My first memories of highway driving are of my parents throwing us three kids into our (their) VW Bug and driving from NYC to Connecticut to visit the grandparents: take FDR Drive up the East River to I-278 and then I-95, which, in Connecticut, is the Connecticut Turnpike.
From its opening until 1985, the Connecticut Turnpike was a toll road, with tollbooths (or tool plazas) for collecting the tolls from each vehicle. For whatever unexplainable reason, I loved seeing my dad throw his quarter into the basket, seemingly – to a five-year old – without slowing down. Mesmerizing …. and apparently I’m not the only one.
I’ve lived states without toll roads since getting my driver’s license, but fortunately the Illinois Tollway system provided a fix when driving from Minnesota to Chicago to visit family, my wife at the ready to hand me the appropriate change for the upcoming toll.
Unfortunately, i-PASS streamlines the money-management and removes the need to handle cash, whether buckets to receive change or attendants to take cash. I was reminded of this when driving to Chicago for my niece’s high school graduation. Buckets were removed pre-pandemic but attendants remained. Now, in May 2023, a picture of your license plate is taken and you have two weeks to pay online.
As the real world increasingly moves to virtual solutions – which I mostly in favor of – I yearn for the days of analog tolls, though virtual reality may be my only choice.
