Trimming toll costs; Layoffs at Turnpike to save $10 million.COLUMN: In our opinion With Fast Lane transponders now handling a substantial majority of transactions at Massachusetts Turnpike The Massachusetts Turnpike (commonly shortened to the MassPike or The Pike) is the easternmost 138-mile (222 km) stretch of Interstate 90. The Turnpike begins at the western border Massachusetts in West Stockbridge connecting with the Berkshire Connector portion of toll booths, the authority's decision to reduce the number of toll takers by about 25 percent is a welcome step in the agency's all-too-slow transition to the future. Over the next 12 to 18 months the authority plans to eliminate 100 positions, saving up to $10 million in costs for the debt-ridden agency, the Boston Herald The Boston Herald is a tabloid format newspaper, though not a tabloid in the traditional sense, and is the smaller of the two big dailies in Boston, Massachusetts (the other being The Boston Globe). reported. The move also will save time and frustration for motorists, more of whom are now likely to purchase transponders for automated toll collection. We have long believed that turnpike tolls should have been removed when the construction bonds were paid off two decades ago. As long as the authority remains a cash cow Cash Cow 1. One of the four categories (quadrants) in the BCG growth-share matrix that represents the division within a company that has a large market share within a mature industry. 2. that Beacon Hill Bea·con Hill An area of Boston, Massachusetts, noted for its historic residences, brick sidewalks, and picturesque mews. Noun 1. Beacon Hill - a fashionable section of Boston; site of the Massachusetts capital building is disinclined dis·in·clined adj. Unwilling or reluctant: They were usually disinclined to socialize. disinclined Adjective unwilling or reluctant to put out to pasture, however, the very least it can do is to run itself in as efficient a manner as possible. Staggered by financial missteps and Big Dig Big Dig or The Big Dig may refer to:
v. en·trenched, en·trench·ing, en·trench·es v.tr. 1. To provide with a trench, especially for the purpose of fortifying or defending. 2. , politically wired bureaucracy. Trimming the toll-taking force to a level more in keeping with the work load is another step forward. Toll takers receive about $70,000 annually on average for work that automated toll collection does at less than one-third of the cost. While maximizing Fast Lane use, the authority should move to adopt other available cost-saving technologies. One approach, "open-road tolling," virtually eliminates the need for toll takers. Motorists are given incentives to switch to transponders; the license plates of cars without transponders are photographed and the owner is mailed a bill. Open-road tolling already is being adopted in New Jersey, Florida and other states, and there is no good reason it can't be used in Massachusetts. In the current financial bind, efficiency measures are being driven by dollars-and-cents considerations. Also at stake, however, is public confidence in an agency in which politics rather than best management practices has too often held sway. |
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