As states struggle to plug the holes in their transportation budgets, tolls come up again and again as a potential solution. New tolls, truck-only tolls, or – in the case of Pennsylvania – tolls that have increased every single year for since 2009. The tolls have increased so much that the state has been fighting off a lawsuit which now might be headed to the U.S. Supreme Court in order to answer the question: Can tolls be too high?
At the core of the question is the Commerce Clause of the U.S. Constitution, specifically the “Dormant Commerce Clause” which prohibits states from passing legislation that discriminates against or excessively burdens interstate commerce. So, at what point can tolls be labelled “excessive?”
According to lawyers for the Owner Operator Independent Drivers Association (OOIDA), the PA Turnpike Commission has been collecting tolls illegally ever since a 2007 state law forced the Commission to pay hundreds of millions of dollars a year to PADOT for non-turnpike expenses. Further, in 2009, tolls went up by 25%, and have increased every single year since then by an average of around 7.4%.
Tolls have increased so much that OOIDA’s lawsuit claims that the turnpike collects 2.5 to 3 times the amount of money needed to pay for the turnpike.
Two previous courts ruled against OOIDA, so now the group is fighting to get the case heard by the U.S. Supreme Court.
“Never in the history of the United States has Congress or a court concluded user fees of this magnitude are constitutionally appropriate,” said the Supreme Court petition for review according to the Post-Gazette. “The Third Circuit’s decision sanctions these excessive tolls and permits states to charge unlimited tolls on federal-aid highways in violation of the dormant commerce clause and the constitutional right to travel.”
Source: freightwaves, pennlive, post-gazette, thenewspaper, cornell
They should look at the GW bridge in NY, this is an obvious of ” where is the money” because that bridge needs work badly and nothing over the years has been done. yet they raise the tolls for that bridge almost as bad as PA. If the funds are actually used to maintain roads and services so be it and cost to go up. but in my experience especially in IL it becomes a slush fund for the politicians.
You are correct. The problem today is that no none wants to pay for anything in a reasonable way. Transportation..education..
Healthcare…etc. I know for a fact that it is much cheaper to have a statewide fuel tax that pays for all roads than to have tolls on specific roads.
Do the math and this will be proven. This had been the problem ever since Reagan convinced everyone to not have any federal tax support for anything.
From the GW to the NY Thruway’s Berkshire Spur, all the Hudson crossings are over excessive. NY is holding all the New England states commerce hostage. I can’t believe the New England states aren’t smart enough to file a class action lawsuit against NY. If the state officials wont the people could. As they’re paying NY’s excessive tolls in everything they buy. Put an end to NY’s highway robbery.
That said, I went to Portland Maine. ME charged me $35 for 40 miles. Me may as well be pick-pockets. There needs to be action. Things are getting out of (empty) hand!
Pennsylvania Turnpike Tolls are probably the highest ripoff in the USA!!!! Continue to line Governor Tom Wolf pockets and nothing ever gets completed.
Stop using the road or bridge. Or, charge for the tolls en route to the customer. They don’t want to pay the for the tolls? Don’t haul their freight. Charge by the mile or load + any tolls accessed by Authority. The cost of doing business is always passed on to the customer. Why should you be any different?
Crooks in every state??
Not going to do anything about these thieves
I was in truck recovery for a company notorious for dogging new drivers around. The majority of the trucks we recovered were in the N.E. corridor, Pennsylvania, NY and Ct. The tolls along the PA Turnpike were criminal when I lived in Jonestown, Pa. These guys were not given EZPass and were expected to get advances from their own paychecks to pay the tolls and then wait two weeks or longer to get reimbursed. Many of them received less than two hundred dollars for a job that required them to be in the truck 24/7. To tell you the gods honest truth I respected those drivers who abandoned their trucks.
as to be expected there is serious censoring of comments on this site regarding this topic.
anything to back this up? If you are being respectful, truthful and not swearing, I haven’t seen that at all on here. Heck, respectful and truthful aren’t even required – just don’t talk like an ignorant fool.
Plus – it seems clear that TTR is on the side of truckers and against the ridiculous tolls that appear to just be state government slush funds.
Did you even read the article? Or do you support the high tolls that are clearly not being used to fix the crumbling infrastructure?
Yes, I read the article and now that you mention that article I find it interesting that they didn’t include how much those tolls are. Its called shoddy reporting that only an Idiot would defend.
I read a while back they are using the money for parks and walking trails. When would a truck driver have time to stop and use a park or a walking trail. In fact, where would the driver be able to park?
Pa toll does suck. I paid $170 to run the extension from rt 80 to 276. All of 90 miles. I hope they do something there, if any politician is reading this!!! FU
It cost a class 7 truck with 5 Axel’s over $300 to go from Ohio to New Jersey with ez pass you can save $80 and that before this year’s increase and most of that go to fund Philadelphia,Pittsburgh, and Harrisburg city buses so people in these city can ride for free so why is the burden on the trucking industry thanks to Ed Randall this Democratic governor f**ked us over time and time again he not even in office anymore and still doing it to Trucker
Operated east coast regularly from 1997 to early 2001(March).NYC bridge tolls were considered outrageous then.Tappan Zee $20 inbound only,GW $20 inbound only,Outer Bridge $20 inbound only,Varrazano $30 outbound only. Inner bridges,Throgs Neck,Whitestone and another one I can’t remember the name of were all at $15. Can’t recall pricing on PA Turnpike because I rarely used it. What I do remember is if you accessed the PA Turnpike at Bedford and exited at Breezewood, the toll was waived and vise-versa.Free ride on the PA Turnpike between these two towns as a result of public pressure by local citizens.
The one you can’t remember is the TriBoro bridge , which connects the Bronx , Queens and Manhattan .
I live in Pennsylvania and it was reported locally and that a lot of turnpike money is going to the payroll of State Troopers. I traveled from the Ohio border back in 2018 to the Carlisle, PA. exit and that cost me $120.00 bucks. That’s just halfway across the state so I imagine today it’s probably around $135.00.