Pennsylvania Ping!
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Posted on 09/21/2021 9:29:09 AM PDT by lightman
The PA Turnpike mainline and Northeast Extension are the most expensive per-mile toll roads in the US.
Pennsylvania Ping!
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Make anything under $950 a non crime. It works in CA.
Oh wait, that’s only for Shoplifting. Those Toll Road Thieves are a different breed and should be punished for their Crimes against Big Toll Road.
And our roads suck, and our gas tax is second only to Cali.
Why are tolls still being collected on a road built nearly 70 years ago?
Here in Ontario, we have the toll highway 407 which acts as a bypass of Toronto. You do not have to go through the traffic on the 401 or Don Valley Parkway (Don Valley Parking Lot). It is about $20 CAD to go from Highway 400 to Highway 412 (basically avoiding Toronto). I wonder how that (about 44 cents per km) compares to what they charge on the PA Turnpike.
Public pension funds and cadillac healthcare bennies. And Medicaid costs.
They could always get the same treatment Sonny got at the Jones Beach Causeway toll booth…
“Why”
Because they don’t want to cut spending so they tax wherever they figure they can get away with it.
https://ballotpedia.org/Pennsylvania_state_budget_and_finances
If you scroll down to State Spending by Function, be sure to read the fine print.
So 500 human toll collectors lost their jobs.
Their problem used to be keeping up with baking the warm Toll House cookies for drivers. Chocolate chip or butterscotch, both good.
It is a threat to our democracy! /s
“We collect 93 percent of what we are owed,” DeFebo said. “That is industry standard.”
The law of diminishing returns sets in very quickly. The last 7 percent collocations may cost the 7 percent, so you net zero.
Why are tolls still being collected on a road built nearly 70 years ago?
C’mon man!
Because gas taxes aren’t enough...state/fed taxes aren’t enough...tolls aren’t enough...
To line people’s pockets!
To wit, now they are trying to tax the miles driven. Most likely to succeed.
Simple.
In 1933 PA floated a 30 year bond to build the PA Turnpike, with the stipulation that when the bond debt was retired in 1963 the roadway would be toll free.
In 1962, the Turnpike Commission, realized that the debt was about to be paid and the end was coming for the entire political sugar bowl, i.e, commissioners, toll collectors, thousands of "relative/friends" working in the system and vendors paying for all of the corruption.
Solution; float an 'extended bond' to build an extension, and keep the whole corrupt pay off, paying off.
Almost 90 years later, the graft goes on {and little "spurs" continue to be built}.
I have a private one, being built to my house, and the Turnpike Commission even provides a driver, even for my old junker.
S/OFF
Current maintenance and periodic improvements. I doubt that any of the road surface is left between New Stanton and Breezewood from when I first began traveling that stretch of road in 1981 though this past summer, which was my latest trip on it. One can tell the difference in upkeep comparing I-70 from Wheeling WV to getting on the tollway at New Stanton.
” It is about $20 CAD to go from Highway 400 to Highway 412 (basically avoiding Toronto). “
Mere pocket change./lol
This is racist - in my opinion. Or maybe the more correct word is “racial”.
I would like to see the demographics on toll violators.
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