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Friday, August 8, 2014

How Do I Find Out Tolls Beforehand?

“I’m planning a trip. Is there a way to find out beforehand how much the tolls will cost?”

If you’re planning a trip in this last stretch of summer and you want to plan ahead and find out how much cash you’ll need to pay the tolls, you’re in luck. Every state we've checked has a website with a fare calculator. Ohio’s, for example, is at http://www.ohioturnpike.org/travelers/fare-calculator/. While the sites are all set up a little differently, they all give you the option to choose your vehicle class as well as the points that you’ll be getting on and getting off the toll road. If applicable, the sites also provide the fares for toll bridges.

We have another patron who’s planning to walk around the entirety of Lake Erie next spring. He wanted to know if he could walk across the bridges in Detroit and Niagara Falls that cross from the United States into Canada. Again, we were able to go to the websites of the bridges in question and find the tolls listed there. While the Rainbow Bridge in Niagara Falls lists a fifty-cent charge for pedestrians and bicyclists, the Ambassador Bridge in Detroit only gives charges for motorcycles and automobiles. However, when our patron looked at the street-level pictures of the bridge available on Google Maps, he noticed a sidewalk. It would probably be best to be prepared to arrange a ride across, just in case.

For avid travelers, we have an assortment of travel guides available for borrowing, including The Rough Guide to the USA, Lonely Planet USA, Lonely Planet Canada, and Off the Beaten Path: Ohio. Though it’s in our reference collection and not available for checkout, we also have the most recent Rand McNally Road Atlas here for anyone to page through.

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