January is here. It’s time for that special ritual of the new year.

Not the swearing in of new elected officials. Not signing up for a gym or diet plan to pursue a resolution that could wither by February.

No, in the Keystone State, there is something that happens every January with clockwork precision.

The Pennsylvania Turnpike raises the tolls.

The most common passenger-vehicle toll will increase from $1.50 to $1.60 for E-ZPass customers. That 10-cent increase is annoying but understandable. Everything costs more one year than it did the last. For a Class 5 tractor-trailer, the increase is an equally irritating but reasonable 80 cents.

What seems unfair is the way the fees are being increased dramatically for customers who don’t have the little white transponder box fitted onto the windshield. That box is connected to an online account that siphons money from a bank account or credit card to maintain the pool of digital cash for the tolls.

But for those who don’t have the E-ZPass — whether because they don’t use the turnpike often or maybe don’t have a bank account to link — the increase is disproportionate.

A car that doesn’t have the transponder can’t stop for the driver to pay the cash price because the cash price doesn’t exist anymore. The only option is Toll By Plate, where the license plate is photographed, tracked and a bill is sent by mail.

Sounds more complicated than “Here’s my money,” doesn’t it? That complication probably explains the greater cost. For a car using Toll By Plate, the toll was $2.50. It won’t go up by 10 cents. It won’t go up 20 cents or 50 or even a dollar. It jumps by 51% to $3.90.

If you drive a car, consider yourself lucky to just see that price hike. Class 5 tractor-trailers — the vehicles that carry our food and medical supplies and everything else — will increase from $17.30 to $26.60 without an E-ZPass.

The increases aren’t something that is even in question anymore. They are part of an obligation to pay money to PennDOT. Since 2009, that has resulted in $6.6 billion. This is the 13th consecutive increase, and turnpike CEO Mark Compton said in 2019 they could continue until 2044.

E-ZPass is definitely convenient for those who use it regularly. According to Compton, 86% of turnpike drivers utilize it, and the disparity is meant to place the burden of the Toll By Plate system on those who “choose a pricier payment option.” Whether they have chosen it or been pushed into that lane is debatable.

But a 6.7% increase for pass users versus a 51% increase for those forced to use Toll By Plate doesn’t seem fair.

Copyright ©2025— Trib Total Media, LLC (TribLIVE.com)