Are you going to pay for the new Toll Road?

[Badjelly]

In Melbourne the overhead gantries record your license plate as you progress through the network.

If you don't have an electronic pass, you have to ring a free call number within 72 hours of travel and purchase a day-pass (I pay by credit card, but I'm sure there are other payment options).

If you don't pay with 72 hours, a penalty fine is posted to the registered address of the motor vehicle (which they get from the plate number).

Mrs Jelly and I went on the Melbourne Citylink in a rental car earlier this month, after the MotoGP at Phillip Island. The price for a day pass, to travel on ~ 10 km of motorway through the city was AU$11. Steep, we thought, but better than having to navigate across the city on crowded roads. Melbourne's a lovely place in many ways, but we just wanted to get out of there.

If you get an E-tag it's a lot cheaper, though I don't know how much. (Maybe half that.) If you just decide not to pay, I expect it's much dearer, when they finally catch up with you. The rental car people told us beforehand that leaving the country without paying would be a very bad idea. And they had my credit card details, so we took their advice.

[The Pastor]

No I wouldnt the twistys at waiwera will be great with out traffic ;-)

cant wait, But ill pay to go through the tunnel at 16000rpm with the silencers out.

:-)

i want to get a group ride of 250s who will just nail it down the tunnel. It will sound like heaven!

[Maha]

2- Once all the cages go on that boring, straight, new highway the old road might be a better ride! Gimme corners!

Yip, with ya there.

im assuming the toll is to cover road damage and the like? if so, what are the rates for large trucks [stock, shipping continer etc]

bikes should be exempt from charges.

Its just a big fat case of 'user pays'...use the road and pay.
And why should bikes be exempt?... because they are lighter???

Will I pay it - Absolutely 100% YES!
once. Just to go thru the tunnel.
I like the road over the hills - and think that the view you get over the inlet (when riding south) is stunning. Why have a bike and pay more for less enjoyment ?

Good point. But it would sound damn fine with about 30 bikes in the tunnel at once....

[Forest]

Mrs Jelly and I went on the Melbourne Citylink in a rental car earlier this month, after Phillip Island. The price for a day pass, to travel on ~ 10 km of motorway through the city was AU$11. Steep, we thought, but better than having to navigate across the city on crowded roads. Melbourne's a lovely place in many ways, but we just wanted to get out of there.

If you get an E-tag it's a lot cheaper, though I don't know how much. (Maybe half that.) If you just decide not to pay, I expect it's much dearer, when they finally catch up with you. The rental car people told us beforehand that leaving the country without paying would be a very bad idea. And they had my credit card details, so we took their advice.

The daypass is expensive. However it does give you unlimited travel on all of the toll roads e.g. Citylink, Domain Tunnel, Batman Avenue, Eastlink etc.

The E-tag simply charges you a small toll for each tollway section that you use. So you don't pay for more than you use.

If you have an Avis rental car, they will charge you the full day-pass fee for every single day of your rental (which is a complete ripoff for long rentals). If you don't pay for rentals on your contract, and forget to buy any daypasses from the tollway operators, then Avis will charge you $9.50 for every day that you actually used the tollways plus a $20 administration fee.

[Mom]

No I wouldnt the twistys at waiwera will be great with out traffic ;-)
cant wait, But ill pay to go through the tunnel at 16000rpm with the silencers out. :-)

Doubt you will be going too fast through them twisties mate, they are not going to be dropping that 80kmh speed restriction in a hurry, and no doubt will be policing it harder knowing the thinking of some that will want to have a bit of fun through there once the tunnels are open.

We live just north of Puhoi. We have 5 vehicles and we travel south very regularly. Yes we will use that toll road, mostly for time saved getting to appointments, or the airport or what have you. We always have the option to take the old SH1 route, but I am old enough to remember the motorway extension from Wairou Rd, everyone said then they would prefer to take the old way as it will be less congested. Tui anyone?

What about the new motorway to Orewa, everyone will continue to use East Coast Road as it will be empty, it is for the most part, but now they dont maintain the fucker so well, and it is crap to travel on.

I just hope that we can have one account that all 5 of our vehicles can be loaded against is all.

As far as the amount of the toll is concerned, this is not about road damage, or attempting to get people off the road, it is apparently a levey to actually pay for the construction of the road. Therefore any user will have to pay. Be cool if the fee was less for bikes, but I doubt that will happen.

[Blackshear]

I know I may sound like a twat here, but I've had the perfect idea for a plate hider for some time now.
Think plate-sized calculator-type LCD.
Add a switch.
You have see through (May appear to be a plate protector to 99% of people, flick a switch in that 'show room' to turn it black.

Feedback?
A. Works
B. Wont works.

[davereid]

You can do better than that.. the speed camera defeater system...

Buy two cheap welding helmets with LCD darkening visors.

Put one of the screens over the left hand side of your number plate.
Put the other over the right hand side of the number plate.

Alternately, turn the left side dark, then the right side dark.

If you do it at 25hz, the human eye won't notice - it will use persistance of vision to fill in the gaps.

But a camera has a flash duration of 1/10,000th sec, and a best flash synch speed of 1/60th sec.

So, only one half of your number plate can ever be photographed in a single frame.

If you choose 25hz, and you add a third cycle, where both sides are dark for 1/25 sec, the human eye may notice flickering.

But a LIDAR based speed measuring device focussed on your numberplate would take a long time to lock, if it did at all.

This is because they have a 1/100 of a sec repetition rate (50hz) and need to get a number of "correct" readings before they lock.

If readings are missed, they have to start again.

[Blackshear]

You can do better than that.. the speed camera defeater system...

Buy two cheap welding helmets with LCD darkening visors.

Put one of the screens over the left hand side of your number plate.
Put the other over the right hand side of the number plate.

Alternately, turn the left side dark, then the right side dark.

If you do it at 25hz, the human eye won't notice - it will use persistance of vision to fill in the gaps.

But a camera has a flash duration of 1/10,000th sec, and a best flash synch speed of 1/60th sec.

So, only one half of your number plate can ever be photographed in a single frame.

If you choose 25hz, and you add a third cycle, where both sides are dark for 1/25 sec, the human eye may notice flickering.

But a LIDAR based speed measuring device focussed on your numberplate would take a long time to lock, if it did at all.

This is because they have a 1/100 of a sec repetition rate (50hz) and need to get a number of "correct" readings before they lock.

If readings are missed, they have to start again.

You're a fucking genius.

I swear. Now to find out how much the boss can gettem for tomorrow.

[MarkH]

Its just a big fat case of 'user pays'...use the road and pay.
And why should bikes be exempt?... because they are lighter???

More a case of bureaucrats double dipping and making users that have already paid pay again.

"you have to pay to use this road!"
"didn't I already do that? What happened to that road tax that I paid when I bought petrol?"
"Nah, we dumped a big chunk of that into the consolidated fund and spent in on health, education, justice & politicians salaries, we need more money now"

And of course bikes are lighter and therefore cause less wear on the roads. A big heavy 4x4 might weigh 10x as much as a bike and have twice as many wheels - why shouldn't bikes cost half as much or less for the toll road?

[alanzs]

I'll take it once to see if it's worth doing again. I think I'll take the coast road as there is no hurry and the view is quite nice...

[aahsv]

http://tollrider.com/

[rocketman1]

Bikes should be at least half the price of cars.
Bikes induce less than about 10% of the wear on a road as a car does
Bikes should pay no more than a $1, or better for free.
This will encourage people to use cheap transport like scooters etc
No its stupid to charge a bike $2.

[jade]

Yea they have quite a few tolls here in sydney, they are bloody annoying if you dont have an e-tag, but I wouldnt say they slow traffic down unless you are paying cash.. flip up plate would work

They have the same things overseas (like around Seeedneeee), which are the same except they also have an "e-pass" tag in your vehicle, and some have tollbooths for cash payment.

[jade]

Mrs Jelly and I went on the Melbourne Citylink in a rental car earlier this month, after the MotoGP at Phillip Island. The price for a day pass, to travel on ~ 10 km of motorway through the city was AU$11. Steep, we thought, but better than having to navigate across the city on crowded roads. Melbourne's a lovely place in many ways, but we just wanted to get out of there.

If you get an E-tag it's a lot cheaper, though I don't know how much. (Maybe half that.) If you just decide not to pay, I expect it's much dearer, when they finally catch up with you. The rental car people told us beforehand that leaving the country without paying would be a very bad idea. And they had my credit card details, so we took their advice.

I went to the same gp.. campervan.. went through 3 tolls... havent heard a word yet..
If you do decide to go through a toll without paying they send you a letter and you have about 10 days to pay it or it goes up to about 8 bucks from 4...

[Maha]

More a case of bureaucrats double dipping and making users that have already paid pay again.

"you have to pay to use this road!"
"didn't I already do that? What happened to that road tax that I paid when I bought petrol?"
"Nah, we dumped a big chunk of that into the consolidated fund and spent in on health, education, justice & politicians salaries, we need more money now"

And of course bikes are lighter and therefore cause less wear on the roads. A big heavy 4x4 might weigh 10x as much as a bike and have twice as many wheels - why shouldn't bikes cost half as much or less for the toll road?

$360 million to build, the term double dipping is a waste of a comment really. There weren't to many unhappy road users back in the Harbour Bridge Toll Days, people just got on with it and paid. The choice's are simple, use the toll road and pay or.....go another way. No point in getting bent out of shape about it. I will use it, probably not every trip down that way, my comment about bikes being lighter was sarcasm in case you missed it. About the only thing that will be exempt from paying a Toll will be Planes!
You may have to just deal with the situation as you see fit, everyone using toll roads pays the same amount, big, small or otherwise. Why should it be any different in this case? Your Burgman must weigh more than the average bike???