Ah the weak HN trope to anyone giving sound advice when all you care about is “winning” an argument.
This also veered the topic into ad hominem completely unnecessarily.
> doubtful that lots of people spend precious travel time (especially if with family/kids)
Sheesh. That website takes literally less than a minute to complete for a link that I found in less than a 10 second search. I have family/kids, so no, try again.
When I arrive at the airport and I see long lines of families waiting for up to an hour at the Thrifty/Dollar/Fox counter so that maybe they could save a few bucks (often not) while I am walking directly to the lot from a flight to pick up the car - perhaps I may be an outlier, but I certainly know something about saving “precious” time and false economies.
30 seconds to fill out a web form is a complete nothingburger.
> Very doubtful that many people have checklists for this purpose.
I have a checklist for traveling. This is one item. Do you not understand the “list” part, it’s not a whole list just for tolls.
Ironically, before I had a family I wouldn’t often bother. Having a family/kids makes lists a tremendous stress reliever.
> still benefit from no staffing the toll booth
> pull-off area right after the tollbooth
Open road (overhead) tolling has no toll booths. Some states are entirely toll booth free outside of bridges and others are following. The cost savings of eliminating toll booth infrastructure entirely is substantial because it’s not just the booths, it greatly simplifies hundreds of interchanges.
There's a physical structure which exists for the purpose of supporting the infrastructure and electronics necessary to collect tolls from the people who drive under it, right? That's a tollbooth.
As far as the rest, I wasn't trying to even make an argument, let alone win it. Just an observation that few people register their rental cars with out-of-state toll web sites. You sound like a very organized person, kudos, many people would like to run their lives as efficiently as you do. I certainly can't get from this page https://www.paturnpike.com/e-zpass/rental-vehicles to a completed, registered account in 30 seconds - it often takes me that long just to find my wallet and pull out the necessary credit card, let alone type it in.
> There's a physical structure which exists for the purpose of supporting the infrastructure and electronics necessary
No, not really. In addition to the overhead gantry there’s a small off road utility cabinet and some solar panels. Most of the mainline NYS thruway for instance now has no toll booths. The tolling system is literally just a stantion/gantry like those holding up the road signs over the main highway. There’s no slowing down, and if you’re not paying attention you might not even notice it. There is no infrastructure for anyone to pull over or slow down, there are no dedicated access lanes. In some cases the toll points are not proximal to any interchanges. All of that has been permanently removed. Hence “open road tolling”.
As far as a pull off area? There are rest stops (some manned) and cell phone lots.
You realize once you put in that one “special” lane you’ve created a massive chokepoint (This hybrid has in fact been the status quo for years in many areas, getting away from it is the point)? It’s all or nothing really.
I’ll admit the PA site is relatively unfriendly steaming pile. The NY one is much faster. Some states have a 14 day registration period (like IL), which should be the norm IMHO.
Finally, a tag is less and less onerous. Virtually every toll state on the east accepts Ezpass. You don’t need a Sunpass or whatever anymore.
Other thing many don’t do but should. Spend a minute or two making a walk around video with detail shots for damage. This is a small inconvenience over trusting the last check in guy. I prefer not having to get insurance involved if I can avoid it. It’s a $40000 piece of equipment I just took possession of (I do think the idea that this fundamentally can be an absolutely hassle free experience is some first world thinking - this is not a defense of the sliminess of the business, but still, let’s be reasonable, it’s too easy to just get the keys to a newish car. That said, I support existing and some further state level consumer protections).
Ah the weak HN trope to anyone giving sound advice when all you care about is “winning” an argument.
This also veered the topic into ad hominem completely unnecessarily.
> doubtful that lots of people spend precious travel time (especially if with family/kids)
Sheesh. That website takes literally less than a minute to complete for a link that I found in less than a 10 second search. I have family/kids, so no, try again.
When I arrive at the airport and I see long lines of families waiting for up to an hour at the Thrifty/Dollar/Fox counter so that maybe they could save a few bucks (often not) while I am walking directly to the lot from a flight to pick up the car - perhaps I may be an outlier, but I certainly know something about saving “precious” time and false economies.
30 seconds to fill out a web form is a complete nothingburger.
> Very doubtful that many people have checklists for this purpose.
I have a checklist for traveling. This is one item. Do you not understand the “list” part, it’s not a whole list just for tolls. Ironically, before I had a family I wouldn’t often bother. Having a family/kids makes lists a tremendous stress reliever.
> still benefit from no staffing the toll booth
> pull-off area right after the tollbooth
Open road (overhead) tolling has no toll booths. Some states are entirely toll booth free outside of bridges and others are following. The cost savings of eliminating toll booth infrastructure entirely is substantial because it’s not just the booths, it greatly simplifies hundreds of interchanges.