The start of a new year brings us another annual tradition: an increase in the cost to travel the Pennsylvania Turnpike.

New rates will take effect Jan. 8, when the most-common toll for a passenger vehicle will increase from $1.70 to $1.80 for E-ZPass customers and from $4.10 to $4.40 for Toll By Plate customers.

It’s the 15th straight year tolls have been increased on the 360-mile highway. Prior to 2009, the Turnpike Commission had raised tolls only five times since 1940.

And the trend won’t end anytime soon. Revenue projections created by the commission have recommended future annual toll increases of 5% through 2025, 4% in 2026, 3.5% in 2027 and then a 3% annual increase from 2028 until 2050.

A 5% increase in tolls may not seem like much, but nonetheless, it’s yet another thing we are being asked to pay more for these days.

A bigger concern is the alarming increase in “leakage” due to uncollected tolls. The amount of unpaid turnpike tolls went up dramatically in the past year — to nearly 48%. The Associated Press reported half of the millions of motorists who don’t use E-ZPass can travel without paying under the “toll-by-plate” license plate camera system.

In September, it was disclosed that the commission's pandemic-era conversion to all-electronic tolling resulted in more than $104 million in turnpike tolls being uncollected during the 2020-21 fiscal year. That’s a $16 million increase over the previous fiscal year, according to a quarterly report prepared for the turnpike commission.

In November, Gov. Tom Wolf signed legislation aimed at getting owners or operators of some 25,000 vehicles to pay their overdue bills for turnpike usage. The law, which could trigger the suspension of thousands of vehicle registrations, also takes effect Jan. 8. It allows for criminal and financial penalties to help curb scofflaws.

Though prosecution may not put much of a dent in the millions of dollars lost through unpaid tolls, at least our legislators finally are addressing the problem.

— JGG