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Turnpike transponders now really free
By adamg on Wed, 04/22/2009 - 4:26pm
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Comments
Geez
LeBovidge and the entire board of directors are all completely incompetent. There goes another $6M out the window for no good reason...it's not like $0.50/mo wasn't the smallest EZPass fee out there or anything anyways. LeBovidge just announced they're not going to layoff another round of toll-takers because he's worried about running into the same problems that happened at Easter...you know, after a shortage from when all the toll-takers called out sick at the same time on one of the biggest traffic days before the layoffs were to begin. Way to succumb to their stupid sick-out tactics and cost the Authority even more money it was planning on saving.
The healthiest transportation agency out there needs to chop the head off of all of these other entities and attach them into the organization and consolidate all of this nonsense under a publicly accountable power structure. It's time to think a bit more harshly and radically about the MTA, MBTA, and every other alphabet soup drowning in debt and ruining our roads at the same time.
ez pass is free
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i have never lived in NY and have a NY EZ PASS. it is free and works everywhere. not sure if fastlane offered discounts or whatnot, but i never understood why anyone would pay the fee when you can get ezpass for free.
Used to think the same
I have one from MD and thought the same. MD will be instituting a $1.50/mo fee in a few months. If you think your agency will remain free just because it currently is, then you're likely mistaken. In fact, the Port Authority of NY/NJ already charge a $1/mo fee (there are 2 other NY state agencies that still don't charge yet). The MA Turnpike is turning away $6M of *free* money. According to them, they can't even afford $5K/mo to light a damn bridge! After a year of making everyone "feel good" about FastLane and putting a "free" transponder in everyone's car, I bet they revisit this policy since they still have $2000M in debt to have to pay off and ZERO other options other than jacking tolls through the roof or praying the governor and legislature get off their ass and enact a higher gas tax that goes partly into the Turnpike's coffers. I have a very sneaking suspicion you're all about to eat the same bait-n-switch that every other EZPass authority has gone through for the past 10 years. They'll go from FREE to FEE..because if there's one thing we do well here in Boston, it's drop the R's.
It funny because it's true.
"They'll go from FREE to FEE..because if there's one thing we do well here in Boston, it's drop the R's."
Yup.
Well, it's not SO bad
This means I will actually get a transponder now, instead of the free Lee to Springfield FastLane I have from my days in Berkshire County.
I only use the toll interstates a few times a year, but that's one less car they need an employee to collect payment for, and a microscopically more efficient commute for everyone else.
-Cosmo
http://cosmocatalano.com
World's Toughest Writer
seems like a good idea to me
This is probably the ONLY decision they've gotten right in the past 10 years.
Nickel-and-diming people to death at $0.50/month is a great way to dissuade them from adopting the pass, particularly those who know about and use other routes (if less efficient at times, with backups at the tolls, it's a real hard one to argue) ... and those who take long trips only occasionally... and whose who don't want the damned turnpike authority sticking its hands in their pockets every thirty days... remember this is the same agency that drastically over-billed people and now has refused to refund the improperly-taken money because people "failed" to complain in time.
LeBovidge should be way the hell out of there, like, yesterday. I mean, it's bad enough that he's an entitled, arrogant jerk. The final straw, however, was when He (sic) pronounced that the moronic, dunderheaded PUBLIC had FAILED to act as he WILLED them to.
Now hear this:
when your CUSTOMERS "fail" to do what you WANT THEM TO, that really means only one thing:
you're selling the wrong product at the wrong price
that's it. very simple.
agreed
I have not owned a car in 4 years until I finally got one in November. I was all set to get a transponder and then they made the switch to the fee. For the once every 2 months I use the pike, the 50 cents is not worth it. Thank god they came to their senses.
Doing some math here ...
How much was it going to cost to collect that 50 cent fee each month from every user?
Maybe not 50 cents, but certainly not nothing.
Next to nothing
It would be deducted from your current balance just as if you'd gone through a $0.50 toll once a month. No different than any other toll posted on the account. The cost to them would have been as good as nil.