HIghway Robbery

I was driving north, on my way to a New Hampshire weekend, when the traffic began to slow. The domino effect of red brake lights alerted me to slow down, just as an interstate sign (with a fitting pilgrim hat icon) announced the entrance of the Mass Turnpike. I scanned the turnpike entrance and the surrounding signs, looking for the toll amount. Nothing. I inched up closer to the stall, my turn being immenent, and starting frantically scrounging up coins. Twenty-five...fifty...sixty-seven cents. How much is the toll? I looked up and searched again. Nothing. Now it's my turn. There's no person in the stall - it's an automatic toll - so maybe it's like Chicago, where you throw your change in and then go. BUT HOW MUCH IS IT? No sign, nothing. So I take fifty cents and throw it at the metal appartus in front of me. The coins fall to the ground. Where do I put the money? I look behind me, at the long row of cars waiting for me to go and imagine they're thinking "What's wrong with this stupid person from North Carolina?" I'm a semi-intelligent person. I know how to calculate the area of a triangle. I know the Marketing 3C's and 4P's. Surely I can figure this one out. I look around again, sweat starting to bead up on my forhead and my heart beating frantically. And then I see it, sticking out of the metal appartus. A single ticket. No toll. No change. Just take the ticket and go.

I don't understand the purpose of tolls. They seem to be especially prevalent in the Northeast and I don't know how an interstate, that already gets federal funding, can legally charge drivers an extra fee to drive on their roads. If I was Queen for a day, I would get rid of all tolls. They cause traffic to slow down. They cause undue stress on people, trying to find the right amount of change as quickly as possible, before the jackass behind them starts leaning on the horn.

Did you know that the George Washington bridge into NYC is $6? And the NJ and Deleware Turnpikes aren't much cheaper? Quickly do the math - let's say 30 cars go through each stall per minute. There are roughly 10 stalls per toll bridge. That's 300 cars a minute paying (as in the case of Delaware) $3 a car. That's $600 a minute. That's $720,000 a day, assuming 20 hours in a day (let's say 4 hours are kind of slow in the wee hours of the morning). That's the conservative estimate. So what do the states do with this kind of money? I find it hard to believe that road repair requires hundreds of millions of dollars each year. After driving on New York's roads, I can vouch that they are definitely not pouring my $6 into repairing potholes.

The toll system has corruption written all over it. Or, at least, needless waste. I vote to get rid of the entire system, unless someone can show me how it's helpful and necessary. At the very least, states should spend $60 of the $720,000 they make per day and put up a sign that says to "Take a Ticket", to prevent another poor soul like me from flinging coins at the side of a toll booth. On the way back from New Hampshire, I came to the the start of the Mass Pike again, this time confident, not even thinking about reaching for the bag of coins. Instead, I pulled up and took my ticket, as if I did this everyday. What can I say? I'm a fast learner.