In Illinois, there are many toll booths near on-ramps and on the tollway itself where it doesn’t seem like there is any nearby parking for the toll-booth attendants (at least none that I’ve noticed).
How do they get to their jobs when their shift starts? How do they leave? Is there some shuttle bus that takes them to and from a central parking area to their toll plaza?
The toll booths in Queensland (before they got rid of them last year) had underground tunnels and walkways connecting them to offices/parking area usually located behind a sound barrier or landscaping and typically not visible to passing motorists, FWIW.
In Florida,most of the tollbooths have a small building off to the side of the booth. It’s usually marked Florida Highway Patrol and there is a parking lot either next to it or behind it.
You probably just haven’t noticed it. Here’s a tollbooth on the Tri-State; notice there’s a parking lot that’s connected to Lawrence. And another tollbooth on the Northwest Tollway; that parking lot is connected to River Road.
On the little off-ramps from the Dulles Toll Road in northern Virginia, I believe that the toll-takers park on the shoulder just past the booths.
BorgHunter, those pictures were really helpful. You’re right, I think I haven’t noticed the parking, because often-times it is hidden from the tollway vantage point.
Yes, same here in MA. And the attendants scamper across the lanes, booth-to-booth to get to/from their post.
Tangentially, how do toll booth workers get to and from work and not get charged tolls? Or do they? Also, do cops/ambulances/highway patrol get charged tolls if not on duty?
Often the parking lots for toll collectors are but accessed by regular streets.
While in some cases, they have to, there are tunnels under the tolls that come up somewhere in the middle of each travel direction. Look for them next time you’re going through one of the big toll areas (pike/128 is a good one). You’ll see a railing and stairs headed down. They come up through there, and it limits the number of active lanes they need to traverse.
The smaller toll stations have no tunnels, and the scampering applies to all booths.
Yet another reason for folks to SLOW DOWN in the toll booths, or eliminate the damn things in the first place.
I read the thread title as “How do toll-booth collectors get their jobs?”
The job is not too difficult, and pays very well for the minimal job skills required, so I would think there would be a long waiting list. Or do you have to know someone in the union?
A lof of them have frontage roads that don’t connect to the Interstate or highway. On others you can see a side road leaving off of the highway. I’ve actually seen them change shifts where the toll collector leaves, another goes in the booth and the one getting off his shift runs across traffic.
I’ll second this. It’s kinda weird, really. They just drive through the booth, pull onto the shoulder, and leave it there all day.