Should the State Install High-Speed Tolls on I-93?
Asked about toll fairness during a Patch live chat, Governor Deval Patrick asked a reader whether he'd support high-speed tolls. Are these a good way to share the transportation funding pain, or another money grab?
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Are high-speed tolls along Interstate 93 and other highways a smart way to help fund transportation in the state? Governor Deval Patrick mentioned such a system during a Patch live chat Thursday.
If you've gone up Interstate 95 into New Hampshire, you've seen high-speed tolls in action. The system is designed to read your EZ-Pass (new Fast Lane) transponder while you breeze by at 65 miles per hour. There's no need to slow down or squeeze though a booth, as EZ-Pass users currently do on the Mass Pike, Tobin Bridge and harbor tunnels.
The chat moved on to other topics, so no details about implementation were offered.
What do you think? Would tolls along I-93 offer some fairness to riders in Boston, MetroWest and North Shore, who all pay tolls getting into the city? Or are tolls in general a bad way to fund transportation projects in the state? Share your thoughts in the comments section below.
Dave Gray
9:39 am on Friday, September 28, 2012
The high speed toll at Hampton is a big improvement. Not only does it get you through there quickly, but it reduces volume at the other toll booths there. I think a toll just south of the NH border, southbound only at first, on both Rt 93 and Rt 3 would get all those NH drivers coming south to work in Mass. Now they get a free ride, and the commuter traffic on both those roads is awful. Hey, NH has no problem doing it to Mass drivers going north.
John Bengtson
3:50 pm on Friday, September 28, 2012
Mass Pike should install high speed toll booths, but the problem is you still need standard ones for those who don't have Fast Lane passes.
First time I saw them was in FLA about 10 years ago. In that case if you had a pass you stayed on the highway without slowing down. Without a pas, you pulled off to the side of the highway into a rest stop type area to manually pay.
Patch Comments
8:13 am on Wednesday, October 3, 2012
This is BS. The Mass Pike tolls should have been completely removed after the turnpike was built...some 40+ years ago. It's now entrenched into our psyche "as a fact of life" and a form of tax.
MA has historically bamaboozled its taxpayers, in order to create nepotism and run state government over budget annually. Now, to alleviate the traffic at these tolls, for a mere (for example) $1million, "let's create a faster way to tax them and justify our existence and votes."
None of them have spines nor the will power.