Tag Archives: toll roads

local news

Tolls … and more tolls

CHARLESTON. W. Va. — My journey eastward from Texas has introduced me to a new way of paying tolls on highways.

You have to possess plenty of cash as you make your way through the gorgeous state of West Virginia.

The toll road along Interstate 77/64 requires motorists to shell out $4.25 at each station. That’s cash money, man! They advise you that credit cards or debit cards won’t work.

Good thing I had some extra scratch in my pockets when I drove toward this lovely city. I did ask one toll-booth attendant: What happens if I don’t have any cash? He said the state mails a bill to my house. I presume Big Brother will have photographed my license plate and matched it with the address in the massive data base.

Fine. I preferred to just present the cash, even though it’s a bit of a hassle, given that they don’t tell you how far ahead the next toll station might be. Digging for cash in the front seat of my pickup isn’t exactly a convenient endeavor.

I have been spoiled by the North Texas Tollway Authority system. You buy a Toll Tag, which then bills a credit card account you put on file. You run out of money in the account, NTTA puts another $20 in the account from which it draws funds whenever you use one of the many toll roads that crisscross the D/FW area.

But, hey … every trip away from home is a learning experience.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

local news

Yes on toll roads!

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By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

There once was a time when I was a non-fan of toll highways.

That was before we moved from the Texas Panhandle to the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex. We moved from a part of the state where toll roads are as much of a four-letter word as “state income tax” to another part of the state where toll roads are part of living.

I mention this because the words “infrastructure improvement” have re-entered the national political debate. Donald Trump talked about investing in roads and bridges during his term as president, but nothing ever came of it. Now it’s Joe Biden’s turn to bring it up. Will it happen? We’ll see.

President Biden does have legislative experience that Donald Trump lacked. Therefore, we well might see the president of the United States actually get involved in negotiating with senators and House members to craft a deal that helps shore up our roads and bridges.

Texas invests plenty in its roads and highways already. A good part of the money that pays for it comes from drivers such as me, who travels occasionally along a toll road to get from my home in Collin County to, say, over yonder in Dallas, Denton or Tarrant County. To get from here to there and back again, we pay a toll.

Here’s the good news. I don’t have to rifle through a compartment to find change. I have this Toll Tag sticker on the windshield of my vehicle. We drive through a toll station, a camera takes a picture of the tag and it debits an account I set up with the North Texas Transit Authority. It’s easy, man!

Toll roads provide an equitable system of paying to keep our highways operating smoothly. If you’re gonna drive on ’em, then you gotta pay to keep ’em smooth. That’s only fair.

local news

Toll roads: They’re everywhere, I tell ya!

One of the adjustments to moving from the Texas Panhandle to the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex involves my motor vehicles.

And I don’t mean the traffic.

I’m talkin’ about toll roads. They’re all over the place.

We live just a stone’s throw from the Sam Rayburn Tollway. We’ve got the North Dallas Tollway. There’s the President George Bush Turnpike about eight miles or so south of us. I know I’m missing a bunch of them. But you get the drift.

Don’t get me wrong. I don’t object to the toll roads. They’re necessary for paying for the wear and tear we motorists inflict on our highways.

What’s especially non-objectionable is the way the North Texas Tollway Authority assesses these tolls. The NTTA deploys cameras along the highways. You pass under them, the cameras snap a picture of your license plate and then the NTTA sends you a bill. I just paid a bill for $8.08, which was the fee we paid for driving along the Rayburn toll road en route to a furniture store in The Colony, and then back to our new digs in Fairview. Not bad.

Moreover, it beats the dickens out of the way some states assess tolls. Take Oklahoma, for instance. Not many years ago, about four years or so, my wife and I found ourselves on a toll road north of Oklahoma City. We had to fumble around for the correct change as we motored along the highway and approached a toll booth.

Ridiculous, I’m tellin’ ya!

The NTTA does it right. I appreciate the absence of the need to be carrying cash with me as I try to get from place to place. I’ve still got to learn my way around without the hassle of fumbling for cash.

Come to think of it, the technology the NTTA uses to assess toll fees reminds me of the red-light cameras that cities such as, say, Amarillo use to nab traffic violators who just cannot obey traffic signals’ instructions to stop when the light turns red.

State news

Rant, but no rave, about state highway system

The following is a “rant” posted by a friend of mine on a social media outlet.

It goes like this:

Forgive me, but I need to rant for a minute. After driving through almost every state towing a camper over the last eight years, I can say without a doubt that the state of Oklahoma has the worst highway maintenance in the country. … Oklahoma has the audacity to charge tolls on many of these terrible roads and makes you stop and actually pay for these tolls rather than just taking a picture of your license and billing you later. Come on, Oklahoma, you can do better!
Rant over. Thank you for your time and attention.

I want to single out a particular point that deserves an endorsement from yours truly.

It’s the point about having to “stop and actually pay for these tolls rather than just taking a picture of your license and billing you later.”

My wife and I ventured to Oklahoma City a few months for an evening concert and to spend the night before returning home. The concert venue was along a toll road near Edmond. We’ve been spoiled by the Texas toll roads we use when we travel to the Dallas area to visit our granddaughter … and her parents.

We just zip past the cameras posted over the President George Bush Turnpike. It snaps a picture of the license plate of our vehicle and about two weeks later, we get a bill for using the highway. We send the North Texas Transit Authority a check. No fuss at all.

In Oklahoma City, we had to scramble for change when we saw signage warning us of a toll booth ahead. Some of the booths were manned, others were not, meaning we occasionally needed exact change to be let through to the next toll both.

Ugghh!

The sooner we got out of Oklahoma — pun intended, by the way — the better.