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June 12, 2005

Fun and Games on (Government-owned) Toll Roads

thesmokinggun.com is doing a vacation traveling series on toll roads and the problems that weary and harassed drivers have had with the toll takers. In a great article TSG used the FOIA requests to examine letters of complaint from pissed off drivers and they make sad but hilariously funny reading, (even if they are redacted).

Such as this one:

"2 men in booth- Changing shifts patron told collector please take my money I have to go. Collector grabbed patron by shirt and scratched his face, and told him to pull over and see how much of man he is.
Additional Comments:
Patron claims to have contacted his lawyer."

This is but one, and there many, many more. About 20 or so actually. A dozen or so folks from the Garden State recently bitched about an article I linked to when I was STR Guest Editor a few days ago Giving the (State of New Jersey) the Finger and so this is my reply to those people.

In all fairness though, when I worked as an agricultural chemicals salesman and sales manager after I got out of the US Army I traveled all over the Great Lakes area of the Mid-west and I can tell you for a fact that the complaints and stories about rude, nutty, and clueless toll takers from Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio are about the same. Michigan does not have tolls except at (privately owned or managed) bridges and tunnels.

My own $0.02 worth is that if all these operations were privatized or better still, privately owned, you would see an amazing change of attitude from these people and the drivers as well. If Mr. Toll Taker is consistently complained against he can be fired. (What a concept eh?) If Mr. Motorist is acting like a jackass, he can be banned from using the road. (Terms of service: You gotta behave yourself asshole or we deny you service).

Free market ownership would be flexible and creative enough to hire, retain, and promote better people. In Ann Arbor, the parking structures are city owned but privately operated (that is to say non-union, and no "civil service" protection for assholes and slackers) and everything runs very smoothly. In Dearborn and Detroit, the parking attendants are city employees and between their civil service protection, union contract work rules, and $18 dollars an hour pay scales are safe to do, act, or say, whatever they fookin' want since they cannot be fired very easily. So there.

Posted by Ali Massoud at June 12, 2005 01:32 PM

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