Yes, the Ambassador bridge, the Tunnel, and the Sarnia bridge all seem to flow pretty nicely IF you don’t hit them
a) during rush hour
b) during peak trucking hours
or
c) right after a heightened terror alert situation
Crossing there and back is usuallly pretty smooth. You should definitely fill up before you cross the border, and if you have a vehicle with a decent range, you won’t even have to get gas in Canada at all. They price their gas by the liter there, and even with the exchange rate it’s much more than it is here.
I’d definitley recommend doing it this way. Canadian roads are fairly wide open, so you don’t have to worry about traffic nearly as much. And no tolls.
<minor hijack>
Tolls on Interstate highways? Silly me, I thought those things were built and maintained with our tax dollars. How does a state get away with charging tolls for their use?
</mh>
I hope we don’t get that destitute—the Illinois portion of our toll will be maybe a buck or two . . .
(I’ve had a portion of the Berrymans’ “Sesquicentennial Minute” running through my head . . . the part where the explorers (Merriwether Lewis and Kimberly-Clark) knew they had gone too far south when their guides began to stop every few miles to throw 40 cents into the bushes. That cracks me up every time I think about it!)
I truly appreciate everyone’s input. We’ll definitely print this thread out and take it along, and sort of decide the route as we go. We do have certified birthcertificates and photo ID, so we could go the Canada route if we wanted. But I doubt that it will be on this trip.
Nope. I can’t speak for other states, but the Illinois Tollway was built with, and is supported entirely by user fees.
Scarlett67, if you’re planning to do any significant amount of driving in the Chicago area anytime in the near future, I’d strongly recommend getting an I-Pass. You’ll save a ton of time (especially with the amount of system-wide construction that’s underway), not to mention 50% over the cash tolls in Illinois, and it’s also compatible with EZ-Pass states like New York. If this is a one-shot trip, see if anyone you know would lend you one.
As Keith noted, some interstates were funded by bonds which were to be repaid thru user fees (tolls). The Ohio Turnpike is one such road. Of course, the bonds for that construction have been paid off for a number of years now. I seem to recall a state-wide ballot issue about a dozen years (or more) ago, where it was put to the voters whether to keep the tolls (ostemsibly to pay for maintenance), or to remove them. The voters in Ohio elected to keep the tolls.
http://www.ohioturnpike.org/faq_index.html#gfaq2
And the speed limit on the Indiana tollway was recently raised from 65MPH to 70MPH. The Ohio speed limit is still 65 - and the state troopers aren’t too forgiving, so watch your ass in Ohio.
One of the ways that the Federal Government actually saved (a few) pennies was to designate exisiting limited access highways as part of the Interstate system. The New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Indiana toll roads all existed (in whole or in part), prior to the creation of the Interstate system. I am not sure about the Illinois, Connecticut, or Massachusetts toll roads.)
Is the speed limit really higher going through Canada than it is going through northern Ohio? 10 years ago I used to travel regularly from Chicago to Boston and the one time I went through Canada, it seemed to take longer and the speed limit was, I think, only 90 kph. Plus gas was more expensive. Maybe things have changed.
In July my wife and I are driving from St. George ON (southwest of Toronto) to Thunder Bay. Should we go up through Sudbury and north of Lake Huron across to Sault Ste Marie, or through Michigan to SSM? Which is faster, including border crossing time? We’ve been told Michigan, but y’all are making me wonder.
