This past weekend Lorena, Heath, and I went to Michigan to hang out with Marty and ride mountain bikes. We've made this trip numerous times before and the drive is usually not much to write about. To quote a famous movie line: "Ain't nothing to see on the interstate but interstate." (Bonus if you can name the movie!)
As we often do, we thought nothing of putting our mountain bikes on the roof of the car for the trip. That's how we get our bikes from place to place when we travel. The beauty of the roof rack is that the bikes don't have to be on a trunk rack that prevents easy access to gear in the back of the vehicle. On top of that, the bikes aren't in the "crush zone" should you get rear-ended. Most of you don't need me to extol the obvious benefits of roof racks. This weekend's trip did, however, make it obvious that the Ohio Turnpike Commission doesn't quite see roof racks for bikes/kayaks/canoes/luggage/etc... in the same way.
When we go to Ypsilanti, the Ohio Turnpike is certainly the easiest and fastest way to get there. We get on at Rt 8 or I-77 and get off at I-75. The toll would be somewhere in the neighborhood of $4. Not really a big deal. We don't mind paying a toll if it means the road is better maintained and that generally seems to be the case with the Ohio Turnpike. On the other hand, anybody who's travelled the Ohio Turnpike since at least August knows that tolls have recently increased pretty significantly. That same trip now will cost you $7.25. That is, if you don't have bikes or any other gear on top of your car. With bikes, it's $12. Each way.
So, what's the big deal about $12 anyway? Or rather, who cares about $24 for the round trip? The big deal is how the Ohio Turnpike Commission determines your toll. The two factors are the number of axles and vehicle height. Let's look at the number of axles first:
Using the number of axles to calculate tolls really boils down to how vehicle weight is distributed to the road. Most passenger cars and trucks have two axles making them Class 1, the lowest fare. The lower fare is totally understandable because they are relatively lighter vehicles and therefore do less damage to the road. Many tractor-trailers have five axles making them Class 5 and understandably pay a higher fare because they are heavier. Their weight-per-tire is considerably higher than a passenger vehicle even though they have more than quadruple the number of tires. For example, a loaded tractor-trailer with 18 tires might weigh 80,000 lbs and therefore has 4,444 lbs/tire. Our Ford Focus station wagon weighs around 2,650 lbs equating to 662 lbs/tire. Regardless of whether we put our bikes on the roof or inside the vehicle, three mountain bikes add around 70 lbs to our vehicle or a whopping 17.5 lbs/tire. Even with the additional bike weight, the force our vehicle exerts on the road surface is obviously nowhere near that of a tractor-trailer. If tolls were based simply on weight distribution, I'd be totally fine with it. It only makes sense that vehicles that can do more damage to the road should pay more for the road's maintenance.
Then, there's the height factor. As it stands right now, the height cutoff from Class 1 to Class 2 is 7ft-6in. If you're over that height, regardless of the number of axles, you become a Class 2 (or higher) vehicle and will pay a higher toll. What does height have to do with damage to the road? Certainly, an assumption can be made that taller vehicles are likely heavier and it is often true. However, it is not always true. A tractor trailer is taller than our car and is certainly heavier. Putting bikes inside our car doesn't make it any taller but it makes it heavier. The only issue I can think of where a vehicle's height is important on the Ohio Turnpike would be for going under overpasses. Even then, most overpass clearances are at least 13ft-6in. Tractor-trailers are taller than our car with bikes on the roof and they clear these overpasses with room to spare. Other than the taller=heavier assumption, I see no logical reason for height to be a factor in calculating tolls. Unless...
With the institution of the EZ-Pass system on the Ohio Turnpike, we speculated that some sort of height measurement might be part of how your toll would be assessed as you drive through the EZ-Pass lane. Since you have to drive slowly through the lane for your transponder to be read and the gate arm lifted, a simple array of photoelectric sensors would have enough time to determine the vehicle's height based on how many light beams you break. Even if this were the case (which it's not), it's an easy, but definitely not perfect, way of automating the toll calculation. Taller = heavier = higher toll. Some research into how the EZ-Pass system works revealed that no height measurement is taking place. The transponder in your vehicle is simply coded for your class. Technically, you could drive a school bus (Class 2) through the EZ-Pass lane with a transponder coded for a minivan (Class 1) and pay a lower toll.... as long as you don't get caught. (Disclaimer: I am most definitely not condoning this practice.) So, if the fancy automated system isn't using height to calculate tolls and/or prevent toll fraud, why does height even matter? I could have an EZ-Pass transponder for our car (Class 1), put bikes or whatever on the roof that makes our height above 7ft-6in (technically Class 2), and drive through the EZ-Pass lane only paying a Class 1 toll. EZ-Pass makes it "EZ" to commit fraud.
Unfortunately, EZ-Pass is simply a way for the Ohio Turnpike Commission to save money by not having to pay workers in the toll booths. One might suggest that taking the human element out of the equation is part of the problem because a worker could look at a car with a kayak on the roof and reason: "Oh, you're driving a Honda Civic, that kayak doesn't weight 6,000 lbs, and you're below the 13ft-6in overpass clearance. That makes you a Class 1. That will be $7.25 please." While simple and logical, this is also unmanageable because it becomes a judgement call every time.
If you're still reading by this point, you're probably thinking "Boy, this is a lot of complaining without offering any suggestions of how to fix the system." Keep reading.
In my perfect world, there would be scales in the toll booths that measure your vehicle's weight including whatever you have inside it, be it people, your life's possessions, or anything in between. Toll booths are generally located at exits from the highway. This means you're probably going to be driving more slowly on the exit ramp approaching the toll booth. Toll booths are often busy and so a stop-and-go scenario is already likely. Why not require vehicles to stop to pay the toll (to an actual person or automated) while simultaneously being weighed by the scale? If you really want to keep height as a factor, why not limit access to the Turnpike to vehicles that are shorter than a maximum height that safely clears the shortest overpass?
The only sticking point I can think of is how to account for the number of axles/tires on a vehicle without a human to verify. Optical/computing technology does exist to discern geometric features from a photograph and could be applied to automatically determine the number of axles from a side photograph of the vehicle. So, with the actual vehicle weight known and the number of axles known (human determined or automated), we can calculate the weight distribution to the road. If the toll classes are based on ranges of weight per axle, accurate toll calculation that is based on what actually damages the road is easy.
Will this system be perfect? I'm sure the answer to that question is NO. However, I believe it would be the most accurate overall. Precision of weight measurement would likely be the biggest issue because the calibration of a lot of scales would have to be maintained. Then again, they do this all the time at weigh stations along other non-toll highways. The weight per axle ranges for toll classes would simply have to be statistically determined to account for measurement error.
Now, if you're still reading, you might think "This is a lot of stink raised over $24." The thing is, it's not just our $24. It's all of the money extorted from outdoor athletes/enthusiasts that use the Ohio Turnpike to get to where they enjoy their equipment. Honestly, why should someone driving a Toyota Prius that has two road bikes on the roof pay more in tolls than someone driving a Ford Excursion because of height? The Excursion weighs a lot more than the Prius even though it's shorter. What if we had a minivan instead of our station wagon and decided to put a luggage carrier on the roof to comfortably hold the gear of a van full of people? I'd venture it's still lighter than the Excursion but probably taller.
Unless the Ohio Turnpike Commission changes their rules for how they determine toll classes, I recommend boycotting the Ohio Turnpike and taking the side roads. Not only will it probably not take much longer to travel the same distance, you might find some cool, out-of-the-way restaurant that will certainly be cheaper than eating at any service plaza on the Turnpike. It's almost like eating in an airport. Just remember, you're paying too much money for the privilege of being a captive audience to pay way too much for a Whopper.
