highway robbery

an interesting side note from the trip to d.c. over the weekend. once upon a time, i’d made that trip with some regularity, and had grown familiar with the tolls. of course, that was nearly ten years ago.

a lot of people in massachusetts like to complain about how the massachusetts turnpike should have tolls no longer, as it’s already been paid for. to that i argue, maybe, but perhaps they’re the reason that it’s generally well-maintained compared to even other toll roads, much less your typical interstates strewn with tire fragments and abandoned cars.

and moreover, the cost of the ‘pike hasn’t gone up significantly in that time. it costs a mere $3.60 to drive from newton to stockbridge, at a cost of just under 3 cents per mile. the new jersey turnpike is $6.45 from the del mem br to the gw, at 5.7 cents per mile. in maryland, from the beltway to delaware, it costs one half of $5 to go 77 miles—3.25 cents per mile. the new york thruway, for a whopper toll of $18.50, you can go from white plains to pennsylvania at 3.7 cents per mile.

which brings me to the real focus of this rant—the lovely little highway rest stop of delaware. for a mere fifteen miles of driving, it costs $4. each way. that’s more than a quarter per mile. or, if you prefer, it’s well over four times the next most expensive patch of road (bridges and tunnels excepted for obvious reasons). it’s less a state than an impediment. i mean, i don’t particularly care about the money, really (i did when i was a poor college student). it’s more the stunning lack of any kind of proportional sense, and the fact that a state with the good fortune to be situated between places that people actually want to go is able to extort what must surely be huge sums in return.

maybe i’m just pissed because i didn’t think of it first. what i need is a patch of land astride a major highway, so i can build my own toll barrier. and a roy rogers, obviously.