By Joe Angelino

Early in the summer of 2017 my wife and I traveled by car to Newport, RI for a week’s vacation. According to the GPS guidance the shortest and best route was, as expected, by way of the Massachusetts Turnpike.

If you haven’t been on the Mass Pike in the past six months, you wouldn’t know the toll booths have recently disappeared. As we approached the former location of the toll booths, our GPS warned us to ‘slow down, toll plaza ahead’, but the small occupied boxes, and the equally narrow traffic lanes between them were gone.

What remained where the toll booths once stood for nearly fifty years was new jet-black pavement contrasting with the surrounding old gray macadam. The booths were replaced by overhead gantry scanners and cameras spaced out a various locations along the highway and at the exit and entry points to the limited access highway. The convenience was great, and not slowing down surely saved fuel and brakes, it’s just too bad for all of the Mass Pike toll-takers.