A Victory for Intelligence

If you didn't see it in the Cleveland Plain Dealer on Monday, January 25th, there was an article indicating that the Ohio Turnpike Commission (OTC) made an intelligent decision. Click below for Karen Farkas' article:

"Ohio Turnpike Commission reverses itself on higher tolls for bicycles or luggage on roof"

They have changed their toll policy for passenger vehicles with non-permanent items on their roof (such as bikes, luggage racks, skis, etc...) back to the way it was before. That is to say, you'll pay the same toll as if you didn't have anything on the roof. (Qualifier: if your vehicle is normally shorter than 7ft 6in)

Toll booth workers now have the ability (again) to assess the proper toll despite what the ticket you're given (based on an automated height scan) upon entering the Turnpike indicates. Honestly, this is how it should be so long as the OTC is using height as a means to assess vehicle class. Until they change their automated system for determining vehicle class to something that makes sense (like weight), they're going to need human intelligence as part of the loop. I'll take this small victory and simply thank the OTC for coming to their senses. No need to go off on a tangent here about how I feel about their toll assessment system. I've already written about that in a post that is partly responsible for this positive outcome. You can read it here.

In the end, the money you'll save on tolls can now be applied towards a down payment on those overpriced service plaza Whoppers...

Further proof...

...that you can never have too many bicycles. Enter, our basement.



There are still plenty more walls to fill up... all in good time.

Never thought it would be front-page material...

I suppose this could be labeled as a bit of self-promotion, but our little blog got some recognition this last week in the Cleveland Plain Dealer. Now, our blog isn't mentioned specifically in so much as I'm quoted in an article about the messed up toll system on the Ohio Turnpike that I wrote about in a post a few months ago. Reporter Karen Farkas of the Plain Dealer contacted me because she came across my blog post while doing research for the story she was doing about the Turnpike and wanted some more information.

We thought it was a pretty good article and I hope it makes people realize what a terrible system exists for charging tolls on the Ohio Turnpike. I'm certain we're not the only ones that have been charged a bogus toll.

The comments below the article on the Plain Dealer site are mostly pretty good if you ignore some of the digression into anti-tax complaining. There were two that I found particularly poignant:

Posted by sjosephs January 13, 2010, 11:44AM "Turnpike Executive Director George Distel said Tuesday that he is trying to remedy the situation." Hey George....how about you and the genius' who thought this up, suspend the program until it is fixed or you DON'T get paid your salary until it is rectifide. We need to light a fire under idiots like these. Make it hurt financially, and watch how fast things get done.

and

skisaver Posted by cantskienough January 13, 2010, 8:07PM As an owner of an Expedition with a ski pod that has been measured by a licensed surveyor (at 7'-4 1/2") at OTC's recommendation, I have been given toll tickets 4 times in the last 2 days for Class 1. In the same time period the Rt 75 toll booth has given me tickets for Class 2 twice. Class action lawsuit anyone?

Let the Ohio Turnpike Commission know that you think their system is ridiculous.

Phone: 1-88-TURNPIKE (1-888-876-7453)
MAIN PHONE NUMBER:
(440) 234-2081
Customer Service
Requests/Questions/Concerns
Ext. 1172

What I Saw On My Ride Today 1/8 & 1/9

Though I ride to work pretty much every day, most of my training rides since the first of the year have afforded me this view. As a rule, don't watch stand-up comedy whilst on the trainer. Sometimes you just have to learn the hard way.