Massachusetts Turnpike

Why is there a Unilocal review for a road… Regardless, I found it, and I hate this thing. The service is terrible, the food is sub par at best, and we had to wait 20 minutes for a table even though me and my wife had reservations. When we finally got a table, the woman asked for the $ 1.75 fee, and then opened the gate and made us drive away without even giving us food. I had to pull over, walk to the kiosk, and demand she give me her bagged lunch. All we got was tuna salad. Not my idea of a romantic seafood dinner. Worst anniversary ever.

Crazy traffic. No fun. No traffic direction. Paying for what? Saturday night, 11pm.
No signage, nothing. Not happy.

I think it’s ABSOLUTELY hilarious that people are slandering A ROAD. It’s shocking that there’s even a Unilocal posting for A ROAD. And to all you cranky whiners — if you don’t like this road and have gripes with the maintenance or high price of tolls then FIND ANOTHER ROUTE to take. Most importantly, thank you VERY much for adding to my laughs this evening. What is this world coming to???

$ 7.85 in tolls to get 40 miles, that seems like a lot. Oh, and since I don’t have an EZ Pass transponder (we don’t have tolls where I live), it’s a good thing I’d brought cash. Fortunately, the Massachusetts Turnpike folks understand that there are some of us who need to pay our way on their road with legal tender. Jeez!
Other than a few unexpected merge lanes, the road was smooth and relatively straight. The exits are a bit on the sharp end, though. Thankfully, the rental car has decent tires!

Are there invisible tolls? Enterprise is charging me $ 4.85 for a toll + $ 13 «service charge». I paid ALL tolls back to Boston Logan airport from Vermont. WTF?

Buyer beware … fines and fees
$ 1.75 toll — MassDOT Turnpike scanners fail to read the EZpass transponder.
I appealed the mailed notice for $ 40 violation — which is reduced to $ 11.75 ($ 10 administrative processing fee.) But the appeal notice is emailed (not mailed) and I missed the deadline to pay. ((BTW deadline is from date of violation.))
MassDOT increases to $ 91.75 ($ 1.75 toll, $ 40 toll violation, ?wasn’t that appealed? but now called a «fee», + $ 50 mystery fee — not explained even on the Mass code schedule of fees and fines.)
Interesting reading — MassDOT suspends your right to operate a vehicle in the Commonwealth. And, the data collected by MassDOT cannot be FOIA-​ed.
Welcome to Massachusetts!
* after calling the EZpass organization and MassDOT — I paid $ 41.75 — no one could explain the added $ 50 ?? smells like a irresponsible contracted service without oversight.

Oh where to begin. First off, I take this miserable, poorly maintained and horrifically planned strip of hell every day to and from work. A mere 16.1 miles. Driving the pike is the only option — yet somehow this «privilege» costs me 6 bucks a day and anywhere from 20 minutes (in the morning) to 3 hours (afternoons). The morning ride at 6 is lovely. No issues, smooth sailing– until you get to the toll booths. Whoever thought that randomly placing the ez pass and cash lanes intermixed and in different locations from each previous toll booth, needs to have their heads examined. Make like easy. Keep things consistent. The only consistency is that these archaic things slow down the whole process. Do what NH and other states have done and impose the high speed ez pass lanes.
And thats only half the issue.
Whoever thought that creating a singular source or east west travel through a major metropolitan city needs to be fired. There are 0 alternates that are feasible during any traffic situations. And surface streets are an even bigger joke!
Those cabbies and livery car drivers who do 25 in the left lane through the tunnel to only slam on the breaks and bolt all the way across 4 lanes of traffic to get to the airport, need to be fired.
And once you get off the interchanges need to be seriously examined, just like the mental capacity of the person who designed them. Take the newton exit for example. You have one of the worst cross overs of roads anywhere. You have traffic merging off the Pike into traffic that flows at a constant rate across trying to get to and from watertown. Then when you get to the other side you have to fight hotel traffic, oblivious bus drivers and those getting off the pike heading east just to get to center street.
If there was an easy, reliable way to get to and from work from home — short of being superman, then i would bid the pike farewell– save on fridays when i leave the misery of the area and travel back home where roads have some reasonable amount of planning. But that trip which takes 2 hours on a good day, can take upwards of 9 to just get out of the hell that is Massachusetts.
In short, the pike needs to be widened, straightened, repaved and streamlined for 21^st century traffic patterns.

I use the Mass Pike every day for work, but I take the express in from Downtown to Newton Corner. It’s useful when there’s no traffic, and there’s usually traffic on 90E as opposed to 90W… unless there’s an accident on 90W. I think it’s very useful up until the Mass Pike becomes 2 lanes and the potholes say hello.
I used to work when I did have a car, and then I would take Storrow Drive home because I didn’t want to deal with the tolls and bumpa to bumpa traffic on the Pike to lovely 93. Although I have an express bus pass, when traffic hits, I question how much I pay per month for an «express» bus pass.
Hmm.
Seriously, though. If you don’t want to deal with horrible traffic, check the maps before you head out, and if it’s bad, research plan B (if applicable).

Can someone please explain to me why travelling on the Mass Pike is somehow worth $ 1.25−5.00 more each way than any other road in The Commonwealth? Am I missing something here? Is it harder to build a highway running East/​West than North/​South? The toll workers can at times be friendly, but more often than not they are either too engrossed in their music or a phone call to have much to do with you other than collect your money. Now with the move to electronic toll collection, and tolls now being easier than ever for the government to collect you can be sure these tolls will never go away, they will only increase. It’s really a shame, you can’t go out for a drive without the government reaching into your pocket. Oh, and the lines at the toll booths can often eliminate any time savings you may have gained by taking the pike in the first place.

If you don’t like The Pike then take Route 20 and suck it up. Really.

As i pulled up to the cash only booth on 8÷16÷13 at 1045pm i was greeted by a total jerk who snapped at me for giving him a 20 $ bill. Thx alot jerk

It’s a great way to get around, but if you’re in the Boston area, get ready to pay random tolls. Do yourself a favor get an EZ Pass.

Some of the other reviewers act as though the funds for the mass turnpike go exclussively towards the mass turnpike. As a New Hampshire driver, I go on 93 and I use the big dig and so forth and don’t pay a dime in tolls. It is time to eliminate tolls– they are unfair, create congession, cause accidents, slow traffic, cause more pollution, cause more noise, it is a complete inefficiency in every way.

The Get Up Kids wrote a song about the Mass Pike, which if I recall correctly has absolutely nothing to do with the Mass Pike, except that someone fell in love on it (which is hard, considering you can on a quiet day go from West Stockbridge to Logan Airport in about 2 ½−3 hours).
Beyond that, it’s a road. There are stops along it where you can stop and get food. The food is usually McDonald’s.

Many of the complaints about the Mass Pike pertain to its tolls. I’m all for the tolls. Tolls are good. Tolls ensure that highway drivers bear the true cost of road use, or at least something closer to the true cost. Those that scream for elimination of the tolls are basically asking that the cost of road maintenance be distributed to all taxpayers, regardless of whether they actually use the road or not. I’m fairly certain that the Constitution does not mention public subsidization of individual driving habits as an inalienable right.
Another common complaint concerns the potholes. I regularly drive between Boston and the I-​84 exit, and while it’s not the smoothest stretch of road known to man, I have yet to run my wheel into one of these two-​foot sinkholes that everyone seems to be hitting. It’s a pretty well-​maintained stretch, with major work being done at night, as it should be.
Personally, my main complaint concerns the intersection of the Mass Pike and 128 (I-​95 for non-​New Englanders). Going east, the Mass Pike goes from four lanes before the intersection with 128 to three lanes after, meaning that drivers from two of the area’s major highways have one fewer lane to sort it all out. The result is chaos at and upstream of the intersection, even during the evening commute into the city. Also, Watertown Square frequently backs up Exit 17 onto the highway for miles, again even for reverse commuters.
Overall, though, the Mass Pike is fine, and it’s an absolute gem compared to I-​93.

At first, I was kind of excited that I was going to be traveling on the Massachusetts Turnpike because all of the hype on TV about the ‘Big Dig’, but you know what? If you’ve seen one toll road, you’ve seen them all. And if you still don’t know what I’m talking about, there’s a slide show about this costly engineering feat here:
I paid $ 3.50 for the privilege in order to get out of Boston after landing at Logan Airport. It’s a lighted tunnel under the bay. It gets you to where you need to go. And that fee was probably the most expensive toll I’ve paid on this whole trip.

Based on the ridiculous tolls, you’d assume that the Mass Pike would have impeccably smooth, well-​kept roads.
But you’d be wrong. I have been driving back and forth on the turnpike for as long as I’ve known how to drive (about six years now). And correct me if I’m wrong, but it seems like the roads are getting worse. I drove from Pittsfield to Boston today, and I swear that the act of driving had turned into a game of «dodge the pothole». They seem to be working on repaving parts of it, but only in patches — why bother? But considering the Mass Pike is the fastest way to get across the state, I guess I’ll have to continue to deal with it!

Good morning toll booth change maker man. Quick question… did you really just reprimand me for paying with a $ 20? Did you seriously just tell me I should have gone to the bank first to get smaller bills for the toll??? Maybe I’m mistaken, but I believe there are only 3 parts to your job description.
1. Stand in toll booth.
2. Accept toll money.
3. MAKE CHANGE.
It’s on now, Mr. Toll both change maker. I will follow your suggestion and go to the bank before seeing you next time. I will go to get a $ 100 bill to pay your $ 1.25 toll with. And the following time I will pay with 125 pennies. Have a great day.

When I made the trip from Hartford to Boston on a regular basis, I LOVED taking this route. Speeding was never an issue. Road condition was also never an issue. Traffic could be troublesome at times, but go off-​peak hours and it’s usually not any worse than a busy 84.
I know tolls suck. I grew up in PA, where every time I turned around tolls were being added to bridges and highways. But they really do help keep up with the wear and tear. Besides, would you rather have yet another gas tax like we do in CT?

Yes, the tolls are ridiculous and keep getting jacked up every two to three years. However, that money has to be going to the upkeep of this highway because it’s very well maintained.
I heave a sigh of relief when I enter the Mass portion of the Pike, because I know I won’t be pulled over for grossly surpassing the speed limit, most people know to stay off the left lane if they aren’t going ridiculous speeds and my Fast Lane pass lets me zip through the tolls.
Yes, Rt 2 is free and somewhat scenic, but when your car is as screwed up as mine, you want a nice flat, even surface to drive on, not potholes the size of New Zealand.