BS: toll highways without toll booths

Subject: BS: toll highways without toll booths
From: keberoxu
Date: 18 Nov 16 - 04:02 PM

Yesterday, I deliberately placed myself in a position where the tag a/k/a/ license-plate on my auto would be scanned, identified, and recorded. I will receive a bill in the mail. It feels rather odd.

But that is life on the MassPike as of this month. I have driven on the MassPike frequently; but as I do not commute or use the Pike regularly, I never bought an EZ-Pass transponder, nor will I do. I always paid cash at the toll booth.

Now there are no more toll booths. It was a little unsettling to use the same access ramp as ever, and enter the MassPike without any trace of the old toll plaza and its booths.

Subject: RE: BS: toll highways without toll booths
From: ChanteyLass
Date: 18 Nov 16 - 05:50 PM

I got my transponder when my son's family moved to Middletown on the same island with Newport and Portsmouth, Rbode Island. (They have since relocated to Massachusetts.) Crossing the Newport Bridge costs less with the transponder than without.

Subject: RE: BS: toll highways without toll booths
From: Joe Offer
Date: 18 Nov 16 - 09:16 PM

One time a couple of years ago, I had a rental car on the U.S. East Coast. I didn't want to pay the rental company's surcharge for toll billing, so I paid cash at every toll booth. At almost the very end of my stay, I went across a stretch of toll road in upper Manhattan, and the road had no toll booth. Even though I had charged only the one toll, I had to pay the rental company a surcharge for every day of the three-week period I rented the car. Twenty-five bucks for a $1.00 toll.
Damn. I wish they had a national toll-paying system, maybe with a chip embedded in my car instead of the plastic box that the velcro doesn't hold on my windshield. There are some interstate toll payment agreements, but too few.

-Joe-

Subject: RE: BS: toll highways without toll booths
From: Donuel
Date: 18 Nov 16 - 09:31 PM

If you don't pay your toll bill they will increase it and block your application to renew your registration.

Subject: RE: BS: toll highways without toll booths
From: Bee-dubya-ell
Date: 18 Nov 16 - 09:55 PM

The toll roads in the Orlando area have unmanned toll booths at some exit points. They accept coins only. If you don't have any coins, you can take a payment envelope and mail the toll in. Of course, they snap photos of license plates so they can send bills to those who don't pay up promptly.

Subject: RE: BS: toll highways without toll booths
From: Rusty Dobro
Date: 19 Nov 16 - 03:48 AM

If you have an on-line arrangement, make sure you delete any hire car when you return it. I tried to register my visitors' rental car for the Thames crossing, and the system wouldn't accept it as it was already registered. No one at Dartcharge (the billing authority) was able to change it.

Someone paid for their crossings, but it wasn't us!

Subject: RE: BS: toll highways without toll booths
From: G-Force
Date: 19 Nov 16 - 09:33 AM

As you've mentioned the Dartford crossing, I'll continue the thread drift.
I've got a Sanef Liber-t tag in the car which automatically charges the tolls from the French autoroutes to my account. But I can't use this on the Dartford crossing, even though this is also operated by Sanef. How kafkaesque is that!

Subject: RE: BS: toll highways without toll booths
From: FreddyHeadey
Date: 19 Nov 16 - 08:09 PM

The M50 motorway out of Dublin has this automatic charging.
You can
prepay or
pay within 24 hours(hefty penalties if you don't make a payment) or
register in advance to pay by dd.

It is worth registering even if you are on hols because if you haven't registered there is no way to check how much pre-pay credit you have left.



http://www.eflow.ie/help-guidance/faqs/my-journey/how-can-i-pay-the-m50-tol/

Subject: RE: BS: toll highways without toll booths
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 19 Nov 16 - 08:46 PM

The only toll road I come across is the M6 toll. Waste of time and five quid. Massive semicircle that cuts off a straight line. Daft.

Subject: RE: BS: toll highways without toll booths
From: Stu
Date: 20 Nov 16 - 10:13 AM

The M6 toll road is a godsend. Heading up from the M42 to the M6 it means you don't have to traverse the M6 flyover which is slow at the best of times and crawls like a snail the rest of the time, plus you skip the M5/M6 junction and the tailbacks there if you were minded to go that way. I use every time I head down south or back north and never regret it. You can zoom down it!

The only downside is you don't get to see the mighty towers of the second city (my home town) and pass the Villa.

Subject: RE: BS: toll highways without toll booths
From: DebC
Date: 20 Nov 16 - 10:27 AM

As a frequent visitor to the UK, I have found a way to pay the tolls in a hire car: I find a pay-zone and pre-pay. On one tour, I knew that I would have to go over the bridge at Dartford Crossing twice. It's £2.50 one way, so I found a Pay-zone where I was staying and prepaid the £5. I *knew* the car hire company wouldn't pay the toll within 48 hours, and by using this method, I avoided all the fees that would have been passed on to me.

As for the Mass Pike, I am a resident and have had a transponder for years. But with the new system, drivers with out of state tags are charged a nickel more per toll, or something a bit extra.

Deb

Subject: RE: BS: toll highways without toll booths
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 20 Nov 16 - 11:35 AM

The M5/M6 junction is not usually a problem these days (I have to use it both ways about every 6-8 weeks). The stretch of smart motorway is very effective. Got from Radcliffe back to Bude in five hours yesterday afternoon, including a stop at the fabulous Gloucester Services to pick up some pork belly, pork chops and a lump of Bath Blue cheese. The M6 toll wouldn't get me there any quicker most times, costs nearly a fiver AND costs a fiver extra in fuel because it's such a long way round. You must be richer than me, Stu.

Subject: RE: BS: toll highways without toll booths
From: Stu
Date: 21 Nov 16 - 03:37 AM

"You must be richer than me, Stu."

Or I'm going a different way. I'm travelling up and down the M42, M40 and A34 between home and Southampton.

Subject: RE: BS: toll highways without toll booths
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 21 Nov 16 - 04:08 AM

Furry muff.

Subject: RE: BS: toll highways without toll booths
From: JHW
Date: 21 Nov 16 - 06:00 AM

There are no signs to say they'd removed the toll booths on the Dartford bridge.
I had change ready and kept looking for the signs to say how much it was. Arrived at where the booths should be I guessed they must have moved them to the other side for some reason. No explanation, THEN a sign put up by some idiot who said I had to pay on-line within the next day I think.
That sign should appear while I had the choice to go another way.
When I got home a week later I paid on line but the bastards still sent a nasty letter.
I'll be sure not to use the 'ing M25 again!

Subject: RE: BS: toll highways without toll booths
From: Will Fly
Date: 21 Nov 16 - 08:48 AM

The changeover from toll booths to cameras on the Dartford Crossing was signalled in the media for several months before it actually happened. When I read about it, I took the trouble to register with an online account and stick a tenner in it for when I should first use it - which was just about 3 weeks ago. I checked my account the next day, saw that the correct cash had been deducted - but also noticed that I had to take it back up to a tenner once more before the account was "valid" again!

One journey there and back through the crossing doesn't cost a tenner, so they certainly gain a little on the interest they get from those few pounds in their vaults.

I wouldn't be without the M6 toll either, having had some really shitty journeys on the old M6 section past Brum. I also wouldn't be without my Sanef tag either when in France. I've no objection to toll roads in principle - if the cash actually goes on the road upkeep and condition. I'd read somewhere that some rationalisation of the Sanef/Dartford systems was planned, but nothing seems to have happened yet. Did Sanef operate the old "Dart" tag?

Subject: RE: BS: toll highways without toll booths
From: ChanteyLass
Date: 22 Nov 16 - 06:47 PM

JHW, I would have been extremely upset because I never do anything with money online! I don't know what I would have done!

Subject: RE: BS: toll highways without toll booths
From: keberoxu
Date: 23 Nov 16 - 01:52 PM

Today is the acid test for the new cash-free, booth-free Masspike: the holiday traffic for the long Thanksgiving weekend.

Subject: RE: BS: toll highways without toll booths
From: Rusty Dobro
Date: 24 Nov 16 - 03:57 AM

Here's the clever part: the Dartford crossing is priced at £1.67, which seems a rather arbitrary figure. However, this means you only get five crossings before your automatic ten-pound top-up, so they are earning interest for longer. If it was £1.66, you'd get a full six crossings.
Doesn't seem much, but multiplied thousands of times.......

Subject: RE: BS: toll highways without toll booths
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 24 Nov 16 - 07:14 AM

A certain catalogue company in Bishop's Stortford often offers free delivery over £40. You wouldn't believe how many items in the catalogue cost £39.99. A certain online butcher offers free delivery over £30 whilst its most popular steak box offering is £29.50.

Subject: RE: BS: toll highways without toll booths
From: Lester
Date: 24 Nov 16 - 07:56 AM

If you want to cross the Dartford Crossing for free go on a push bike :)

https://www.gov.uk/dartford-crossing-bike

Subject: RE: BS: toll highways without toll booths
From: Will Fly
Date: 24 Nov 16 - 11:59 AM

Or travel at night...

Subject: RE: BS: toll highways without toll booths
From: Tootler
Date: 24 Nov 16 - 05:40 PM

Or have a blue badge!

My wife has one but we only found out after we had paid the toll and then we saw a notice saying blue badge holders go free - crafty buggers!

We stopped using the Dartford Crossing some years ago when we found the Blackwall tunnel was quicker when visiting our Daughter in South London.

Subject: RE: BS: toll highways without toll booths
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 24 Nov 16 - 06:09 PM

For two years in the 70s I lived in a council flat that directly overlooked the north entrance of the Blackwall Tunnel, in Robin Hood Gardens. Happy days, believe it or not!


(The rent, including heating and rates, was nine quid a week, by the way!)

Subject: RE: BS: toll highways without toll booths
From: keberoxu
Date: 03 Dec 16 - 06:38 PM

The bill for 17 November was delivered to my home today. It cost more than it did when there were toll booths. But that is expected.

Subject: RE: BS: toll highways without toll booths
From: keberoxu
Date: 29 May 17 - 03:23 PM

So it is Memorial-Day Monday in the US. That means the end of a long holiday weekend. Tomorrow is a workday as usual.

Just drove Route 9 past an exit for the Massachusetts Turnpike (US 90), where there are no longer any toll booths.

Massive traffic backup, the exit ramp had cars inching along and entering Route 9 slowly. When traffic is this heavy, the exiting traffic backup looks the same as it always did WITH toll booths.

Subject: RE: BS: toll highways without toll booths
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 29 May 17 - 03:39 PM

I finally bit the bullet and signed up for a Toll Tag here in Texas. It's cheapest to let it dip into your credit card every time you draw down the allowed amount to a certain point. Since they built a toll road near me, this is eventually something I might use, though in fact the toll road I use most often (and that is infrequent) is the one through DFW airport to pick up or drop off passengers.

Subject: RE: BS: toll highways without toll booths
From: The Sandman
Date: 29 May 17 - 04:31 PM

I always use public transport to gigs.
So the following is a better option for me.
Tilbury to Gravesend ferry service
A regular ferry service operates from Monday to Saturday between Tilbury riverside and Gravesend.

Check the Tilbury to Gravesend ferry timetable.

Fares

Ticket Type        Adult        Child
Single, any time        £4        £2
Day return, peak time        £5        £2.50
Day return, off-peak        £3        £2
Saver 10        £22        £11
Travel is free at any time for holders of a Thurrock, Kent or Medway National Concessionary Bus Pass. Other National Concessionary Bus Pass holders travel free between 9:30am and 11pm, Monday to Friday, or at weekends – at other times fares will be charged at the child rate for a single or return.

When buying ferry tickets:

peak time fares apply from 5:40am to 9:15am and 4:15pm to 7:10pm
off-peak fares apply at all other times
Saver 10 is a weekly ticket that allows passengers to buy one ticket for 10 trips – either peak or off-peak – in advance of their journey, which saves both time and money
child fares apply to children aged 5 to 15 years-old
children under the age of 5 can travel free of charge at all times provided they are accompanied by a fare-paying passenger
no more than 4 children under the age of 5 can accompany each fare-paying passenger
tickets must be purchased on the ferry itself
The Tilbury to Gravesend ferry is a foot passenger service. Bicycles can be taken on board, but motorbikes and other types of vehicle are not permitted.

Subject: RE: BS: toll highways without toll booths
From: Jeri
Date: 29 May 17 - 10:08 PM

I got a transponder last summer. Toll road travel seems to go way faster.

Subject: RE: BS: toll highways without toll booths
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 29 May 17 - 10:29 PM

Toll tags are way cheaper than systems that scan license plates here in Texas.

Subject: RE: BS: toll highways without toll booths
From: Jeri
Date: 29 May 17 - 10:42 PM

The first time I was aware of the license scanners was when I missed a turn and accidentally got on the Mass pike, then got a bill in the mail. THEN I had to drive to the EZPass office to pay. Major pain in ass!

Subject: RE: BS: toll highways without toll booths
From: EBarnacle
Date: 29 May 17 - 10:43 PM

Call me paranoid but there is nothing stopping "them" from adding a timer function to the toll road reader so they can give you a speeding ticket for arriving at the other end a few minutes early. "Look, Ma, no hands."

Subject: RE: BS: toll highways without toll booths
From: Jeri
Date: 29 May 17 - 11:29 PM

The time was stamped on the ticket, so they could've done that anytime previously. Or they can use a GPS if you use one. Also, sometimes they have police with radar guns. ;)

Subject: RE: BS: toll highways without toll booths
From: BobL
Date: 30 May 17 - 02:53 AM

Something I've wondered about Dartford is how people without computers or internet access manage? The signs just give a web address - no phone number, no mention of Pay-zone or other alternative. And (unless the law has been changed without me noticing) payment on-line isn't legal tender - they can't insist on being paid that way.

Subject: RE: BS: toll highways without toll booths
From: EBarnacle
Date: 30 May 17 - 10:43 AM

Yes, they could but it's easier and doesn't inconvenience other drivers if it's all done through wi fi. If they get you with your toll ticket, then the ones in line behind you get delayed.