Garden State Parkway

[SignBridge]

I personally preferred the more specific toll-lane signing such as Cash or E-Z Pass because it's specific as to what is accepted.

Also, my reading of the Manual's standard re: toll booth signs is that it does not specifically require the words Full Service. Sec. 2F-13.20 states: Signs for attended lanes at toll plazas SHALL include word messages SUCH AS Full Service, Cash, Change or Receipts. I assume that the words such as make these legends  suggestions only, not mandatory and leaves the door open for similar, but not identical messages.

So why are some toll agencies rushing to change their signs to read Full Service?

[Don'tKnowYet]

It's not about what the lane accepts.  It's about what the lane offers and Receipts is one of them.  A GSP non-ezpass lane can offer cash, change, receipts and expass. It all can't simply fit on the sign.

[mrsman]

Whats the issue with tolls converting to debit & credit?
iPhone

There's a credit card transaction fee of approximately 3% of the charge every time the card is used, usually paid by the company.  There's also equipment expenses, phone line expenses, receipt paper expenses, etc.   Toll agencies don't want to pay these fees and expenses.  They would rather motorists convert to EZ Pass.

Don't forget the delay involved in making sure the credit card is approved.

But all of this is talk is relatively short term.  More and more toll roads are becoming ORT and I expect the GSP will be fully converted in the next 5-10 years.

[jeffandnicole]

I personally preferred the more specific toll-lane signing such as Cash or E-Z Pass because it's specific as to what is accepted.

Also, my reading of the Manual's standard re: toll booth signs is that it does not specifically require the words Full Service. Sec. 2F-13.20 states: Signs for attended lanes at toll plazas SHALL include word messages SUCH AS Full Service, Cash, Change or Receipts. I assume that the words such as make these legends  suggestions only, not mandatory and leaves the door open for similar, but not identical messages.

So why are some toll agencies rushing to change their signs to read Full Service?

The manual was written in 2009. I hardly think a conversion 9 years later is rushing it.

[Tonytone]

Whats the issue with tolls converting to debit & credit?
iPhone

There's a credit card transaction fee of approximately 3% of the charge every time the card is used, usually paid by the company.  There's also equipment expenses, phone line expenses, receipt paper expenses, etc.   Toll agencies don't want to pay these fees and expenses.  They would rather motorists convert to EZ Pass.

Don't forget the delay involved in making sure the credit card is approved.

But all of this is talk is relatively short term.  More and more toll roads are becoming ORT and I expect the GSP will be fully converted in the next 5-10 years.

That delay is about equal to how long it take for them to break a bill & give you back change. Even though ezpass is the best option with mail tollz coming in 2nd best. & For now keep the tolls & the jobs they provide. New highway are being built with the wireless stuff.


iPhone

[roadman65]

Wonder if the NJTA still has the signs that say "No Pennies Please?"  That takes forever to count especially when the patron gives over 10 cents or more, plus you will get the occasional driver who pays over $2 in pennies just to be cute with our state in Florida insisting we MUST take them even though socially it was considered not right, but today we live in a society that is not traditional, but insists that the individual ways, though different, were all passed down through my granddaddy.

[jeffandnicole]

Wonder if the NJTA still has the signs that say "No Pennies Please?"  That takes forever to count especially when the patron gives over 10 cents or more, plus you will get the occasional driver who pays over $2 in pennies just to be cute with our state in Florida insisting we MUST take them even though socially it was considered not right, but today we live in a society that is not traditional, but insists that the individual ways, though different, were all passed down through my granddaddy.

Regardless if the sign exists are not, they are supposed to take pennies.  The sign is there just to dissuade them.  Some toll takers will say they don't take pennies, but they're in the wrong.

[PHLBOS]

Wonder if the NJTA still has the signs that say "No Pennies Please?"  That takes forever to count especially when the patron gives over 10 cents or more, plus you will get the occasional driver who pays over $2 in pennies just to be cute with our state in Florida insisting we MUST take them even though socially it was considered not right, but today we live in a society that is not traditional, but insists that the individual ways, though different, were all passed down through my granddaddy.

Regardless if the sign exists are not, they are supposed to take pennies.  The sign is there just to dissuade them.  Some toll takers will say they don't take pennies, but they're in the wrong.

Weren't most of those NO PENNIES PLEASE signs posted for the now-gone Exact-Change-Lanes (ECL) along the Garden State Parkway?  IIRC, the reasoning for having such in those lanes was for both expediency & the possible (not sure if true or not) issue of the coin-drop buckets not accepting them for whatever reason. 

[roadman65]

Do vending machines take pennies?  I have never yet heard a candy machine I purchased food from that took mine.

As far as pennies go, it is a time consumer and when the idiot in front of you has no shame but to use them without any regard to the fact they are holding up traffic and being childish and irresponsible.   Then when I work the lanes you have people give them to you not even counting it and then you have to count it all to only find out that they are short a big difference where they have to have you (and the queue) wait while they dig for more pennies to be short even some more is most annoying not to mention unbelievable.

I even had one guy hand me a $100 bill once right after another person broke a $ 100 bill as well.  That was rare that two back to back patrons had such large bills, but I just started my shift where the first car took most of my change.  Believe it or not this second individual was going to wait until I called a second party to open the safe indoors inside the plaza office and get him his money and stage a sit in even if the queue behind him piles up over a mile long.  I had to pursuade him after the driver and his antagonizing girlfriend were ranting that the plaza has money from all the motorists passing through the lanes constantly, to take a mail in slip and pay the stupid toll. 

Anyway point is, there is no rules governing this kind of behavior, and its sad that the Parkway did not mean what they said with the sign on the booths about pennies as it allows such assholes to be irresponsible while driving.  Yes it should be known that as much as pennies are part of the system for payment of debts, yes many of us consider it inappropriate.

I did hear though that among the silly laws that are out there like displaying our American flag on the left side of a room or mainly to the right of the stage looking out, courtroom Bench from the judge, or Altar from the minister's ambo there is one too that really state's that being prejudice about penny use is illegal too.  I do not know about that, but if the flag issue can make it, so can this as well.

[qguy]

The flag thing isn't a law, it's a protocol.

[bzakharin]

Do vending machines take pennies?  I have never yet heard a candy machine I purchased food from that took mine.

Generally not. The automatic coin machines onboard NJ Transit buses accepted them the last time I rode one (5 years ago). Then there was an old scale that not only told you your weight, but gave you a fortune as well, that cost 1 cent to use. That was 20 years ago, though, and the machine was already very old back then.

[NJRoadfan]

Northbound Great Egg Harbor Bridge has reopened to traffic as of Thanksgiving night.

[PHLBOS]

Thread Bump:

This may have existed for a while (& even discussed way back on this thread) but I never noticed it until recently; at the very least, the stretch north of Exit 142 (I-78) feature different mile markers for the north & southbound directions at the same location.  I.e. the southbound mile markers are 0.1 lower than the corresponding northbound markers. Example: NB MM 143 = SB MM 143.9 (scroll to view the SB marker)

Anybody know the reasoning for/history behind such?  This oddity seems to continue up to the NY State Line.

[roadman65]

That is strange.  Even stranger than Exit 138 being at MP 140, but that was done purposely to avoid alphabet soup when interchanges were less than a mile apart and between CR 509 and Vauxhall Road  you four interchanges real close to each other within Union Township (hey include I-78 and Mill Road into it too) so that is why the offset for that, but what you say is really an oddity.

[Alps]

Thread Bump:

This may have existed for a while (& even discussed way back on this thread) but I never noticed it until recently; at the very least, the stretch north of Exit 142 (I-78) feature different mile markers for the north & southbound directions at the same location.  I.e. the southbound mile markers are 0.1 lower than the corresponding northbound markers. Example: NB MM 143 = SB MM 143.9 (scroll to view the SB marker)

Anybody know the reasoning for/history behind such?  This oddity seems to continue up to the NY State Line.

Yup, each direction was mileposted separately in this original section, and it started in the 130s. They won't fix it because bridges are inventoried based on the existing system (you see the labels on each bridge to the 1/100) and moving them by 0.1 would just... You fill in the dots, I won't

[storm2k]

I've also noticed that a bunch of the bridges in the original Rt 4 Parkway section retain their NJDOT bridge inventory plaques with NJDOT's 7 digit inventory numbers in addition to NJTA's mileage based inventory numbers. I know this is from when NJDOT owned this section of the road (through 1992), but I'm surprised they're still up. Does NJDOT still have any ownership over these bridges? I would have assumed the Highway Authority (and later the Turnpike Authority) would have assumed full ownership of all the assets when the road was transferred to them.

[Alps]

I've also noticed that a bunch of the bridges in the original Rt 4 Parkway section retain their NJDOT bridge inventory plaques with NJDOT's 7 digit inventory numbers in addition to NJTA's mileage based inventory numbers. I know this is from when NJDOT owned this section of the road (through 1992), but I'm surprised they're still up. Does NJDOT still have any ownership over these bridges? I would have assumed the Highway Authority (and later the Turnpike Authority) would have assumed full ownership of all the assets when the road was transferred to them.

The NJTA definitely maintains those bridges but the old number may need to stay up because the bridges are also in the NJDOT inventory?

[storm2k]

Turnpike Authority had a post commerating the completion of the Parkway today. Included this gem of a classic sign:

[Roadgeek Adam]

When the Parkway opened, they loved the "AREA" signs. The now abandoned exit 146 was "East Orange, Newark Area".

[ixnay]

When the Parkway opened, they loved the "AREA" signs. The now abandoned exit 146 was "East Orange Area".

Where was exit 146?  And are there remnants of it existing today?

ixnay

[Roadgeek Adam]

This wall: https://goo.gl/maps/5YPar7ZPFFvSteBF8

The northbound ramp is basically history.

[roadman65]

I always remembered the number box for exit numbers on top with no mention of exit except for the three NJDOT segments that used regular tabs.  The "Area" was before my time, but the Vailsburg Area of Newark was signed on a SB guide up until after I left in 1990.  That was when the GSP used upper case lettering for street names and mixed for control cities as well. 

Nonetheless the Parkway had some great signs in the day.

[tolbs17]

I've been on it and it SUCKS. I hate traffic. The times I come to New Jersey is to visit my dad. It gets congested during rush hour, I try to avoid it by using I-78 or even 22 (which sucks as well). Normally I try to avoid the toll that's between 22 and I-78 and when I go on it I go like "Oh shit, what did i do? God dammit!" lol. But anyway, the parkway is fun to drive on I gotta say for myself. I personally enjoy driving on it without no trucks.

[RobbieL2415]

This afternoon was horrendous from the extension to the NJTP.  Averaged 20mph most of the way.

[DJ Particle]

Turnpike Authority had a post commerating the completion of the Parkway today. Included this gem of a classic sign:

That's here, isn't it?

https://www.google.com/maps/@40.9345373,-74.0725589,3a,75y,345.97h,90.75t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sN9U-DCAhlF6EkgjtPZv9eA!2e0!7i16384!8i8192