Toll task eliminated, but problems remain

By Paul O'Connor
Winston-Salem Journal

RALEIGH - The N.C. Turnpike Authority is quite proud of itself. It’s eliminated one of the biggest complaints that zealots like me have against toll roads.

Week before last, the authority decided that it would not install any toll booths on the 18-mile Triangle Expressway that may someday run across Research Triangle Park and southern Wake County. The state’s first toll road will operate exclusively with high-tech electronic monitoring and billing, the authority decided.

So, all those complaints about toll booths slowing down traffic and thus leading to accidents are now out the window. It makes no sense, authority members said, to have people stop and throw a fistful of coins into a basket when a transponder or a high-speed license-plate camera can do the billing.

That’s actually good news. Toll booths truly are dangerous and this road, if it is ever built, will be safer without them. So, good for the authority.

Now let’s talk about what’s wrong with this idea.