have to rip off drivers on the Turnpike to pay for mass transit in Philly and Pittsburgh - you know, systems pimped by liberal big-government idiots like Rendell - and you.
Last time I was on it in 1985 & it was The Rebar Express back then.
Highways shouldn’t necessarily turn a profit, but gas tax dollars should pay to keep them up. If those funds aren’t raided, the gas taxes will support the infrastructure.
Well Ron, maybe you and other Californians enjoy paying the highest state gas taxes in the nation, but most states would have to double their gas tax to pay what you pay.
I don't think that's going to happen.
BTW, how are you going to pay for your roads when they make you Californians start driving those cute little battery cars???
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