Pennsylvania is literally my favorite state ever. My family's back there, it's beautiful, it's full of history, and — most importantly —it's not Ohio.
I love Pennsylvania so much that when we had to do a research project on one of the states in 2nd grade, I literally jumped at the chance to do PA. My aunt sent me a Penn State shirt, which I actually still have somewhere, and my grandma contacted a cousin who worked for the governor to send me all sorts of information on the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
I just think that it's the greatest state out of all 50. However, even the greatest things in the world aren't completely perfect. And unfortunately, Pennsylvania falls into that category too because of the Pennsylvania Turnpike.
Where do I even begin with my complaints of the Pennsylvania Turnpike?
I guess I'll start with the tunnels. When I was little, the tunnels were my absolute favorite part of traveling to PA. I would always try to either stay awake or beg my parents to wake me up when we came to the tunnels. They were literally the coolest thing ever — and they still are.
Only, they're falling apart. If you go through the tunnels, you can see the tiles falling off the sides of them and half the lights don't even work anymore. Not only is their decay a historic loss, as the tunnels on the PA Turnpike have existed since the 19th century, but it's also a serious safety hazard to travelers.
In February 2018, a trucker was killed when a piece of electrical conduit fell in the Lehigh Tunnel's southbound tube.
And then there are the tolls themselves. Last weekend, when my family and I went back to PA for my cousin's wedding. We spent over $50 on the Pennsylvania Turnpike, compared to $13.25 on the Ohio Turnpike. PA charges between 12 and 14 cents per mile as opposed to Ohio's four to seven cents.
You also have to pay to enter the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. $7.45 just to cross the state line. What exactly is that money going for? It sure as hell isn't going for maintenance of the tunnels and the one billion dollar construction project has been completed... So why exactly are people paying to enter PA, especially when the toll rates are jacked up and just keep going up?
There's also the toll booths themselves. Look, I know we were getting off the turnpike at like 10:30 p.m. and nobody was expecting an accident to happen at mile marker 203, forcing everyone off at exit 201, but of the four toll booths, one was cash only, another was E-Z Pass only, and the other two were machines that give you the ticket to get on the turnpike.
So, you had traffic basically backed up to the Blue Mountain tunnel because people were waiting to pay their toll. Thank God the trucks have E-Z Pass, even if they were blocking the road so nobody could turn right, otherwise the traffic would have been even more backed up.
Wouldn't it have been more effective to have both exiting toll booths accepting both E-Z Pass and cash? I mean, even if one was just a machine that takes money.
Yet it's like that all across the turnpike! Why are there no toll booths at all on the Pennsylvania Turnpike that accept both? It is a very ineffective system that just backs up traffic at the toll booths.
The only thing I will give the PA Turnpike is that there was hardly any construction, whereas on the Ohio Turnpike from exit 152 to the state line, it's just construction. To be honest, I wouldn't be surprised if there was construction the whole way from the Ohio-Indiana line to the Ohio-Pennsylvania line because it's the Ohio Turnpike.
Still, I guess that one billion dollar construction project on the Pennsylvania Turnpike a few years ago was good for something.
I still love the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, even if their turnpike is literally the worst thing ever. I mean, all amazing places have aspects about them that suck. And for PA, that just so happens to be the Pennsylvania Turnpike.
