Report: Tolling Necessary To Improve I-95 In North Carolina

[Webmaster]

RALEIGH, N.C. — A state-commissioned study recommends tolling the 182-mile stretch of Interstate 95 that runs from South Carolina to Virginia to pay for $4.4 billion in road improvements.

http://www.wral.com/traffic/story/10621899/

[OnThePike]

I'm one who doesn't really mind toll roads. The problem with tolling is politics, where things always get ugly. Because what winds up happening is, the drivers paying those tolls now fund who-knows-what-else, and how much of the revenue actually goes into road and infrastructure maintenance and improvement is always suspect and opened to controversy.

The benefit of a toll road for drivers is usually much better rest stops. Unlike the rinky-dink "picnic area" and broken vending machines next to disgusting restrooms, toll roads usually always accommodate the "on-road" traveler offering a full service fuel and food plaza. An example might be any of the plazas located along the New Jersey Turnpike. In my opinion, the best on-road service plazas in the nation.

[bostonboy]

In Europe, on the Autobahns in Germany, I noticed that although the roads are not toll roads, they have service plazas similar to what you find on toll roads in the U.S.

Likewise on the 401 in Ontario, you don't have to get off the road for gas and food.

There are a couple of them right on the road here in Massachusetts on (free) I-95 -- where there are two service plazas, one southbound in Wellesley, and one northbound near Lexington. These, however, are "grandfathered" in because that stretch of "I-95" was originally, and still is, State Highway 128.

Connecticut has a few as well, throwbacks to the days when I-95 *was* a toll road in Connecticut.

The only reasons that such plazas are not allowed on free sections of our Interstate system are political in nature. When the I.H.S. was built in the 1950s-60s, communities worried that they, and their businesses, would be bypassed. And some were. This may be why there was a great deal of resistance to complete I-95 through stretches of the southern states. Parts of it weren't finished as late as 1979.

Frankly, it's not that much of an inconvenience to get off the highway if you don't have to go through a toll booth. It's a tradeoff. On toll roads, you have the quick access in service plazas -- but on non-toll roads, you have more selection and more competition for your dollars.

If I'm driving a short stretch, like, from my home in northeast Mass. to my daughter's home in western Mass., I like the Mass Pike. The toll is low, and the service areas are great. But on a two day drive, I prefer non-tolls and getting off the road to stretch, gas up, and dine.

I need to break the highway monotony and exhaustion, and with the various information out there now, via GPS and the exit guides, there's no worry about finding a good place to eat, get fuel, and stretch your legs. And, where you find multiple gas stations competing for YOUR business, you're going to find lower prices at the pump.

Finally, is it fair to put toll barriers - and service plazas - along stretches of I-95 where they haven't been before? After all - there are motels, restaurants, gas stations, convenience stores, and so forth, that have built up at I-95 exits over the years. What happens to them, their owners, their employees, and their communities?

[I95driver]

Well I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say that no tolls on I-95 in NC for two reasons...

#1 - At any given time there are at maximum 3 cars on the road anywhere in the whole state so the road doesn't need "improvements"... now the part of the NJP up there by the GW is another story.

#2 - The same reason tolls never got put on I-80 in Pennsylvania.