The Road Less Traveled
The Turnpike Loophole.I've been thinking about how I would compose this for the past day or two - in the back of my mind while I sit bored in meetings - and any way I slice it will result in what seems like a word problem from 7th grade. You know the ones…if a brown dog is pissing on a red fire hydrant with his left leg up and a white dog is pissing on a yellow fire hydrant with his right leg up, how many of the grocer's apples will go bad by Tuesday?
When I was first introduced to word problems, I LOVED them….they were like little stories and stories are a great way to explain things to my wee little brain. But then they got difficult and I found that I really DIDN'T give a shit if the water was going to evaporate in the bottle before the Canadian jet stream got strong enough to knock it from the northerly facing wall. I know, in some way and on some level, they were helpful and I've used that skill without even knowing it but I refuse to admit it out loud. On to the Turnpike, however….
So here's the deal. I live not too far from the back access road of a PA Turnpike service plaza. I completely discovered this by accident while I was on my way to the park one day (Einstein likes to go for drives in the car, believe it or not - but I don't let him drive yet). I admit that I always wondered how those folks got to work. Now, as with most turnpike exits, there is a service plaza on the west side of the exit and another on the east side of the exit. So, I pass a service plaza going home but I'd have to go way out of my way to pass one on the way to work.
As I was driving home one day, traffic started to back up a little, not too many miles before the exit and just before the service plaza entrance. My mind immediately said, "Hey, get off at the service plaza and go out the back access road and get home that way." Eureka!! What a freaking brilliant idea! Or was it?
Before I could decide, traffic started to break up and I just got off the normal exit and went through the toll. But then I started wondering what would have happened had I taken the access road. And, is the result different if you have EZ Pass vs. taking a ticket? This will only apply on the way home, of course and, to be PERFECTLY CLEAR, I have no intention of ever doing this. I've discussed this with a couple friends and the one always says, "Oh, just pay the eighty-five cents, Cindy." It's not about the money at all - I just want to know if I've actually discovered a loophole or not. Probably not, but the possibility intrigues me.
First, with EZ Pass:
If I get on in the EZ Pass lane, it will pick up where I entered. Then, if I get off at the servplaz, it will not record my exit anywhere. Would I get charged the entire amount to the end of the turnpike? Or, when I enter the next day, would it assume I got off there, too, and just charge me regularly? I don't think this works with EZ Pass because there are too many ways to track it and the Turnpike Authority has a record of your driving habits and would probably figure it out. EZ Pass does not do well in the loophole test.
Without EZ Pass / Taking a Ticket:
I get on the turnpike, take the ticket and exit at the access road. There is probably a record that a ticket is taken but I highly doubt it is associated with a car. Sure, the camera can tell that I took a ticket…but I doubt there is a reference number on the ticket that matches it with my vehicle. So how would they ever know that I didn't exit? Or, even if they knew that 1000 tickets were issued on a given day, do they then coorelate that with how many were turned back in? (I wonder what happens to all the tickets that are collected.) And even if 1000 tickets were distributed and only 958 came back…would they care enough to do something about it? Here's where there could be a catch…
1. The number of tickets going out is more then what's coming in.
2. They have pictures of all cars that go through the tolls and take tickets.
3. They have pictures of any cars using the access road at the service plaza.
And 4. Then they'd actually have to put in the effort to match all that data up.
Just to catch me and collect their eighty-five cents.
I can't believe I just spent any amount of time and effort writing this. I deserve a good beating sometimes.
posted by Cherry Indigo (Cindy) @ 9/22/2005 07:24:00 AM
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