Posted on 06/11/2019 3:31:03 PM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
ORLANDO, Fla. - Imagine not being able to pay cash for some of the toll roads you use every day. It's already happened in and around Miami and near Tampa, but now it is going to be happening in Central Florida.
The Florida Turnpike Enterprise confirmed that all Florida's Turnpike roadways are going to all-electronic tolling in a 70-mile stretch from Osceola County to Sumter County by next summer. According to FTE, the project will take place on Florida's Turnpike from Kissimmee Park Road at milepost 239 to I-75, which is at milepost 309.
"They're going to continue on the toll road like they have before, but they're not going to have to merge, not going to have to slow down prior to that," Florida Turnpike's Katie Mitzner said. "So it's going to be safer. It's going to be more convenient."
Mitzner confirmed that the cash tolls at the Leesburg exit are already being prepped for the changeover.
"The big crux of what is going to be taking place is going to be the installation of a gantry that is going to be going over all four lanes," Mitzner said. "And following that, they will demolish the Leesburg toll plaza."
The new gantry will be built over the existing four lanes of the turnpike, about a half mile south of the existing Leesburg toll plaza at milepost 288. The project will include milling and resurfacing, minor widening, lighting, highway signing, guardrail, toll facilities and other construction and safety improvements.
FTA said customers may encounter lane closures, ramp closures and detours at night, weekends and non-peak travel periods.
How does all-electronic tolling work? See it at FloridasTurnpike.com.
(Excerpt) Read more at clickorlando.com ...
While they built the gantry type toll plaza on Commercial blvd.
They tied up traffic at Leesburg for a year putting a regular toll plaza.
While they installed 8 toll booths they only have 4 open at any given time.
So, they’re going to eliminate 2 toll plazas. Big deal.......
Why not just eliminate the tolls as they promised once the bonds were paid off
“I can see a thriving black-market in fake out of state plates.”
*
Could be. But, the system has been in place for a decade or so and I haven’t heard of an uptick in fake license plates.
Florida photographs every car's tag, determines the user's address, and some business in Georgia mails you the bill.
Unfortunately, the add-on bill from Georgia is only a few dollars less than the toll!
≡≡8-O
It's the price we pay to keep increasing the speed limits ever-higher, letting drunken drug-users fatally crash into toll station traffic, and finding the easy-way-out to rake-in cash to Florida's re-distributors of wealth.
Sounds grim---and typical. Politicians love those taxes.
Liberal government (redundancy) screwing poor people. Who’d have guessed that would happen?
Sometimes I wonder if Free Republic is not mostly made up of a bunch of shut-ins who never get outdoors!
Yes, they do have mailing address of the owner of every single vehicle in the USA. It's all tied together through a massive database that is shared not only by toll collectors but by law enforcement as well. Thus a NYC resident gets pulled over for speeding somewhere in Wisconsin and by the time the cop car even rolls to a stop, the owner's information is already displayed on the screen. Now they go through the pantomime of asking for your license and registration but be assured that if you are the owner of the car, the officers already know all about you.
Now as for these "cashless tolls" - they are being rolled out everywhere there are toll roads. You will just be billed, whether you care to put a transponder on your car or not. All the transponder really accomplishes these days is to allow you to have an account where you can view your transactions in one place and pay your tolls all at once.
I live in the NYC area and I routinely run up $40-50 a month in tolls. That number just keeps rising and rising. I expect very soon that my monthly tolls will go over $100/mo because now they have the ability to really sock it to you. Now Connecticut is looking to get into the toll road action. Eventually, the tolls will get so expensive that many will go to public transportation - which is exactly what our overseers have planned for us all in a future state.
Pssh. There is literally, in the true classic sense that our government lords do not tax. Name one.
Legal tender is now illegal.
That’s my exit. Leesburg. I already have the sun pass so no trouble there....closing the ramp occasionally may not be great.
Lol. Coming to all 50 states. Watch!
But Voter ID is racist!
I like toll roads much more then gas tax. Plus we are a state tax free state so they have to make money somehow. I spend 20 bucks a month on tolls max.
In this case, they are building new roads all over Florida so I think the money is being used properly.
Unbelievable that non Floridians say such nonsense. First of all we just got a republican senator after 30 years. The 80-90’s were a time when the democrats owned the state. Today we have all state wide government seats but one. We are good here.
bump
They have a TOLL-BY-TAG feature where they take your tag info as you pass through and mail you a bill.
It goes without saying that TOLL-BY-TAG fees are higher than if you buy one of the SunPasses.”””
Florida is a state with MILLIONS of tourists from other areas all year around. You re going to photo my license plate & SEND me a bill? That bill is going to be higher than the regular fees?
That is discrimination. I will make sure I NEVER drive to Florida.
Also- I am planning a move to the Midwest. I don’t think I have to go thru any toll roads on my route, but I will be driving a vehicle that will have my current plates & I will be getting new plates in my new residence. Send me a bill to my old residence-—and I won’t be getting it. Am only send changes of address forms to current subscriptions, etc. NOT sending form to local Post Office. Need to cut my trail from old EX. So I won’t get the bill......
This certainly hasn’t been thought out.
IF you want to have ALL the lanes except ONE with electronic tracking, with one being manned by an operator, that makes more sense. Also, I usually am towing a horse trailer, so my toll will be more than just a car. How about Rental trucks, etc? I will have 2 large rental trucks in my caravan.
If you mean I'm the non-Floridian saying bad things, I lived in Florida in 1986/1987. Loved the state in many ways at that time (I heard liberals were moving in but didn't run into many of them except in-laws--thank goodness.)
I'm just concerned about talk radio callers and online commenters (naturally not the most authoritative source) who fear the state is being set up as a permanent Blue state. Partly by deliberate relocation of immigrants there.
When I was there the Midwest and Northeast libs were moving to FL but "once you get down here you change to conservative like everybody else" I was told more than once. At least Sarasota and Bradenton seemed that way.
But many old folks (I'm 73) were hippies or antiwar types when in their 20s. Some here (MI) and there I am sure are white haired versions of Arlo Guthrie,Pete Seeger and maybe the Chicago 1968 protestors. People used to get wiser with age and become Republicans. Now they are too often just Bernie Sanders jerks.
I am glad you like FL and I wish you and yours the very best.
Didn't mean to badmouth the state. Just concerned (from afar) about losing Fl to the evil Dems.
MAGA
We’re moving towards that here in the NYC area; too much of the tolls were just used to pay the toll collectors.
I have no problem with the concept (users of a service paying for it), but the tech involved is creepy. When EZ Pass was first rolled out here, the authorities said it wouldn’t be used for law enforcement - then promptly used it to help solve a murder (in which the perps were driving the victim’s car, unaware it had a transponder, and were eventually caught).
CT removed the tolls on 95 years ago, and screwed their own people by replacing the revenue with gas taxes. At least with the tolls on the interstate, other people (the ones using the road) were paying for its upkeep; now residents nowhere near it bear the cost.
While we have three toll roads here in NJ, thankfully I’m not forced to use them regularly; I also see the tolls only steadily rising. In fact, I use them so rarely that I really notice the increases when I do.
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