Turnpike authority wants to raise tolls for Fast Lane users
By adamg - Thu, 08/21/2008 - 3:50pm.
No more discounts - if the state legislature agrees.
- Add new comment |
| 
| 
Recent comments
Boston Blogs Network
- My Top 10 Twitter @ Reply People
- The Martini Workout: Oxymoron or No? You Decide
- Holiday at the Gardner: Doors Open to All
- Ho Ho Ho! Keith and the Pops Return to Salute the Season
- Flea Market: Funky Stuff for Your Xmas List
- Christmas in 1959: Jump on the Nostalgia Train in Taunton
- Someone You Shuld Know: 1LT Travis Manion
- You Think Better Of Me Than This, Right?
- Improving The Greenways Meeting
- The Economy Changes Its Facebook Status to 'In a Recession'
Sponsors
Boston Condos
Boston Luxury Condos
Waterfront Midtown
Condos
Escape to the theatre!
Buy 1/2 price advance tickets to theatre, music, and dance at bostix.org.
Member:
Wait...
There was a discount? How did I miss that? Don't they charge for the transponder? And for replacements? I realize the discount will pay for the transponder fee over time, but I still don't see an incentive to get a Fast Lane transponder when the NY state EZ Pass system is free and can be used seamlessly on Mass. Turnpike roads.
Not to mention the EZ Pass has those neat transponders that screw onto the front license plate!
One of the reasons why I
One of the reasons why I dont have an easy pass is I never use toll roads, the other is it is ugly and orange and hangs on my windshield. Did you mention the NY one goes on my license plate instead? Can I get one even though I live in MA?
Here's what I did.
I knew I was going to be doing more traveling along 95 through NY/NJ and parts south, so I opted for EZ Pass, which seems to be the standard on the East Coast.
I went to the NY EZ Pass Web site to order one, but when I put in my home state of Mass., I was redirected to the Turnpike. (It asked for home state, not whole mailing address.)
I went back to the EZ Pass site again and put in NY as my home state and it let me through to the NY EZ Pass ordering site. I put in my home mailing address and voila! two transponders were sent to my house in Boston.
I still have mine even though I don't live near a toll road anymore (North Carolina), but they're planning on building a toll road here in a couple of years. With all the NY transplants, I'm hoping they're smart enough to include EZ Pass at some point.
Both of my transponders are white (perhaps they changed colors to orange), and they are mounted to my windshield like Fast Lane. A coworker of mine here has the license plate one, and it is black. No one would know it's an EZ Pass transponder without looking at it very closely.
I think the orange ones
...are for residents of Eastie, Revere, and those areas, who for the moment get major discounts on the tunnels. Well, them, and countless people who somehow convinced the authorities that they were from Eastie, Revere, and those areas, so they could get the discount too.
I live in one of the areas
I live in one of the areas with lower fares because of impact of the infrastructure but never use that tunnel so never got the transponder. They have made it harder to get though, you actually have to visit an office with paperwork for utilities in hand now. Although that doesnt stop someone from living in one of those cities and then keeping their transponder when they move.
I never knew that, I just assumed everyone had ugly orange ones.
The orange transponders are
The orange transponders are for Eastie and Chelsea residents only, not Revere or anywhere else. And Shady: The residents' 40 cent rate is for both the Sumner AND the Ted Williams Tunnels, so in case your reference to tunnel singular reflects your non-usage of the Sumner only, I thought you might be interested.
Yeah, not only did I have to provide a plethora of proofs of residency to get the orange one when I moved to Eastie 4 or 5 years ago, but I also got the fear of G-d put in me about getting fined if I didn't turn it in for a white, non-resident one when I moved to Revere last year. I've seen people at the Fast Lane office trying to argue about why they shouldn't have to pay those fines, even though they fraudulently kept using the orange transponders, so I wasn't interested in playing that game. Could anyone keep using an Eastie or Chelsea address of a friend or relative to get the discount? Sure, but they'd also be paying for the higher auto insurance rates of those places, so I can't really see the overall advantage.
Thanks for the report
I'm on my second transponder, which I had replaced before they started charging for replacements. When this one dies, I'll look at getting an E-Z Pass instead -- I was curious if I could get one. Years ago I picked up a brochure while driving out of NY and noticed there were different cost plans. Don't know if they still do that. I remember when having a transponder didn't save money on tolls in Mass., but they did elsewhere from NY to Maryland. Long ago it was just worth it to be able to sail through the Sturbridge tolls.
Allow me to translate...
Translation: With the exception of next year's toll increases, there will be no toll increases next year.
In other news, millions of Americans are struggling with massive personal debt caused primarily by their credit cards.