Things that really piss you off when driving.

[That's No Moon]

1 minute ago, Augie said:

 

Ahhh, and to think……these are the good old days!   😋

 

My wife loves her express pass, but I never bothered to get one.  I try to stay off these highways. Ugh

I don't understand the issue. I've used EZ-Pass since I lived on Grand Island in the early 1990's.  It's worked absolutely fine in multiple states for nearly 30 years. I've had accounts with NY, PA, NJ, and Delaware River Port Authority before this. No issues.  Every now and again the battery in a transponder would die and you'd get a string of tickets that were easily resolved with no penalty, a new tag came in the mail and you went about your business.  Maryland since about last fall has been absolute garbage in every way possible.

[Augie]

8 minutes ago, That's No Moon said:

I don't understand the issue. I've used EZ-Pass since I lived on Grand Island in the early 1990's.  It's worked absolutely fine in multiple states for nearly 30 years. I've had accounts with NY, PA, NJ, and Delaware River Port Authority before this. No issues.  Every now and again the battery in a transponder would die and you'd get a string of tickets that were easily resolved with no penalty, a new tag came in the mail and you went about your business.  Maryland since about last fall has been absolute garbage in every way possible.

 

I’m sorry, I couldn’t finish that. I started shaking when you said Grand Island and I had flashbacks of driving a big car on a little bridge to and from there at the age of 16. It seemed unreasonable for my skill level, at the time. 

[That's No Moon]

2 minutes ago, Augie said:

 

I’m sorry, I couldn’t finish that. I started shaking when you said Grand Island and I had flashbacks of driving a big car on a little bridge to and from there at the age of 16. It seemed unreasonable for my skill level, at the time. 

Only one bridge has ever bothered me and it was the one that just got knocked into the Patapsco River in Baltimore.  It was very steep and the guardrails were very low and the way the bridge was built the cables holding up the roadway seemed invisible when you were driving.  I could not drive in the outside lane without getting crazy vertigo.  Every other bridge, no problems. GI Bridge, GW Bridge, Goethals, Verrazano, Peace Bridge, Rainbow Bridge, Golden Gate Bridge, Chesapeake Bay Bridge, Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel, old Tappan Zee, new Tappan Zee, Walt Whitman, Ben Franklin, Betsy Ross, Tacony-Palmyra, Burlington-Bristol, etc. etc. etc. All fine.  Francis Scott Key Bridge? That one I will not miss.

 

The second sketchiest bridge I've had to travel semi-regularly is the I-95 Susquehanna River Bridge (idk the name) on windy days.  The wind funnels down river and is a massive cross-wind.  What makes it sketchy is the I-95 part where everyone is going 80mph and there is traffic and huge trucks all the time. No shoulder to speak of on either side of the lanes of travel.  The road is relatively shielded from the wind up to the entrance to the bridge so you have all of that traffic going pretty fast then add a sudden 40mph cross-wind to that and it gets interesting.  It's sort of like driving on the Skyway on a nice winter's morn except when you do that you have the cross-wind all the way leading up to the bridge too so you are prepared for it.

[Augie]

3 minutes ago, That's No Moon said:

Only one bridge has ever bothered me and it was the one that just got knocked into the Patapsco River in Baltimore.  It was very steep and the guardrails were very low and the way the bridge was built the cables holding up the roadway seemed invisible when you were driving.  I could not drive in the outside lane without getting crazy vertigo.  Every other bridge, no problems. GI Bridge, GW Bridge, Goethals, Verrazano, Peace Bridge, Rainbow Bridge, Golden Gate Bridge, Chesapeake Bay Bridge, Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel, old Tappan Zee, new Tappan Zee, Walt Whitman, Ben Franklin, Betsy Ross, Tacony-Palmyra, Burlington-Bristol, etc. etc. etc. All fine.  Francis Scott Key Bridge? That one I will not miss.

 

The second sketchiest bridge I've had to travel semi-regularly is the I-95 Susquehanna River Bridge (idk the name) on windy days.  The wind funnels down river and is a massive cross-wind.  What makes it sketchy is the I-95 part where everyone is going 80mph and there is traffic and huge trucks all the time. No shoulder to speak of on either side of the lanes of travel.  The road is relatively shielded from the wind up to the entrance to the bridge so you have all of that traffic going pretty fast then add a sudden 40mph cross-wind to that and it gets interesting.  It's sort of like driving on the Skyway on a nice winter's morn except when you do that you have the cross-wind all the way leading up to the bridge too so you are prepared for it.

 

I learned the hard way to be in the left lane going over the Sunshine Skyway Bridge to Tampa.  Big bridge cruise ships pass under, if only by a few feet, and I’ve seen it from both perspectives. But the vertigo can be terrifying! I had a bad episode one time at a condo on the Gulf of Mexico dangerously close to the waves. I was at least 15 floors up, you could see no sand beneath you, only shades of blue and white and green that blended together. 

 

I had to step away. I get that now. 

[Bray Wyatt]

Just reading the whole thing about tolls makes me mad, traveling down south, no tolls. TN, KY, AL, GA I have not had tolls

 

Never realized how ridiculous it is until I moved out of NY

Edited June 5 by Bray Wyatt

[That's No Moon]

9 minutes ago, Bray Wyatt said:

Just reading the whole thing about tolls makes me mad, traveling down south, no tolls. TN, KY, AL, GA I have not had tolls

 

Never realized how ridiculous it is until I moved out of NY

There are plenty of toll roads down South too.

[4merper4mer]

5 hours ago, RkFast said:

 

Warms my heart that after all these years I still annoy the hell out of you. 😛

 

Just picked this whip up...about 500 miles on it so far. Its devine. https://enve.com/products/melee-complete-bike

You?  Well, at least the “it’s all about me” thing tracks with membership in the spandex mafia.

Edited June 6 by 4merper4mer

[PromoTheRobot]

People who travel at high rates of speed bobbing and weaving through traffic.

2 hours ago, Bray Wyatt said:

Just reading the whole thing about tolls makes me mad, traveling down south, no tolls. TN, KY, AL, GA I have not had tolls

 

Never realized how ridiculous it is until I moved out of NY

 

Tolls pay for roads. No tolls only means someone else is paying for your roads, likely the states with tolls.

[Bray Wyatt]

3 hours ago, That's No Moon said:

There are plenty of toll roads down South too.

 

I'm not disputing that, more of the point about how I haven't paid a toll in my 5 years since moving to middle TN, then just went to NJ and it dawned on me how crazy it is, basically a scam imo

49 minutes ago, PromoTheRobot said:

People who travel at high rates of speed bobbing and weaving through traffic.

 

Tolls pay for roads. No tolls only means someone else is paying for your roads, likely the states with tolls.

 

U don't pay enough taxes in NY that they need tolls, is that what you are saying? Honest question

 

Edit - or are u saying other states pay for other states roads? That doesn't make sense either

Edited June 6 by Bray Wyatt

[That's No Moon]

4 hours ago, Bray Wyatt said:

 

I'm not disputing that, more of the point about how I haven't paid a toll in my 5 years since moving to middle TN, then just went to NJ and it dawned on me how crazy it is, basically a scam imo

 

U don't pay enough taxes in NY that they need tolls, is that what you are saying? Honest question

 

Edit - or are u saying other states pay for other states roads? That doesn't make sense either

It's not a scam, it just changes how or if you pay for a road.  Since you didn't drive the NJ Turnpike or GSP in 5 years you didn't pay a cent to support them.  Just like I haven't paid a penny to the FL Turnpike or Mass Pike or any of the new toll roads in Texas.  Since I pay federal taxes it's likely that some tiny portion of what I pay (along with what everyone else pays) paid for some of the "free" interstate highways you drive on on Tennessee.  Taxes don't pay for toll roads.  Tolls pay for toll roads.  Toll roads tend to be better maintained than non-toll roads and if they need to be expanded it tends to happen faster too. Especially around here, because they have their own revenue stream and don't have to go hat in hand to their Congressman every year.  If you drive in PA there is a marked difference between I-80 and the PA Turnpike and then another difference between I-80 and PA state highways.  In Jersey, I find the Turnpike and GSP to be pretty well maintained given the amount of traffic they carry (which makes maintenance difficult and wears the road out faster) and the variable weather the roads have to endure.  To see the difference drive the Turnpike and then I-295.  Different revenue streams and the Turnpike is a MUCH better road even though they basically parallel each other.  PA state roads depend greatly on which PennDOT District you live in, they aren't all funded equally or to 100% of need.  Then there are local roads which depend on the individual municipality and those can be a disaster depending on the locality.  If you live in a really rural place without many people to tax it's hard for the locality to get enough money to maintain all the local roads very well.  Especially if it snows a lot in that area.

 

If it were a scam, you'd pay tolls and the road quality would be dog crap and you'd never see them working on the road.  The NY Thruway is also pretty good given the weather issues NYS has.  The only parts that are truly bad are the parts where the state has to negotiate access to fix the road and the Native people block that access.  THOSE parts of the Thruway suck.

 

I don't mind paying a toll.  I mind when the state tries to turn a $3 toll into a $53 toll.  That's out of line, but that's also Delaware for you.  They will do literally ANYTHING to not raise taxes on their own residents.  I don't mean that as a positive either.  The public schools are a train wreck and everyone with means happily pays 20k a year to send their kids to private school but God forbid they raise the taxes $50. Here's a road example. Most states give you a discount on tolls simply for using EZ-Pass.  For example if you have a Maryland EZ-Pass the I-95 toll is $6 I think.  If you don't have MD EZ-Pass it's $12.  However, you don't have to live in Maryland to have a Maryland EZ-Pass account.  I was driving up and down 95 a lot when my son played hockey so it made the most sense for me at the time to have that state's account.  Now that he's off to college it doesn't matter to me anymore and since MD pissed me off I'll switch back to PA.  In Delaware, the only discount they give you is for frequent drivers.  You need to make 30 trips in a month to get the discount.  Maryland doesn't care how often I drive the road, just that I have their tag.  NJ Turnpike gives everyone a discount based on the time of day you travel. Peak is small, off peak is pretty big.  PA Turnpike same thing, you have EZ-Pass at all you get a discount. Delaware? You're from out of state you pay more, no matter what.  Why? Most of the people driving on Delaware's toll roads aren't from Delaware.  They are cutting through Delaware on 95 or going to the beach on DE-1.  If you drive on 95 locally there is no toll. If you exit the state going South there is.  If you enter the state from the South, there is.  Why no toll going to and from PA to the North?  Lots of Delawarians commute to Philly and they'd be the ones paying that, the out of state people usually exit 95 before that point and cross over into Jersey to get to the Jersey Turnpike so they put the toll plaza at the Southern border to snag all of those people instead.  If there is a toll road that's a scam, it's that one.  The whole road is 13 miles long and the passthrough traffic on 95 is ungodly 24 hours a day.  $4 a car last I looked and the bridge has it's own separate toll.  About 127,000 vehicles cross through that toll booth every day. Roughly 114,300 cars and 12,700 trucks.  Annual revenue from cars is roughly $167,000,000.  Add another $51,000,000 from the truck traffic. That's $218,000,000 a year to maintain 13 miles of road virtually all of which is funded by Non-Delawarians.

 

Note: I work in Delaware every day. It's a garbage place. Hate it. North of the Canal, South of the Canal, doesn't matter.  The beaches are fine, better than Jersey anyway, but everything else is terrible.

Edited June 6 by That's No Moon

[PromoTheRobot]

9 hours ago, Bray Wyatt said:

 

U don't pay enough taxes in NY that they need tolls, is that what you are saying? Honest question

 

Edit - or are u saying other states pay for other states roads? That doesn't make sense either

 

You're right. Tolls collected by one state don't go to another. But Federal transportation dollars do. 

[Bray Wyatt]

8 hours ago, That's No Moon said:

It's not a scam, it just changes how or if you pay for a road.  Since you didn't drive the NJ Turnpike or GSP in 5 years you didn't pay a cent to support them.  Just like I haven't paid a penny to the FL Turnpike or Mass Pike or any of the new toll roads in Texas.  Since I pay federal taxes it's likely that some tiny portion of what I pay (along with what everyone else pays) paid for some of the "free" interstate highways you drive on on Tennessee.  Taxes don't pay for toll roads.  Tolls pay for toll roads.  Toll roads tend to be better maintained than non-toll roads and if they need to be expanded it tends to happen faster too. Especially around here, because they have their own revenue stream and don't have to go hat in hand to their Congressman every year.  If you drive in PA there is a marked difference between I-80 and the PA Turnpike and then another difference between I-80 and PA state highways.  In Jersey, I find the Turnpike and GSP to be pretty well maintained given the amount of traffic they carry (which makes maintenance difficult and wears the road out faster) and the variable weather the roads have to endure.  To see the difference drive the Turnpike and then I-295.  Different revenue streams and the Turnpike is a MUCH better road even though they basically parallel each other.  PA state roads depend greatly on which PennDOT District you live in, they aren't all funded equally or to 100% of need.  Then there are local roads which depend on the individual municipality and those can be a disaster depending on the locality.  If you live in a really rural place without many people to tax it's hard for the locality to get enough money to maintain all the local roads very well.  Especially if it snows a lot in that area.

 

If it were a scam, you'd pay tolls and the road quality would be dog crap and you'd never see them working on the road.  The NY Thruway is also pretty good given the weather issues NYS has.  The only parts that are truly bad are the parts where the state has to negotiate access to fix the road and the Native people block that access.  THOSE parts of the Thruway suck.

 

I don't mind paying a toll.  I mind when the state tries to turn a $3 toll into a $53 toll.  That's out of line, but that's also Delaware for you.  They will do literally ANYTHING to not raise taxes on their own residents.  I don't mean that as a positive either.  The public schools are a train wreck and everyone with means happily pays 20k a year to send their kids to private school but God forbid they raise the taxes $50. Here's a road example. Most states give you a discount on tolls simply for using EZ-Pass.  For example if you have a Maryland EZ-Pass the I-95 toll is $6 I think.  If you don't have MD EZ-Pass it's $12.  However, you don't have to live in Maryland to have a Maryland EZ-Pass account.  I was driving up and down 95 a lot when my son played hockey so it made the most sense for me at the time to have that state's account.  Now that he's off to college it doesn't matter to me anymore and since MD pissed me off I'll switch back to PA.  In Delaware, the only discount they give you is for frequent drivers.  You need to make 30 trips in a month to get the discount.  Maryland doesn't care how often I drive the road, just that I have their tag.  NJ Turnpike gives everyone a discount based on the time of day you travel. Peak is small, off peak is pretty big.  PA Turnpike same thing, you have EZ-Pass at all you get a discount. Delaware? You're from out of state you pay more, no matter what.  Why? Most of the people driving on Delaware's toll roads aren't from Delaware.  They are cutting through Delaware on 95 or going to the beach on DE-1.  If you drive on 95 locally there is no toll. If you exit the state going South there is.  If you enter the state from the South, there is.  Why no toll going to and from PA to the North?  Lots of Delawarians commute to Philly and they'd be the ones paying that, the out of state people usually exit 95 before that point and cross over into Jersey to get to the Jersey Turnpike so they put the toll plaza at the Southern border to snag all of those people instead.  If there is a toll road that's a scam, it's that one.  The whole road is 13 miles long and the passthrough traffic on 95 is ungodly 24 hours a day.  $4 a car last I looked and the bridge has it's own separate toll.  About 127,000 vehicles cross through that toll booth every day. Roughly 114,300 cars and 12,700 trucks.  Annual revenue from cars is roughly $167,000,000.  Add another $51,000,000 from the truck traffic. That's $218,000,000 a year to maintain 13 miles of road virtually all of which is funded by Non-Delawarians.

 

Note: I work in Delaware every day. It's a garbage place. Hate it. North of the Canal, South of the Canal, doesn't matter.  The beaches are fine, better than Jersey anyway, but everything else is terrible.

 

Re first bolded, this was kinda my original point, you cant tell me every dollar they receive goes just towards maintaining the road etc. I feel like if they (states) only charged for what they needed the tolls would be a lot less. In my opinion it is just another hidden tax. When they first put up the tolls in NY (iirc) it was because they said it was needed to pay for the roads, then it became it was needed for maintenance. I was surprised when in Buffalo they took down tolls on that one road (Im from ROC originally but I was going to school at Fredonia at the time when it happened) cant remember the name of it now. I would be willing to bet the money made from tolls far exceeds the maintenance cost of the roads.

 

Re second bolded, this just made me chuckle. Never new someone could have such disdain for Delaware as I never hear anything about that state ever 😄

[4merper4mer]

 

[Fan in San Diego]

20 hours ago, 4merper4mer said:

Got what he deserved, should be on the shoulder

 

[Augie]

On 6/5/2024 at 6:56 PM, That's No Moon said:

There are plenty of toll roads down South too.

 

Florida has them as part of a plan to have the tourists and seasonal residents pay as much as possible to make the load lighter on residents. 

 

There was an expressway built on Hilton Head Island to speed things up, especially in hurricane evacuations. Without it there was one way in/out.  They had a toll to pay for it and it was a shortcut, but a bit of a hassle. They forgot to remove the tolls when the project was paid for, and eventually somebody caught on. Now I see it as a scenic highway over the lowcountry. 

[Simon]

22 hours ago, 4merper4mer said:

 

 

This is internet porn for you, isn't it?

[Just Jack]

On 6/10/2024 at 8:33 PM, 4merper4mer said:

 

 

There's suicide by cop, maybe this is suicide by bike? 

[shrader]

7 hours ago, Fan in San Diego said:

 

I’m get the feeling that the conveniently left out lead up to that video has the biker being a complete dick. 

[ExiledInIllinois]

On 6/5/2024 at 6:56 PM, That's No Moon said:

There are plenty of toll roads down South too.

Shhh... Don't blow the narrative!

13 hours ago, Augie said:

 

Florida has them as part of a plan to have the tourists and seasonal residents pay as much as possible to make the load lighter on residents.

Yeah.   So even more people can move into climate danger zones and get wiped out.

 

You'd think the plan would be opposite, where people moving in would be sustainable.

[That's No Moon]

20 hours ago, Augie said:

 

Florida has them as part of a plan to have the tourists and seasonal residents pay as much as possible to make the load lighter on residents. 

 

There was an expressway built on Hilton Head Island to speed things up, especially in hurricane evacuations. Without it there was one way in/out.  They had a toll to pay for it and it was a shortcut, but a bit of a hassle. They forgot to remove the tolls when the project was paid for, and eventually somebody caught on. Now I see it as a scenic highway over the lowcountry. 

Yeah it's pretty classy of Florida to do that and then also stick their hands out to rebuild them every time nature does what nature wants to do there.