Thruway tolls

[JWRocks]

Originally Posted by Mightyqueen801

Won't comment on your idea for the far upstate tolls, though. I'm not familiar enough with the situation up there. How do you think that removing tolls would help the economy of those cities?

Well, it's just that I look at Syracuse, with about 650,000 population, SU and other colleges and industries, Rochester 1.1 population, UR, RIT etc, and the Buffalo region with UB, etc would thrive without the invisible barrior of the tolls. Instead of 3 semi large citys, we could have a metroplex of 3 million. And the additional economic activity (tax revenue) would more than make up for the lost tolls.

[grdnrman]

Originally Posted by JWRocks

If you consume food and purchase just about anything, you are paying part of the shippers toll, so we all pay tolls one way or another.

Without tolls, we could save on toll collectors and the cost of heating, cooling and maintaining the booths. More connections could be made, helping the economy all along the thruway. Gov Cuomo said he wants to create a tech corridor along the thruway.

I haven't been that way in a while, but there was talk of moving the Buffalo toll barrior, giving Buffalo about 10 more free miles, costing $40 million. The Rochester and Syracuse areas could benefit from having toll free areas too, but it's to costly to build all of those toll barriors, so just make it toll free.

I believe a key issue in reviving upstate is to remove the tolls at least from Syracuse to Buffalo. Encourage collaboration of the thruway metros.

Don't remove the tolls off the Thruway and put the expense of maintaining that highway on the wallets of >>>every<<< New York State taxpayer; let those people who DO use the Thruway rightfully pay the expense. I'm positive that NYS Taxpayers living in places like Plattsburgh, Lake Placid, Glens Falls, Canton, Olean, Elmira, Binghamton, Oneonta, Watkins Glen, and other distant places are not real anxious to pay more state taxes for the expense of maintaining the several hundred miles of the NYS Thruway especially since they probably seldom use the Thruway.

It is incredibly short-sighted and would have extreme-little effect on the cost of food and other products that are shipped by NYS Thruway to businesses as well as about zero effect on creating increased economic development and business across New York State at the cities of Buffalo, Rochester, and Syracuse for the NYS Thruway tolls to be removed off usage of the Thruway. Removing tolls will have little or no effect on reviving the Upstate New York economy.

Tolls are just a cost for shipping products by transportation companies when a company chooses to use the Thruway to ship its products/materials. Other obvious costs are things such as: gasoline, licensing transportation vehicles, truck/vehicle maintenance/upkeep/repairs, and other; Thruway tolls are just a cost of doing business when you choose to use that highway. The Thruway toll cost is already figured into transportation companies expense, which is logically passed on to the receiving business-just like the cost of gasoline for powering the transportation vehicles is passed on, for doing business and using the Thruway. If any business/transportation company is so border-line shaky/profitable that Thruway tolls might put them out-of-business or prevent them from starting a business, then they had better develop a more intelligent-better business plan/internal operation or they probably don't deserve to survive. I live at Metro Syracuse and travel/know Rochester & Buffalo areas well too. I can assure you that no business will refrain from starting/developing a business anywhere along the NYS Thruway Syracuse-Rochester-Buffalo corridor just because there are Thruway tolls.

Get rid of toll collector personnel and have no toll booths to maintain. There are fewer and fewer full-time toll collectors as time goes on. One-half or more of the toll collectors that you see at the toll booths are part-time employees who make maybe $10 an hour, they do not work 5 days a week, many work only 4 hours per day, and they receive no benefits beyond their $10 per hour wage; so employing them is comparatively not huge Thruway expense. Also EZ-Pass lanes are built/used more and more as time goes on. Toll booth collectors ARE an asset. They report problems on the Thruway to the State Police or report broke-down vehicles or to tow truck operators or to the Thruway maintenace crews or to Thruway central office for resolution; fights between drivers, vehicle crashes, blockages on the Thruway, travellers heart attacks/illnesses, give travel directions to travellers, report dead animals (deer & others) laying in the highway, extreme high speed vechiles/unsafe drivers, and more.

Having more connections/exits along the Thruway? More exits can be built when and if they are warranted. The idea of an Interstate highway is to NOT have huge numbers of connections/exits/highways enter the Thruway every time a side road crosses the Thruway. That's why it is called a limited access (but adequate access) highway. Interstate highways were/are created to move heavy traffic easily/quickly/safely without traffic lights, huge numbers of vehicles entering the Thruway at every side/cross road, etc. Remove the tolls and connect numerous side roads to the Thruway, then you will just have another traffic-jammed, slow, overcrowded, less-safe, mediocre state highway. And remove tolls off the Syracuse-Rochester-Buffalo portions of the Thruway = NO. I live in Metro Syracuse and am not wealthy and I don't mind paying my fair-share for my choice to use the Thruway.

grdnrman

[TheITGuy]

Originally Posted by xnyer

Which Interstates in your opinion are in terrible shape?

I'll admit, it's been a few years since I was in VA (1999, actually), so the roads might have improved.

But the I95 through VA was horrific to drive on. And, this is coming from someone out of Basic training, who was used to hummers off road as my measure of comparison.

Arkansas interstates were pretty horrible for the longest time. They've finally finished the huge road improvement there. But, it was well known as a state to avoid if you were a long haul trucker with fragile goods.

The NYS interstate is one of the best maintained I've driven on. Especially considering the abuse they take during the wintertime from salt and plows.

Texas roads were ok. Nothing to write home about. Long stretches of nothing, interrupted by brief moments of sheer terror while dealing with the whackos driving in DFW and Waco.

Kentucky is pretty high up there in road maintenance, though my experience might be slighted, as I only drove I75.

I10 is nothing to write home about. Again, long stretches of nothing, punctuated by brief glimpses of a city or town.

I hazard most NY'ers don't mind the tolls for one simple reason: They don't generally use them. I periodically use the 90, but it's toll-free through the stretch I use, and when I drive out of state, I pay a whopping $2, compared to other states like PA, where my toll bill was generally in the range of $15 for 2 hours of driving.

[ss20ts]

Why would anyone take the tolls off from Syracuse to Buffalo? That's like 1/3 or more of the Thruway west-east. That would cost a fortune! Why should everyone else in the state pay for the people who use it?

Many states are in fact adding toll roads. NC has some around Raleigh. SC has one near Greenville.

Road maintenance is very expensive and why should everyone pay for it and not those that use it? Why should someone from Malone pay for the Thruway when they've never driven on versus a tourist from Maine going to Niagara Falls? If you use it, you should pay for it. If you don't use it, you shouldn't have to pay for it. NYers pay enough for everything else.

There has been talkin the past about putting tolls on the Northway around the Capitol Region. I believe some of those in favor of the idea were from Downstate and we know what the majority of folks down there think of Upstate especially the lovely politicians. The idea didn't go very far or last very long.

There is one stretch of the Thruway that I do think is expensive compared to the rest of I90 going west. The B exits going to Massachusetts are pricy. I think that's been called the Berkshire Spur but it's part of the Thruway.

The Thruway does follow an odd path! I87 and I90 must confuse the heck out of people who don't know how they work - part tolled, part not. And then you use the Northway and Thruway names just to confuse the hell out of people. I still remember arguing with my dad when Iw as a kid about why it was called the Northway since it goes south also. And the Thruway just goes every direction....LOL