Tolled Interstates

[FarCenter]

◦I-15 - managed lanes segment of Escondido Freeway in San Diego
◦I-30 - Dallas-Fort Worth Tollway (formerly tolled; originally signed as I-20)
◦I-35 - Kansas Turnpike
◦I-39 - Northwest Tollway - Rockford, IL
◦I-44 - Oklahoma: H.E. Bailey Turnpike, Turner Turnpike, Will Rogers Turnpike
◦I-64 - West Virginia Turnpike
◦I-65 - Kentucky Turnpike (formerly tolled)
◦I-70 - Pennsylvania Turnpike (on shared alignment with Interstate 76), Kansas Turnpike
◦I-75 - Alligator Alley (Florida); Mackinac Bridge (Michigan)
◦I-76 (Eastern) - Ohio Turnpike, Pennsylvania Turnpike, Walt Whitman Bridge
◦I-77 - West Virginia Turnpike
◦I-78 - Delaware River Bridge (westbound only), Holland Tunnel (eastbound only)
◦I-80 - Delaware River Bridge (westbound only), Ohio Turnpike, Indiana Toll Road, Tri-State Tollway, Carquinez Bridge (northbound only), San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge (westbound only)
◦I-84 - Hudson River Bridge (eastbound only)
◦I-87 - New York Thruway
◦I-88 - Illinois East-West Tollway
◦I-90 - Massachusetts Turnpike, New York Thruway (Mainline and Berkshire Section), Ohio Turnpike, Indiana Toll Road, Chicago Skyway, Illinois Northwest Tollway
◦I-93 - F.E. Everett Turnpike
◦I-94 - Tri-State Tollway
◦I-95 - Fort McHenry Tunnel, John F. Kennedy Memorial Highway (including both the Maryland Northeastern Expressway and the Delaware Turnpike), Pennsylvania Turnpike (future), New Jersey Turnpike, George Washington Bridge (eastbound), New England Thruway, Connecticut Turnpike (formerly tolled), New Hampshire Turnpike, Maine Turnpike
◦I-910 - Crescent City Connection/Greater New Orleans Bridges
◦I-335 - Kansas Turnpike
◦I-355 - North-South Tollway
◦I-470 - Kansas Turnpike
◦I-275 - Sunshine Skyway Bridge
◦I-276 - Pennsylvania Turnpike
◦I-476 - Pennsylvania Turnpike Northeast Extension
◦I-676 - Ben Franklin Bridge (westbound only)
◦I-278 - Triborough Bridge, Goethals Bridge (eastbound only), Verrazano Narrows Bridge (westbound only)
◦I-478 - Brooklyn Battery Tunnel
◦I-678 - Whitestone Bridge
◦I-580 - Richmond-San Rafael Bridge (westbound only)
◦I-680 - Bencia-Martinez Bridge (northbound only)
◦I-185 - Southern Connector (Greenville, SC)
◦I-287 - New York Thruway section, including Tappan Zee Bridge (eastbound only)
◦I-190 - Niagara Section of the New York Thruway
◦I-294 - Tri-State Tollway
◦I-295 - Delaware Memorial Bridge (southbound only)
◦I-295 - Throgs Neck Bridge
◦I-395 - Connecticut Turnpike (formerly tolled)
◦I-495 - Falmouth Spur of the Maine Turnpike
◦I-495 - Lincoln Tunnel between New Jersey and New York - former route (now NJ 495/NY 495)
◦I-495 - Queens Midtown Tunnel under East River in New York City - former route (now NY 495)
◦I-695 - Francis Scott Key Bridge
◦I-895 - Harbor Tunnel (Baltimore)

(Whether you go east or west, you have to pay to get out of New Jersey! You can enter for free!)

http://www.interstate-guide.com/interstate.html

Also

◦All overpasses must have a 16.5-foot vertical clearance above the freeway, although 14-foot overpasses may be permissible within urban areas. This particular specification was created to allow for military apparatus (such as the huge atomic cannon) to pass cleanly under an overpass. Although military equipment of this size is not commonly transported on the Interstate Highway System (and the atomic cannon is no longer in use), the standard remains. If an overpass cannot be upgraded to accommodate 16.5 feet, then there must be exit and re-entry ramps that allow high profile vehicles to leave the freeway and rejoin the freeway on the other side of the overpass. Truss bridges and overhead signs must meet or exceed 17 feet. Standards may be reduced somewhat for tunnels or other long underpasses.

[2naSalit]

1. Which is why I am thankful

that I live at least 100 miles from the nearest on ramp.

[Agschmid]

2. Remember odd run N-S and evens go E-W...

That's my factoid.

[Recursion]

16. With three digits, even first number is a loop; odd is a spur

That's helped me not get lost more than once...

[Agschmid]

40. Me too... We have a whole lot of ring roads in MA!

[cherokeeprogressive]

46. The number designation increases from W to E and S to N.

I-5 is on the west coast, I-95 on the east. I-8 in the south, I-90 in the north.

[jberryhill]

3. The formula is the same

Take something commonplace that not all people are aware of and make it into something sinister.

[FarCenter]

5. Few cities are as poorly sited for transportation as New York

A fjord to the west, and spread over three different islands.

The Hudson is not just a river. It is a valley carved out by the glaciers in the most recent ice age. It is tidal all the way up to Albany.

Which is why the Verrazano and the George Washington are the longest and fourth longest bridges in the US.

[Agschmid]

24. Oh and there is snow, floods, hurricanes, ice, and 90 degree blistering heat of course the roads...

Are not perfect. Some people have lost it on this issue.

[whistler162]

31. Do you mean New York City since that seems to be

what you are referencing. New York is a state New York City is a part of New York, dang furgeigners!

[Warpy]

4. Have you ever driven I-95 through Connecticut?

That's what a tolled interstate can look like and it's hideous.

This is a REGRESSIVE tax that will hit people at the bottom the hardest while adding cost to things like fruits and vegetables. It's a stupid idea.

Kill it quickly.

[TreasonousBastard]

6. Sure, as soon as your workable alternative happens.

[frylock]

8. higher corporate taxes

next.

[MohRokTah]

11. Convince the REpublicans

OOPS!

[frylock]

14. okay, since we can't convince republicans, then let's just adopt their policies

DERP!

[MohRokTah]

15. I've never heard of this possibility from any Republican.

I'm open to being convinced the Republicans want toll roads.

[frylock]

20. it's a REGRESSIVE tax..

you need someone to convince you that republicans want to fuck over the working class?!

[MohRokTah]

21. I disagree. It's NOT a regressive tax.

License plates are a regressive tax. Tolls can only be collected from people who use the roads charging tolls.

[TBF]

23. Not true -

Regressive Tax Explained

Everyone pays the same amount of tax dollars with a regressive tax. Therefore, people with a lower income pay a larger percentage of their income under this type of tax. The Internal Revenue Service provides this example: If the tax amount is $2,000, a person who earns $10,000 a year pays 20 percent of his income to pay the $2,000. A person who earns $50,000 pays 4 percent, and a person who earns $100,000 pays 2 percent of his income to pay the $2,000.
Regressive Tax Examples

An example of a regressive tax is the sales tax. Money spent to buy essential and nonessential items that have a sales tax of 7 percent, for example, hits those with a lower income harder than it hits higher-income individuals. Fees are another example of a regressive tax, because lower-income individuals pay a larger percentage of their income for them. Examples are toll roads, licenses, admission to museums and parks, and parking. A third example of a regressive tax is an excise tax, which is a tax on the production or sale of certain commodities such as alcohol, cigarettes, firearms, gasoline, air travel and telephone services. Excise taxes are typically hidden taxes because they are incorporated into the price of the commodity without consumers' realizing it.

http://smallbusiness.chron.com/characteristics-regressive-tax-17562.html

[laundry_queen]

17. Derp is right. That's their plan, apparently. nt

[NCTraveler]

27. It makes no sense at all.

Until we get more dems elected, we need to keep proposing regressive taxes. I have a hard time even comprehending that argument.

[Warpy]

12. It's called the fuel tax. It's in place

The heavier your vehicle and the more miles you drive (and it excludes the interstates, we're talking ALL miles) the more tax you will pay. It's the fairest way to tax the CO2 you're dumping into the atmosphere while paying for the damage heavier vehicles do to all roadways--not just interstates.

Perhaps it's time for a five cent or so rise in the gas tax. It hasn't had a jump lately.

Toll booths on all interstates are a dumb idea. Get that? Dumb. Idea. They're only talking about it now because EVs and hybrids don't pay enough fuel tax.

I say wait until more than 0.01% of vehicles on the highways are fuel cell, hydrogen, natural gas or electric. Then figure out how to tax them enough to fix the roads.

[TreasonousBastard]

34. A tax is a tax is a tax...

The mechanisms to take money out of of our pockets may differ, but it all goes into some government pot to run things.

We need billions, maybe trillions, to fix the roads, tunnels, and bridges, and politicians look for the means to get it with the least effective complaining. Some combination of "road use fees" (tolls or mileage tax) gas taxes, registration fees, and debt is in order, along with our understanding that there is no free lunch.

[Warpy]

36. Of course there is no free lunch

which is why I stated an increase in the gas tax is the way to go, the larger and heavier vehicles paying more because they do more damage to the infrastructure.

You use more of something, you pay more. The gas tax does this very nicely.

[liberal N proud]

26. Fuel taxes were created to pay for road

Tolls to use those roads is double taxation. When I buy fuel at a toll road service plaza, I still pay fuel taxes. Pay twice to drive on roads that are just as poorly managed as those you don't pay twice to drive on.

Where is the improvement? Prove to me that paying double is going to provide better roads. The assholes in Congress will just siphon those funds off to pay for another fucking war.

[FarCenter]

7. I've driven the length of i-95 in Connecticutt

Tolls were removed in 1985, but I drove it before and have since.

With permission, the state would likely put tolls back on using EZ-Pass readers at entrances and exits. They are reluctant now, lest they have to give back federal funds.

PS -- I find the Merritt Parkway and Wilbur Cross Parkway scarier than I-95. Tighter curves, shorter sight lines, and short deceleration/acceleration strips for merging.

[A HERETIC I AM]

22. 1st lesson of Tractor Trailer driving in New England and the NE;

Never, and I mean NEVER drive a big truck on a Parkway!


I was told it and believed it, but as I'm sure you know, you regularly have nitwits driving 18 wheelers try and stuff their 13'6" trucks under Parkway overpasses!

[Agschmid]

25. Please give us more details why is that road hideous...

[VanillaRhapsody]

28. and a rise in gas taxes won't?

[Warpy]

35. Not as much as it will slam people who insist on driving tanks

There are fewer and fewer land barges from the 50s and 60s on the road now, poorer folks opting for smaller cars on used car lots. The land barges are being sold to people of means to restore, trying to relive their misspent youth in Dad's car.

The larger and heavier and more highly powered the vehicle is, the less gas it uses and that means lower taxes.

The highest taxes will be paid by trucking outfits on tandem trailers.

Still, a nickel a gallon isn't that big an outrage to anyone. If they need more money for highway repair, let them start there, not by wasting billions on Bechtel built toll booths, which is what this is really all about--corporate welfare paying for a big boondoggle everyone will hate.

[VanillaRhapsody]

43. you just defeated your own argument

for you this is about punishing those that didn't buy cars with high fuel efficiency. You do understand that most used cars that poor people often drive because they were cheap and easy to fix are often not the best on mpg's right? But damn them....we must punish those guys that stupidly bought those Hummers! That's the most important thing...

[whistler162]

48. Well it will help those that can

afford fuel efficient cars and hurt those that can only afford whatever used car is available, which may or may not have a good MPG, but what the heck it isn't a toll!

[VanillaRhapsody]

50. Exactly....who cares about THOSE poor slubs!

[msongs]

9. we've paid for them many times over and now get screwed to drive on them nt

[FarCenter]

10. It probably costs something like 10% of first cost each year in maintenance

So a mile built in '65 for $1 M would be about $10 M in current dollars after inflation. So it costs $1 M per year in current dollars for everything from litter removal and mowing to breaking up and reconstructing pavement, bridges and overpasses.

Governments have a bad habit of making investments without considering the future stream of operational and maintenance costs. The politicians just think it would help them get elected to borrow $10 M and build a community center without regard to how they are sticking it to future taxpayers.

[KittyWampus]

30. roads and bridges need to be resurfaced and upgraded many times over.

[Fumesucker]

13. A toll booth at the end of every driveway, that's the corporate dream..

Sooner or later every road in America will be a privatized toll road, all the Republican have to do is hold their breaths until they turn blue and the Democrats will do it for them.

[laundry_queen]

18. +1 nt

[VanillaRhapsody]

29. So you SUPPORT a rise in gas taxes then?

good to know...

[Fumesucker]

37. Like all good Reagan Democrats I support any regressive tax that hurts the poor

[VanillaRhapsody]

38. apparently.....

[wercal]

32. Wow - alot of strong opinions on this thread

As the OP pointed out, there are tolled interstates already. I live around a thousand feet from one. However, I have to drive 25 miles to get on it.

Why? Its too expensive to put toll booths up at every exit. That's my main complaint with it.

Also, a third of the loop around Topeka is tolled...and it shows. There has been little economic development near that portion of the loop, because people are reluctant to pay a toll to go shopping. Sure they could use surface streets, but they don't.

And tolls are regressive. If I want to drive from Topeka to Wichita, for instance...trying to avoid the toll road interstate would take at least an additional hour, and I would spend time on some two lane highways that are statistically much more dangerous than the interstate. So while I technically have a choice to not pay the toll, I'd probably spend more in gas trying to avoid it.

When I lived in the northeast, occasionally toll booths would be removed, with much fanfare..."The bridge is finally paid for", etc. That doesn't happen with our tolled interstates in Kansas. In fact, a whole lot of money have been invested in upgrading the toll plazas...since they are permanently tolled.

I readily admit that the roads are in GREAT shape. But when Kathleen Sebelius was governor, she floated the idea of moving money from the turnpike fund to the general fund - a very regressive idea. My fear, if more roads were tolled, would be that exactly that would start to happen all over the country.

[VanillaRhapsody]

39. so you want policy to be shaped around your unique situation?

everybody wants nice stuff but nobody wants to pay for it....

i take it you are in the "raise the money by raising the tax on gasoline" camp?

[wercal]

44. Uh......no

Believe it or not, I am not the only person who would like better access to the turnpike. Not sure how that is lost on you.

Actually I'm in the "quit raiding the highway fund to pay other bills" crowd. BTW that is exactly what has happened in my home state and many others.

[VanillaRhapsody]

45. Oh so the do nothing continue to let the roads deteroriate camp...

okay....

[wercal]

47. You have absolutely no fucking idea what you are talking about

Do you know what I did last week, and will do next week...and the next several months?

Design work for a fucking highway!

My company's survial and my job depends on highway funding. And I personally have formed budgets and presented budgets and funding sources to governing bodies on at least a hundred different road projects.

Just because you are complety ignorant of the subject, you should not assume everybody else is.

[VanillaRhapsody]

51. Okay then....where does the money for highway funding comes from?

You seem to think it comes as manna from heaven....

The United States Highway Trust Fund is a transportation fund which receives money from a federal fuel tax of 18.3 cents per gallon on gasoline and 24.4 cents per gallon of diesel fuel and related excise taxes.[1] It currently has three accounts, the Highway Account which funds road construction, a smaller 'Mass Transit Account' which supports mass transit and also a 'Leaking Underground Storage Tank Trust Fund'. It was established 1956 to finance the United States Interstate Highway System and certain other roads. The Mass Transit Fund was created in 1982. The federal tax on motor fuels yielded $28.2 billion in 2006.[2]

So are you against raising gas taxes to increase funding for the deteriorating infrastructure...or some toll roads to fund them....or just letting them continue to rot?

[wercal]

52. Before I waste time in your ignorance

You need to 'splain where I said all thise things you put in my mouth.

Which you can't.

[VanillaRhapsody]

53. Then what is your "fourth" option?

please explain to this "ignorant" person! Or is it that you disagree that our roads and bridges are in disrepair altogether?

[wercal]

54. You missed the part

Where I told you to cite where I actually typed the words you have foolishly attributed to me, before I wasted any more time on you.

Can't you follow directions?

[Trajan]

33. The DU 'Centrists' can blow it out their collective arses ...

Nuff said

[U4ikLefty]

41. As a civil engineer who specializes in transportation design and is a member of ASCE

I will NEVER vote for anyone (Democrat nor Rethug) who votes for further tolling our Interstates.

I will discuss this no further because of the ignorance displayed by the fools defending this garbage. I can tell they have not spent most of their life as one of the working poor (like myself).

[itsrobert]

42. Carpools can use I-15 - managed lanes segment of Escondido Freeway in San Diego for free

2 or more in car can travel those lanes for free.

[47of74]

49. They should do income sensitive tolling

And have it only kick in for those who make over a certain amount a year, say $100,000. And have it curved so that millionaires have to pay a shit load of money.