Collier’s Weekly: The Pennsylvania Turnpike’s Next Big Problem | Pittsburgh Magazine

A few weeks in the past, I opened the mail to discover a $58 invoice from the Pennsylvania Turnpike.

Not what I’m normally hoping to search out within the mail (that may be both an obscure horror Blu-Ray I forgot I ordered or some Arby’s coupons).

I used to be however completely happy to get the marginally bulbous bill in a single regard: The state’s toll-by-plate system is now working easily. Only a few years in the past, Pennsylvania nonetheless required precise cash and paper cash (for some roads, in laughably particular denominations) to pay a toll, lengthy after neighboring states had discovered that debit playing cards existed. Now, they’ve skipped all the best way previous plastic to simply letting you drive the place you need and sending you the (overpriced) invoice later.

In order that’s a step up, a minimum of.

That $58 payment was the results of a round-trip drive to Washington, D.C., with each journeys that includes the stretch of the turnpike between Monroeville and Breezewood. The District is not at all an extended haul from Pittsburgh; utilizing the turnpike, Google Maps estimates a journey of 4 hours, 5 minutes.

In the event you elect to not use the turnpike, although, that very same journey will take … 4 hours, 28 minutes.

Wait a minute.

I don’t know who the turnpike fee thinks I’m, however a complete 46 minutes of my time shouldn’t be value $58.

The Commonwealth is $58 richer as a result of, on that day, I didn’t take the comparatively easy step of telling Google Maps to keep away from toll roads. No matter GPS system you’re utilizing can normally carry out this calculation in a step or two; you possibly can even set most apps to routinely reject toll roads.

In some states, it will actually throw off your drive. (Good luck entering into Manhattan with out paying any person one thing.) However when you begin to poke round, you’ll rapidly discover one thing concerning the Keystone State: roads that require (usually exorbitant) fares don’t truly prevent that a lot time.

Pittsburgh to Philadelphia? 4:52 with the turnpike, 6:07 with out — a bit extra of a distinction. However cease and verify the fare; with out the discounted E-Z Move system, you’ll pay $65.50, one-way. I’ll gladly hand around in my automotive for an additional 75 minutes to avoid wasting greater than $60.

(Sure, I do know I ought to get E-Z Move — and the distinction in worth on lengthy hauls is important, as much as 60% of the fare. However I’d simply as rapidly take the lengthy solution to save $32.)

Headed to Allentown? With out tolls, it’ll solely take an additional 40 minutes. Lancaster? A distinction of 34 minutes. Pondering of utilizing the brand new Southern Beltway, a brief toll street, to get to the airport? Beginning on the Meadows, it’ll take 29 minutes — versus the 31 it’s going to take to get there with out paying. That’s proper; it’ll value you about $8 to avoid wasting two minutes of driving time. (It’s a nice street, a minimum of.)

Over time, an increasing number of Pennsylvanians will determine find out how to use their telephones to keep away from toll roads — and I can’t think about many might be desperate to pay a premium to avoid wasting a number of stray minutes on the street. It will solely develop into a larger downside when, in a decade or so, GPS expertise and driver choice are routinely constructed into most (if not all) new automobiles.

If the state hopes to proceed charging drivers for the usage of sure roads, it might want to determine find out how to make the method extra inexpensive, extra amenable or extra handy — or, ideally, some mixture of the three. Failing that, there’s going to be some fairly empty toll roads across the yr 2030.

By the best way, you go far more fudge retailers, old-school diners and vacationer traps when you don’t take the turnpike. I’m all for a rest-stop Roy Rogers, however I’d quite purchase some peach jam and a garden decoration at a regionally owned roadside store.