I will be taking a cross-country road trip in a couple weeks from Michigan to California and back. (Going west we will be taking I-70 from St. Louis to Utah, and coming back east we will take I-40 and I-44.
In planning for the trip, I just need to know the toll situation on the Kansas Turnpike (specifically the I-70 section between Kansas City and and Turner Turnpike. How do these tolls work? Does the motorist pick up a ticket at one end of the turnpike and turn it in (thus paying one time only), or do I need to be prepared to pay multiple times along the way? Are all the toll booths manned, or are there some I'll pass through that I need to be prepared for with change?
I do not use electronic tolling (I-Pass/EZ-Pass) and will just use cash. Any help will be greatly appreciated!
On the I-44 turnpikes, there are mainline toll booths and exit ramp booths. The Turner Turnpike has an odd hybrid of a ticket/mainline toll system.
And if you're going to be in Tulsa during rush hour, take the Creek Turnpike. It's a little longer and it is tolled but there's a bottleneck on I-44 at Lewis that gets backed up during peak traffic. I-244 is torn up too, so I can't recommend it as an alternative.
Quote from: bugo on June 20, 2012, 03:39:48 PM
And if you're going to be in Tulsa during rush hour, take the Creek Turnpike.
A.J., if you do take the Creek Turnpike around Tulsa, you will need change as the 3 toll booths along it are unmanned (unless something has changed that I'm not aware of). You'll be fine on the I-44 turnpikes (Turner & Will Rogers) as those toll plazas are manned.
The Kansas Turnpike has a closed-ticket system with staffed toll booths at all interchanges (so far).
If you are going straight thru on the Turner and Will Rogers, you will be fine; on both turnpikes there is one mainline toll plaza midway through where you pay for the entire trip. If you get off at any point, you may have to pay at an unmanned toll plaza, but you might not; in fact, at some plazas you are refunded part of the tolls already paid. I can go into a more in-depth discussion if needed but it is complicated.
I second the Creek Turnpike suggestion. Going through Tulsa is definitely interesting but once you get that section of I-44 and its children marked off it's not an experience you really care to repeat.
An alternate method of completely bypassing Tulsa is to take I-40/US-69 and get on I-44 at Big Cabin. This will save you some toll money as well, but it probably takes extra time. Depends on how much you despise tolls, and how much you consider not having to deal with Tulsa to be worth.
Thanks, everyone, for all your help. It sounds like this drive will be pretty straightforward. I personally love the closed-ticket system, so the Kansas Turnpike will be a breeze.
Regarding our drive through Oklahoma, yes, we will be taking both the Turner and Will Rogers Turnpikes (I forgot to mention the Will Rogers before). I will just stay on I-44 the entire time through the Tulsa area. (As much as I'd enjoy driving through I-244 in downtown Tulsa, I'll have to save that for another trip.
Sunday, July 8 will be the day we pass through Oklahoma, so there won't be any concern of rush-hour traffic at all. That's the day we will be driving from Amarillo TX to Springfield MO. I figure we'll probably be lunching in the Oklahoma City area. :-)
Thanks again for your help!
Quote from: J N Winkler on June 20, 2012, 04:40:01 PM
The Kansas Turnpike has a closed-ticket system with staffed toll booths at all interchanges (so far).
Actually, there are a couple of interchanges that are totally unstaffed. Exit 212 (Tonganoxie) was built as a unstaffed interchange (2 self-pay machines and a K-TAG lane) I believe Cassoday is also been converted to a unstaffed facility, and Lecompton and East Lawrence are part-time unstaffed interchanges