Outrage from customers and state officials forced Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission bureaucrats to consider commonsense and change a policy of not placing rates on toll tickets.
The commission removed the exit prices to save bucks on ticket-printing for future rate hikes.
It cost $280,000 to print a year’s worth of tickets and not listing fares was expected to save $100,000 since all tickets would be able to be used regardless of rate changes.
Of course, it would also slow traffic as motorists tried to figure out fares and, more disconcertingly, it would make it easier to boil the frog by making fare hikes less transparent.
Among those instrumental in getting the bean counters to see that a penny saved could be a dollar lost was Auditor General Jack Wagner.
Still, turnpike users are stuck with the guess-the-fare tickets until new ones can be printed. This may take up to six-months.
Drivers, in the meantime, can ask toll collectors the price or call call 866-976-8747or visit www.paturnpike.com .
The unpriced tickets start Jan. 2 when the 10-percent increase for cash customers takes effect. This means that driving the length of the road from Ohio to Philadelphia will cost a cash-payer $32.30.
The rate for E-ZPass users is rising 3 percent. Driving the length from Ohio will cost an E-ZPass user $30.17 in ten days.