Testing of Tobin Bridge AET system begins

[roadman]

From MassDOT:

http://blog.mass.gov/transportation/massdot-highway/tobin-bridge-all-electronic-tolling-testing-begins/

[Pete from Boston]

It was interesting to see the location of the toll scanners. Customarily AET scanners have been placed were the superseded toll booths were.  However, it looks like with the Tobin they have been placed on the exit ramps from the bridge.  Far more practical than mounting them way up there over the Mystic River.

[roadman]

Tobin Bridge AET goes live next Monday.

http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2014/07/16/starting-monday-more-cash-tobin/WZKMDilsfLULQtYiGZCrEK/story.html

[hotdogPi]

There have been electronic signs mentioning this. They seem to be everywhere, as always.

[bob7374]

There have been electronic signs mentioning this. They seem to be everywhere, as always.

MassDOT must be targeting only North Shore commuters with the overhead message. No messages at all on the VMSs along I-93 south of the Pike today.

[hotdogPi]

There have been electronic signs mentioning this. They seem to be everywhere, as always.

MassDOT must be targeting only North Shore commuters with the overhead message. No messages at all on the VMSs along I-93 south of the Pike today.

I-93 north of the Pike had many, though.

[KEVIN_224]

A couple of signs along US Route 1 south in Chelsea were warning all about the change, too. One of the purple sign bottoms was still covered up though. As I snapped this pic on Thursday, I noticed that a painting project was also underway.

[Pete from Boston]

The painting project has been going on a long, long time.  Given the massive recovery system in place, I wonder if they are removing all the lead paint down to bare metal.

Friday afternoon I made the mistake of heading inbound on the Tobin, and lane restrictions up to the toll booth backed up sluggish traffic into Chelsea.  I was very surprised to see that the leftmost couple of booths were already demolished.  I am curious as to whether the whole access structure beneath the bridge will be removed as well.

There are lots of new signs with the E-ZPass logo and a blank space or covered sign beneath, presumably to reveal something like "or toll by mail" starting Monday.

[roadman]

@Pete from Boston  You are correct.  The painting project is taking the structure down to bare metal, in order to remove any remaining lead paint.  As for the new signs approaching the Tobin Bridge, the bottom portion reads EZ-Pass Or MA Pay By Plate, with No Cash in a black on white banner.

[spooky]

Heard some talk on the news this morning about the 26.6 percent of vehicles crossing the Tobin Bridge who are not using EZ Pass. An article in the Boston Globe notes that there is a small but vocal group opposed to electronic tolling. Here is a quote from one of them:

DeLesdernier is part of a small but stubborn group of Massachusetts drivers who decline to order an E-ZPass, the state's electronic toll transponder – not because they do not know where to obtain one, or because they do not have a bank account, but because they do not agree with electronic tolling.

Some of the reasons for their intransigence include: They are concerned about government surveillance. They are apprehensive about erroneous fees charged automatically to their credit cards. They disapprove of eliminating good jobs held by toll takers for decades. And they would miss the small social exchanges with toll takers, the face-to-face contact, as they pass over their fare.

The full article is here: http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2014/08/12/amid-push-for-cash-free-tolling-conscientious-objectors-stand-strong/qsyXsJ8GrEnXYJfSny3EHI/story.html

[cl94]

Heard some talk on the news this morning about the 26.6 percent of vehicles crossing the Tobin Bridge who are not using EZ Pass. An article in the Boston Globe notes that there is a small but vocal group opposed to electronic tolling. Here is a quote from one of them:

DeLesdernier is part of a small but stubborn group of Massachusetts drivers who decline to order an E-ZPass, the state's electronic toll transponder – not because they do not know where to obtain one, or because they do not have a bank account, but because they do not agree with electronic tolling.

Some of the reasons for their intransigence include: They are concerned about government surveillance. They are apprehensive about erroneous fees charged automatically to their credit cards. They disapprove of eliminating good jobs held by toll takers for decades. And they would miss the small social exchanges with toll takers, the face-to-face contact, as they pass over their fare.

The full article is here: http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2014/08/12/amid-push-for-cash-free-tolling-conscientious-objectors-stand-strong/qsyXsJ8GrEnXYJfSny3EHI/story.html

Parts of western New York have similar people. Ironically, they are the same ones who complain about the high toll rates when they could save 5-10% by switching to E-ZPass. Hate that MassDOT is getting rid of minimum-wage jobs in this economy, but it'll certainly make everything faster.

[jeffandnicole]

Heard some talk on the news this morning about the 26.6 percent of vehicles crossing the Tobin Bridge who are not using EZ Pass. An article in the Boston Globe notes that there is a small but vocal group opposed to electronic tolling. Here is a quote from one of them:

DeLesdernier is part of a small but stubborn group of Massachusetts drivers who decline to order an E-ZPass, the state's electronic toll transponder — not because they do not know where to obtain one, or because they do not have a bank account, but because they do not agree with electronic tolling.

Some of the reasons for their intransigence include: They are concerned about government surveillance. They are apprehensive about erroneous fees charged automatically to their credit cards. They disapprove of eliminating good jobs held by toll takers for decades. And they would miss the small social exchanges with toll takers, the face-to-face contact, as they pass over their fare.

The full article is here: http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2014/08/12/amid-push-for-cash-free-tolling-conscientious-objectors-stand-strong/qsyXsJ8GrEnXYJfSny3EHI/story.html

Name anything, and there's a stubborn group against it.  But notice that the 76% of people using EZ Pass are rarely if ever quoted.  The paper finds (or probably more realistically, someone calls the paper and complains) the few people against it.

Besides, if they're worried about government surveillance, then why are they being so public about it?

[roadman]

Besides, if they're worried about government surveillance, then why are they being so public about it?

For that matter, how many of these same people have cellphones, which are constantlly being tracked by - gasp - the phone companies?

[hbelkins]

They disapprove of eliminating good jobs held by toll takers for decades.

Collecting tolls at a toll booth should be a minimum wage, entry-level job.

[Pete from Boston]

Parts of western New York have similar people. Ironically, they are the same ones who complain about the high toll rates when they could save 5-10% by switching to E-ZPass. Hate that MassDOT is getting rid of minimum-wage jobs in this economy, but it'll certainly make everything faster.

They're public employees, presumably unionized, presumably with an enviable benefits package, and almost certainly not minimum wage.  The specifics are probably easy to look up, but I'm feeling lazy at the moment.

[SectorZ]

Parts of western New York have similar people. Ironically, they are the same ones who complain about the high toll rates when they could save 5-10% by switching to E-ZPass. Hate that MassDOT is getting rid of minimum-wage jobs in this economy, but it'll certainly make everything faster.

They're public employees, presumably unionized, presumably with an enviable benefits package, and almost certainly not minimum wage.  The specifics are probably easy to look up, but I'm feeling lazy at the moment.

They are also getting paid for 2 full years after losing their jobs. They get paid a minimum of $20/hour, and long timers get a lot more.

As an aside about the bridge painting, it prevented someone from killing himself recently.

http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/2014/08/09/man-rescued-after-jumping-from-tobin-bridge/6NoPO85irFLAJblCnPyhMK/story.html

[hbelkins]

Kentucky no longer has toll roads, so there is no job classification for a toll booth attendant. When the toll booths closed on Kentucky's parkways, the attendants were transferred to other jobs within state government.

There is an Office Support Assistant I job in Kentucky state government now, which is the entry level position for secretarial-type work. It's a Grade 6, with a minimum monthly salary of $1,370. That calculates to a bit above $9 an hour, which is more than minimum wage but would seem appropriate for a toll collector.

[jeffandnicole]

Toll collecting is an extremely basic job.  Sit in a booth, get money handed to you, give change back.  Get asked question.  Give answer (or not, whatever).  That's all.

Here lies the problem.  You're in a 3' by 6' booth.  You breath in fumes all day.  You do with all sorts of weather conditions.  You deal with people angry at anything and everything you can't control. 

Thus, people that think about working in a toll booth tend not to last long, especially at $8 an hour.  Many don't last 2 weeks.  Some sort of incentive is needed to keep people...and that incentive is higher than normal salaries for what you do. 

While you may see a tollbooth operator as an $8 an hour job, because the turnover rate would be so high, the money saved there would be wasted continuously hiring and training new employees.  And that involves advertising for the positions, HR, payroll, insurance, uniforms, name tags, etc, etc.  They are all expenses that have to be considered when basing the pay rate for toll workers.  Give them $8 an hour, and they last a week.  Give them $12 an hour, and maybe they last a few years.  Give them $20 an hour or more, and they last a few decades. 

I recommend to anyone here to work in a tollbooth for just a weekend.  The motoring public will astound you as to how stupid they are when it comes to roads and driving. 

[spooky]

Parts of western New York have similar people. Ironically, they are the same ones who complain about the high toll rates when they could save 5-10% by switching to E-ZPass. Hate that MassDOT is getting rid of minimum-wage jobs in this economy, but it'll certainly make everything faster.

They're public employees, presumably unionized, presumably with an enviable benefits package, and almost certainly not minimum wage.  The specifics are probably easy to look up, but I'm feeling lazy at the moment.

I highlighted the problem.

I remember a story a few years ago about extreme backups at the Weston tolls (where the Mass Pike meets I-95/Route 128, for the non-locals) during a holiday weekend. I think it was Easter. Anyway, the story went that toll takers would typically call in sick on holiday weekends so that their co-workers would get called in and get paid overtime at a holiday rate. It was a quid pro quo arrangement, where the toll-takers would take turns being the one calling out or getting called in.

MassDOT decided to stop replacing sick employees, resulting in that particular weekend's travel delays.

[SidS1045]

They are also getting paid for 2 full years after losing their jobs. They get paid a minimum of $20/hour, and long timers get a lot more.

And...not all of them are being fired.

Since the AET license-plate scanning software is not 100% accurate, there need to be people available to look at the photos and determine what the plate number is and where it's from.  I understand about 15 or 20 toll-takers are being offered those jobs when AET goes live on the Turnpike and harbor tunnels.

[PHLBOS]

Parts of western New York have similar people. Ironically, they are the same ones who complain about the high toll rates when they could save 5-10% by switching to E-ZPass. Hate that MassDOT is getting rid of minimum-wage jobs in this economy, but it'll certainly make everything faster.

They're public employees, presumably unionized, presumably with an enviable benefits package, and almost certainly not minimum wage.  The specifics are probably easy to look up, but I'm feeling lazy at the moment.

I highlighted the problem.

I remember a story a few years ago about extreme backups at the Weston tolls (where the Mass Pike meets I-95/Route 128, for the non-locals) during a holiday weekend. I think it was Easter. Anyway, the story went that toll takers would typically call in sick on holiday weekends so that their co-workers would get called in and get paid overtime at a holiday rate. It was a quid pro quo arrangement, where the toll-takers would take turns being the one calling out or getting called in.

MassDOT decided to stop replacing sick employees, resulting in that particular weekend's travel delays.

Another issue regarding toll-takers, and such wasn't just a Massachusetts-only problem, was the fact that many of those toll taker jobs were given to relatives of either politicians and/or other key officials (aka patronage jobs or jobs for Hacks) and probably had inflated wages as well.

As an example, long before Act 44; the PA Turnpike had the reputation of being the most expensive toll road (in terms of $/mile) but being in the worse overall condition.  Some of that was indeed blamed on patronage jobs (including toll takers).

The supposed-abuse of the above (years if not decades before EZ-Pass and the like were around) was one reason why many have been/were calling/screaming for the elimination of tolls for roadways that had their original bonds already paid off.

[Rainking75]

Plenty of patronage in MA. Some political appointments are easier to get than to get a toll collector job on the Mass Pike.

Somebody queue the Adam Sandler "Tollbooth Willy" bit...