Venting About Toll Booths
12-03-2006, 04:14 PM
#21
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Maybe they should actually put some design sense to thier toll booths. Many people dont travel the road enough to warrant getting the pass. You would be suprised how many non-locals can be on a given road during the day.
The toll roads around where I used to live stayed pretty busy, but they designed it so it made sense, you simply dont exit towards the booths if you had a "Pike pass". The sensors for it were on the main road, you had to exit to the right to actually go through a booth. If you tried to pass without the window module, it took a picture of your plates and mailed you a $120 ticket. Worked great and you blazed through at 75mph like there wasnt a toll booth there as long as you had the pass.
Sounds like the ones you speak of have a horrible design.
The toll roads around where I used to live stayed pretty busy, but they designed it so it made sense, you simply dont exit towards the booths if you had a "Pike pass". The sensors for it were on the main road, you had to exit to the right to actually go through a booth. If you tried to pass without the window module, it took a picture of your plates and mailed you a $120 ticket. Worked great and you blazed through at 75mph like there wasnt a toll booth there as long as you had the pass.
Sounds like the ones you speak of have a horrible design.
12-03-2006, 04:15 PM
#22
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Originally Posted by a_german_named_hans
Only thing worse is when Morons enter the EZ Pass lane who don't have an EZ-Pass.
For the guy who said that he travels to ny rarely, it is still worth getting an ezpass, because you stick it on the windshield behind the rearview mirror where you can't see it, and forget about it. If you dont like the way it looks, stick it in the glove compartment. it is free and have and saves you money when you use it. The same amount of time it took you to put up that post is how long it would have taken you to get one. This way, you don't have to wait a half an hour at the toll booth either however scarcely you would. For the rest of your life (since it never expires), you never have to wait at toll booths again!
NYC traffic sure can be bad, you just have to know what times and what places NOT to be on the road. Like 5 o'clock on 95 in greenwich ct, thats suicide. Or 5oclock on the crossbronx, and to make it worse, when there is a yankee game! I try to use my nav system to avoid the really bad spots, but its NYC, like the guy said before, we have about 10million, there is gonna be traffic! But hey, there is only that much traffic b/c it is the best city in the world that offers anything and everything!
12-03-2006, 04:18 PM
#23
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Originally Posted by engifineer
Maybe they should actually put some design sense to thier toll booths. Many people dont travel the road enough to warrant getting the pass. You would be suprised how many non-locals can be on a given road during the day.
The toll roads around where I used to live stayed pretty busy, but they designed it so it made sense, you simply dont exit towards the booths if you had a "Pike pass". The sensors for it were on the main road, you had to exit to the right to actually go through a booth. If you tried to pass without the window module, it took a picture of your plates and mailed you a $120 ticket. Worked great and you blazed through at 75mph like there wasnt a toll booth there as long as you had the pass.
Sounds like the ones you speak of have a horrible design.
The toll roads around where I used to live stayed pretty busy, but they designed it so it made sense, you simply dont exit towards the booths if you had a "Pike pass". The sensors for it were on the main road, you had to exit to the right to actually go through a booth. If you tried to pass without the window module, it took a picture of your plates and mailed you a $120 ticket. Worked great and you blazed through at 75mph like there wasnt a toll booth there as long as you had the pass.
Sounds like the ones you speak of have a horrible design.
12-03-2006, 05:45 PM
#24
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interesting... I think around here you get about 2-3 "tries" of going through without paying before they send you your pic and a nice ticket.
Of course, if there's a patrolman waiting on the other side, and he sees you running... then you're definitely screwed.
But also I think this might prevent those times when you come to the baskets where people have been stupid and threw something other than change in there... like gum, so that when you throw your money in, it doesn't register! wtf... then you really have no choice but to just go
Of course, if there's a patrolman waiting on the other side, and he sees you running... then you're definitely screwed.
But also I think this might prevent those times when you come to the baskets where people have been stupid and threw something other than change in there... like gum, so that when you throw your money in, it doesn't register! wtf... then you really have no choice but to just go
12-04-2006, 03:09 AM
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Here in the San Francisco bay area, we have the same thing except we call it FasTrak. It works really nice and saves a lot of times at the bridge toll plazas. But the thing that I HATE about it is that there are those people that do not have FasTrak that insist on staying in the FasTrak lane and cutting into the regular toll lanes at the very last minute. So they bypass the long line that regular toll payers have been patiently waiting in, AND they clog the FasTrak lane and slow us down going through the toll plaza. I hate when people break the rules for their own convenience! 
12-04-2006, 03:34 AM
#26
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Originally Posted by titolito
Here in the San Francisco bay area, we have the same thing except we call it FasTrak. It works really nice and saves a lot of times at the bridge toll plazas. But the thing that I HATE about it is that there are those people that do not have FasTrak that insist on staying in the FasTrak lane and cutting into the regular toll lanes at the very last minute. So they bypass the long line that regular toll payers have been patiently waiting in, AND they clog the FasTrak lane and slow us down going through the toll plaza. I hate when people break the rules for their own convenience!
12-04-2006, 04:11 AM
#29
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yea, lots of tolls around here. i guess they need to take more of our money so they can ____ us off by doing nonstop construction in vital zones of highway where there is never anybody actually working!
12-04-2006, 04:14 AM
#30
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Originally Posted by Spect2K3
For the guy who said that he travels to ny rarely, it is still worth getting an ezpass, because you stick it on the windshield behind the rearview mirror where you can't see it, and forget about it. If you dont like the way it looks, stick it in the glove compartment. it is free and have and saves you money when you use it. The same amount of time it took you to put up that post is how long it would have taken you to get one. This way, you don't have to wait a half an hour at the toll booth either however scarcely you would. For the rest of your life (since it never expires), you never have to wait at toll booths again!
12-04-2006, 05:25 AM
#32
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lol, i do the same thing after going through the ezpass, there always seems to be a truck coming out of the 20mph ezpass zone a bit ahead of me and I have this thing where I HAVE to beat it, lol...i just hate sooo much being caught behind trucks. Its like 15 lanes merging into 3 or 4, it can be fun hitting the gas!
12-04-2006, 07:58 AM
#33
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They only 'design' aspect to the toll-roads down here in the south (Houston) is in regards to money. To get halfway around the entire city on our Beltway, you can hit 1 toll. If you're on the other half of the toll-road, the more popular half, you end up hitting 3 tolls.
Not to mention I hate the idea of our toll-road in general. If it was to pay back the city for building it, fair enough, I can live with that. But our toll-road has been paid for since 1984 and ever since then it collects 380 million dollars a /quarter/. Why don't they take the toll-booths away? Funny enough when the state gave the city the tollroad after it was paid off, they said, "You can take away the toll-booths now since it's paid for." The city said, "Hell no, that's money and we'll find a use for it!" That being said, they'll /never/ go away.. thus I abhor the idea of it.
Course admittedly from what I hear about the North-east.. I'm never moving up there, I just couldn't deal with all the tolls and traffic you guys have. We have EZ Pass down here too but everyone flies through it at 80+ mph. They don't monitor speeds on them and frankly, that's the avg speed of the Beltway so no one sees much sense in slowing down just cause you're going under a censor. Just don't be a moron, pay attention and the speed is fine.
Good luck up there.
Not to mention I hate the idea of our toll-road in general. If it was to pay back the city for building it, fair enough, I can live with that. But our toll-road has been paid for since 1984 and ever since then it collects 380 million dollars a /quarter/. Why don't they take the toll-booths away? Funny enough when the state gave the city the tollroad after it was paid off, they said, "You can take away the toll-booths now since it's paid for." The city said, "Hell no, that's money and we'll find a use for it!" That being said, they'll /never/ go away.. thus I abhor the idea of it.
Course admittedly from what I hear about the North-east.. I'm never moving up there, I just couldn't deal with all the tolls and traffic you guys have. We have EZ Pass down here too but everyone flies through it at 80+ mph. They don't monitor speeds on them and frankly, that's the avg speed of the Beltway so no one sees much sense in slowing down just cause you're going under a censor. Just don't be a moron, pay attention and the speed is fine.
Good luck up there.
12-04-2006, 10:34 PM
#35
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thats not the reason why toll booths are around. MTA loses money every year from running the trains and buses, and i dont kno if u kno but MTA is a subsidy, meaning the state of NY gives them money to continue running the trains and buses... they get this money from the tolls, the tolls are also expensive to encourage people to use the Mass transit...
12-04-2006, 10:55 PM
#36
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As the great George Carlin once said:
"You can't back out of your drive way in Jersey w/o paying a toll!"
and
"Look, I don't mind paying them, I just hate stopping to pay them. Here's a blank check, just fill it out when I'm done."
"You can't back out of your drive way in Jersey w/o paying a toll!"
and
"Look, I don't mind paying them, I just hate stopping to pay them. Here's a blank check, just fill it out when I'm done."
12-06-2006, 11:06 PM
#37
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bronxblaza, I honestly didn't know that about your toll road. That's understandable to a degree though I would personally disagree with the method of collection. If you want to cover mass transit, pull it from property tax (this would be assuming since people live there, they would get though perhaps not use the benefit of the mass transit system) and from charging the people that ride it. The Mass transit system there isn't free is it?
See, there is no real mass transit to speak of in Houston. We have Metro buses which, if you wanna ride, you just pay for and we have a tiny "light rail" which is more of a gimmick than anything. It doesn't go far and maybe .5 percent of the city uses it... maybe.
So yeah, our toll both money goes straight into the city coffers. In fact, they even tell you all about it on their website. Arrogant bastards know that no one will go vote to change it due to laziness and apathy.
/rant done
See, there is no real mass transit to speak of in Houston. We have Metro buses which, if you wanna ride, you just pay for and we have a tiny "light rail" which is more of a gimmick than anything. It doesn't go far and maybe .5 percent of the city uses it... maybe.
So yeah, our toll both money goes straight into the city coffers. In fact, they even tell you all about it on their website. Arrogant bastards know that no one will go vote to change it due to laziness and apathy.
/rant done
12-07-2006, 01:19 AM
#39
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^^then you are my new best friend...anyone who gets a fastrak or ezpass is immediately my friend seeing as I curse to hell all those in the cash lanes that slowed down my trip b/c they are ignorant idiots
12-07-2006, 01:23 AM
#40
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Originally Posted by Spect2K3
Originally Posted by engifineer
Maybe they should actually put some design sense to thier toll booths. Many people dont travel the road enough to warrant getting the pass. You would be suprised how many non-locals can be on a given road during the day.
The toll roads around where I used to live stayed pretty busy, but they designed it so it made sense, you simply dont exit towards the booths if you had a "Pike pass". The sensors for it were on the main road, you had to exit to the right to actually go through a booth. If you tried to pass without the window module, it took a picture of your plates and mailed you a $120 ticket. Worked great and you blazed through at 75mph like there wasnt a toll booth there as long as you had the pass.
Sounds like the ones you speak of have a horrible design.
The toll roads around where I used to live stayed pretty busy, but they designed it so it made sense, you simply dont exit towards the booths if you had a "Pike pass". The sensors for it were on the main road, you had to exit to the right to actually go through a booth. If you tried to pass without the window module, it took a picture of your plates and mailed you a $120 ticket. Worked great and you blazed through at 75mph like there wasnt a toll booth there as long as you had the pass.
Sounds like the ones you speak of have a horrible design.
But yes, the system in OK is pretty nice and simple. If someone goes through without a pass, they still dont slow down (hopefully, they are still on the main, 75mph speed limit freeway ). But they get the ticket in the mail. The sensor was broken once and a guy I know got a letter with a pic of his plates and a ticket, which they reversed once they saw he had the pass. Seems to me the pass is worthless if you actually have to still go through a booth or slower lane. The purpose in the one I speak of is to allow you to never miss a beat and keep driving. I am suprised, though, that they dont send out more speeding tickets with all of these systems, since they have a record of how long it takes you to get from one sensor to the next. That will be next though I am sure. Big brother is all over :D