Last Saturday my friends and I set off for Florida. Extremely excited for spring break, we piled our ridiculous amounts of luggage and ourselves into my Civic. After spending a few days in Daytona Beach with thousands of bikers all amped up for bike week we decided to head for relaxing Key Largo. For most of the drive to Daytona you're on I-95 South, but when going to Key Largo you need to get off of I-95 and take the Florida Turnpike for a good 3-3 1/2 hours. Perhaps it's because I'm used to the Pennsylvania Turnpike, but I've grown accustomed to just grabbing a ticket when you get on and paying the toll when you get off. Don't you think it should be the same in Florida? Well, it's not.
Originally, just like the PA Turnpike, we grabbed our ticket as soon as we got on the turnpike via the Jupiter exit. However many miles later we were stopped mid-turnpike and asked to pay the toll. I was a little confused since we still had a solid 100 or so miles ahead of us on the turnpike (when heading to the Keys you take the turnpike until it doesn't exist anymore), but I didn't think too much of it. Then, not even 15 miles down the road, I discover I'm in a SunPass only lane. In the midst of traffic I had to move over 3 lanes of traffic to get into a lane where I could pay cash. I was very confused because I didn't have a ticket. I didn't know how much I was supposed to pay, and I was being completely directed out of the way I was traveling. Eventually the traffic in the lane I was directed to started moving and I made it to the toll booth. The toll was only a dollar so I wasn't too concerned. However, it would have been nice if the person from "How to Read a Sign" had came and evaluated this because they probably would have suggested they place signs farther in advance to reduce accident likelihood and frustration. Even a simple sign that lets you know to get out of the left lane before it becomes an ordeal would suffice. When you're driving 70-100 mph you approach things pretty fast, so you think that they would warn you way farther in advance than they actually do.
Then, between every 10-20 miles, there was another booth that pulled me out of the lane I was traveling in. For the most part I stayed in the left lane because traffic was moving faster, so every time another one of these redundant toll booths appeared I would find myself in a panic having to travel across three lanes of traffic to get out of the SunPass only lane just to be veered to a separate pocket of traffic in order to give these people a dollar. After about 8 of those toll booths and having to deal with the fiasco of constantly crossing over lanes to a nice traffic jam I was infuriated. I was mid five hour drive, knowing that I had a 20 hour drive home ahead of me in two days and I was enraged that I was constantly being stopped and shoved into traffic just to hand the toll person a dollar. Couldn't they have just stopped me once or twice and made me pay a higher toll at each one? How does it make any sense to stop people traveling a decent pace continuously? It just adds length and frustration to the already long and somewhat frustrating drive and I think that Florida should re-evaluate their techniques to make their turnpike more driver/user-friendly.
Originally, just like the PA Turnpike, we grabbed our ticket as soon as we got on the turnpike via the Jupiter exit. However many miles later we were stopped mid-turnpike and asked to pay the toll. I was a little confused since we still had a solid 100 or so miles ahead of us on the turnpike (when heading to the Keys you take the turnpike until it doesn't exist anymore), but I didn't think too much of it. Then, not even 15 miles down the road, I discover I'm in a SunPass only lane. In the midst of traffic I had to move over 3 lanes of traffic to get into a lane where I could pay cash. I was very confused because I didn't have a ticket. I didn't know how much I was supposed to pay, and I was being completely directed out of the way I was traveling. Eventually the traffic in the lane I was directed to started moving and I made it to the toll booth. The toll was only a dollar so I wasn't too concerned. However, it would have been nice if the person from "How to Read a Sign" had came and evaluated this because they probably would have suggested they place signs farther in advance to reduce accident likelihood and frustration. Even a simple sign that lets you know to get out of the left lane before it becomes an ordeal would suffice. When you're driving 70-100 mph you approach things pretty fast, so you think that they would warn you way farther in advance than they actually do.
Then, between every 10-20 miles, there was another booth that pulled me out of the lane I was traveling in. For the most part I stayed in the left lane because traffic was moving faster, so every time another one of these redundant toll booths appeared I would find myself in a panic having to travel across three lanes of traffic to get out of the SunPass only lane just to be veered to a separate pocket of traffic in order to give these people a dollar. After about 8 of those toll booths and having to deal with the fiasco of constantly crossing over lanes to a nice traffic jam I was infuriated. I was mid five hour drive, knowing that I had a 20 hour drive home ahead of me in two days and I was enraged that I was constantly being stopped and shoved into traffic just to hand the toll person a dollar. Couldn't they have just stopped me once or twice and made me pay a higher toll at each one? How does it make any sense to stop people traveling a decent pace continuously? It just adds length and frustration to the already long and somewhat frustrating drive and I think that Florida should re-evaluate their techniques to make their turnpike more driver/user-friendly.
Michelle, Perhaps this is Florida's way of encouraging you to purchase a Sun Pass. Yes, toll signage is notoriously poor (although I find PA's to be pretty good). Alerting you to the $1 toll before getting to the toll booth would have been a user-friendly action. As you note, people are driving at high speeds and making split-second decisions. Clear signage is especially important in these situations.
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