Ohio Turnpike Height Restrictions On Passenger Vehicles....

[thenetwork]

This from a recent Cleveland Plain Dealer article: http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2010/01/ohio_turnpike_height_classific.html

Seems that despite driving a passenger car or minivan, if something on top of your vehicle exceeds 7' 6", you get penalized in extra tolls.

Has this issue occurred anywhere else?

[mightyace]

TollroadsNews also has an article on it.

Ohio Turnpike reconsiders vehicle classification - bikers, rooftop loaders complain

The only system that is similar, according to both articles is the New York State Thruway and the Thruway considers bikes and other things attached to the roof as "luggage" and doesn't consider them in vehicle tolls.

The TollroadsNews article states that the OTC is reconsidering the classification.

But in an interview today CEO Turnpike executive-director George Distel told us they have reconsidered the rooftop load, and that they will officially be downclassifying the roof-load vehicles to the Class 1 in a third vehicle class chart yet to be posted.

[thenetwork]

The problem I see is what do you do if you are an E-Z pass holder and you breeze on and off the pike, you don't know if you get the extra charge or not until the bill/activity statement comes in the mail?  Having to stop to pick up a paper ticket on one end and having to physically pay (and possibly plea with) the toll collector on the other not only earns you extra stopping time, but you're still getting dinged for the non-EZ Pass toll fees, which defeats the whole E-Z Pass purpose altogether.  I agree with the PD article where some people, EZ Pass or not, refuse to use the turnpike if they are carrying something on the roof.

There was one time I drove the Ohio Turnpike in a passenger car w/ nothing on the roof, and for some reason was given a Class 2 status.  The toll collector at my exit point wasn't exactly "Ms. Customer Service" when it came time to collect the proper fare, so I can only imagine what happens if you pick the wrong toll collector at the wrong time.

[mightyace]

The problem I see is what do you do if you are an E-Z pass holder and you breeze on and off the pike, you don't know if you get the extra charge or not until the bill/activity statement comes in the mail?

That's one of my qualms about electronic tolling.

Having to stop to pick up a paper ticket on one end and having to physically pay (and possibly plea with) the toll collector on the other not only earns you extra stopping time, but you're still getting dinged for the non-EZ Pass toll fees, which defeats the whole E-Z Pass purpose altogether.  I agree with the PD article where some people, EZ Pass or not, refuse to use the turnpike if they are carrying something on the roof.

I never thought about that.

The TRN article said that the height restrictions would be difficult to enforce with open road tolling as well.