For people with SunPass, why don't they just figure out a fair/equivalent rate for people with SunPass and charge by the mile? I understand this would require installing overhead sensors (like you have with open road tolling) at all of the remaining ramps. But, it seems like some of the tolls are ridiculous. Depending on the section of road you are on, you may have to pay a dollar to go 5 miles, but long distance travelers going through the same toll booth get so many more miles out of that dollar. The Tpk people are losing money on those people, and the people who are hardly using the road are getting it through the back door! :-D
It's late, and I'm falling asleep, but I think I got my point across the way I wanted to.
You mean there is an open toll system? With one toll plaza, where you pay a fixed amount, regardless of the distance travelled? That only works for bridges... not long distance toll roads.
He meant the Turnpike Authority has converted toll plazas into cash lanes and transponder lanes, but there is still a ticket system between Kissimmee and Boynton Beach. Outside of those areas there are toll booths on off/on ramps or there are other mainline toll plazas.
Pertaining to lams' thread, if I get on the Turnpike SB at SR 528 in Orlando and get off at US 192 in Kissimmee (8 miles) I pay $1.25 ($.15/mile), but if I take it down to Fort Pierce, I pay $8.00 for 102 miles ($.07/mile). If I go north, I pay $1.25 to enter the Turnpike and then outside of Leesburg, another $2.50-$3 for a total run of 50 miles.
Thank you florida. I say they install transponder equipment over every single offramp and onramp that doesn't have them, and have SunPass people pay a flat rate per mile. Since they know where you are getting on and off, they can track how many miles you log. Then, you pay by the mile for SunPass people.
They might make more money that way off SunPass people who are saying "ohhh it's only 4 cents (or whatever) a mile! To hell with this traffic! I'm going to just pay the "measly" 4 cents."
Flat rates for tolls seems like something the Tpk people can do when they get bored in a few years.
No problem. They should help out with the locals who use any type of transponder since we don't add to the long lines of traffic and waits :D We're not the ones who wear out the system on a daily basis if we go so few miles and back. Long-distance traffic is a different thing.
There needs to be a uniform electronic tolling device that could be used nationwide. The reason this isn't done now, is because some states (like Florida) use a ticket system on part of the Turnpike, and it's not compatible with EZTag or its out-of-state brethren (so I've been told).
Of course, the real solution is to provide tolling via license plates, and simply bill the user. But this is really unpopular here in the states apparently. Ontarians seems to like it since the 407 ETR uses it.
Quote from: thomasvista on July 15, 2009, 05:38:03 PM
There needs to be a uniform electronic tolling device that could be used nationwide. The reason this isn't done now, is because some states (like Florida) use a ticket system on part of the Turnpike, and it's not compatible with EZTag or its out-of-state brethren (so I've been told).
Of course, the real solution is to provide tolling via license plates, and simply bill the user. But this is really unpopular here in the states apparently. Ontarians seems to like it since the 407 ETR uses it.
The common transponder issue has been discussed elsewhere.
As far as ticket systems go, the Pennsy Turnpike and other EZ-Pass ticket system pikes do use EZ-Pass for ticket system territory.
As far as license plate tolling goes, I think it's a cost issue. The pikes that use it charge $2-3 extra per toll as a "processing fee" and ones that are "transponder only" will plate (or video) toll but with a punitive fine of $20-50 per use.