Turnpike Tolls Continue to Rise as Millions in Fees Go Unpaid

🎵 Oops! PA Turnpike did it again. They raised their toll rates… and lost lots of mone-ay. Ooh baby, baby. 🎵

Every year since 2009 the rates have gone up… in order to fund transportation projects throughout  the Commonwealth and, supposedly, because the Turnpike loses tens of millions of dollars to unpaid toll charges.

Here’s the Five Fast Facts you need to know about the situation:

1. 💰🛣️Management doesn't totally suck at this… 95% of tolls are collected each year. Seems pretty solid, right?
2. 💸🤷 Well… they might suck at this a bit. That missing 5%... yeah. That equaled $104.9 million in 2021. And… over the past 5 years they’ve lost at least $379 million. Which, most people would consider to be a lot of money. 
3. 😬🧾Unpaid bills are a big problem - Many drivers get invoices in the mail and just don’t pay. Out-of-state vehicles (that seemingly endless number of commercial drivers?) make up 50% of the unpaid tolls.
4. 🤌💵They kind of want to fix it - The Turnpike Commission is working with lawmakers in PA and nearby states, like Ohio and New Jersey, to share the info they need to send bills and toughen penalties.
5. 🆗🤔 But the Turnpike folks say it’s really no big - Some loss of tolls is bound to happen, and the Turnpike folks say the current system is working “as designed.” But, for some reason, other people don’t like the idea of the tolls getting continuously jacked up, and are calling for solutions like adding payments methods (apple pay, venmo, etc.) and maybe an increase in Toll workers who, you know, actually take cash money from people. But that’s not likely to happen since they plan to have an all electronic toll system and hiring a single toll worker costs the state $130,000 a year.

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