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Avoiding tolls is often false economy. Figure the value of your time. Then figure the increased wear and tear. You often come out way ahead by driving the toll road. Just make sure you have the pass so you don't have to stop.
Around here in Western Washington State, I avoid the few toll areas like the plague. No significant increase to my driving time at all.
I'm actually convinced that the majority of people who opt for, for example, the bridge over the lake that has a toll don't actually pay for it out of their own pockets.
Generally, if there is a reasonable option that is no-toll, I'll take it.
If I'm in my own car with its Sunpass transponder, I just roll on through them. Tend to avoid them though with rental vehicles, lest I be caught up in some sort of 'courtesy billing' for toll road use where they charge me $4-$10 per rental day even if I only go on one toll road on Day #3 of a ten day rental and I end up paying like $50 for the 'convenience' of using a single toll road.
I can has full toll road transponder interoperability? I know they're supposed to be working on it and are gradually making the transponders from different state & regional systems work together, but I can't just yet bring my own Sunpass and have it work anywhere in the USA I want to go.
I usually take the toll road when it's available as an option.
I recently had a work trip to Houston and I was required to use a company vehicle for the trip. My employer has a policy that company vehicles aren't allowed to use the toll roads. I returned from the trip at rush hour and took a very circuitous route back to avoid traffic congestion on one of the freeways.
I'm sticking with the toll road and taking my own car next time!
I'm not sure if you're in Houston now, elnina, but if you are, I'm sure you find them impossible to avoid as we do. Houstonians such as my wife and I actually suffer from a syndrome local journalists have dubbed "toll road weariness." Toll roads are EVERYWHERE here, and driving on a toll road regularly costs as much as TEN TIMES as much as raising the gasoline tax for residents. Proponents of toll roads say "if you don't want to pay, just don't drive on them," but here and in other large Texas cities, our government has made that well nigh impossible by reducing the number of free highways, adding toll lanes to formerly free ones, and adding tolled exits to "free" highways.
Then the free highways that are left become increasingly clogged by drivers who don't want to pay to drive on a road day after day. When it costs $1.75 every few miles to drive on a freeway and we drive an average of 20 miles to work, toll roads are outrageously expensive. And they never stop charging us. Our oldest toll road The Sam Houston Tollway has been tolling drivers since 1989. It has paid for itself more than 12 times now
Well, you're right. Texas is in the midst of a tolling boom. While public funding for transportation falls far short of the state's needs, Texas is increasingly turning to toll roads and toll lanes to pick up the slack.
Fortunately, I don't use any for my daily commute (City Centre to Galleria), but there is no fastest way to the airport than the tollway.
For instance, I've found that taking the 301 bridge over the Potomac River into Virginia is FAR better than the free alternative, the capital beltway. At $6 (but only one way) it is more than worth it to avoid DC traffic and get a more scenic route when we go to Williamsburg, VA or Nags Head.
However, when going to Nags Head, we dodge the $6 Chesapeake Expressway. It's as simple as getting off the exit before the toll booth, and then getting back on after it. Adds less than 5 minutes to our trip. They jack up the rates from $2 during the week to $6 (soon to be, if not already, $8) on weekends to gouge tourists going to North Carolina and coming home from their vacations.
The Chesapeake Expressway sounds exactly like what Scooby Snacks mentioned about the Sam Houston Tollway. The tolls were supposed to be removed when it paid for itself. Same with our tunnels and the Key Bridge here in Baltimore. Funny how that never happened.
If it saves time I'll take the toll road. If there's another route that's just as fast I might take it. It's not always a clear choice. There might be a slower route that's shorter. I have a transponder for the Indiana Toll road which works all around Chicago and a Sunpass for Florida.
Depends. If I can save the money and the route is only 10-15 minutes longer, I will. We don't really have tolls as low as $1-$2 here---they are usually $5-10.
Certain places I can get to from here without paying on the way up. Or certain ways are at least cheaper, vs. paying $16 w/o an EZPASS ($10.something with it) to cross a bridge to then get to somewhere else and then pay more money.
Driving to and from work I do not have any tolls, thankfully.
I've already paid fuel tax and the road & bridge portion of my property taxes, so I avoid toll roads like the plague, with one exception: if I'm in Houston and traffic is at a standstill on the Katy Freeway, then I may jump into the HOT lanes to get around the backup.
Quote:
Originally Posted by elnina
Fortunately, I don't use any for my daily commute (City Centre to Galleria), but there is no fastest way to the airport than the tollway.
Depending on where you live, you can most likely get to Hobby without taking any toll lanes.
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