Each morning at 8, Russ Shupak leaves his home in Toms River and starts a commuter’s version of the game Chutes and Ladders.
Playing against thousands of opponents on two of America’s busiest toll roads, he drives north on the Garden State Parkway and New Jersey Turnpike to reach the finish line at his workplace in Newark.
Free-flowing traffic and a lucky run of green traffic lights help him move up the rungs and closer to his hopeful 9:20 a.m. arrival; accidents, potholes and red lights send him down the slide.
Beginning Jan. 1, he and hundreds of thousands of other Jerseyans have another major obstacle to contend with: a 53 percent toll hike on the Turnpike and 50 percent increase on the Parkway.
“Fifty percent — that’s no joke,” said Shupak, 38, a mutual fund administration manager who has made the commute for five years.
Signs are going up tomorrow reminding the drivers who make 600 million trips a year on the Parkway and Turnpike about the hike — the second part of a two-phase toll increase adopted by the New Jersey Turnpike Authority under Gov. Jon Corzine in October 2008.
(Source: NJ Star Ledger)
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5 Responses
so much for “no taxation without representation” thank heavens we rebelled against the brits now we can have a govnt without a british accent sticking it to us
Another thing we have to thank Corzine for.
Highway Robbery !!!!!!
All for little to no reason. Alas there is limited choice if you want to get anyplace in NJ going north/south.
There goes my annual raise (which I’ll have to pay tax on).