The last straw was when, the other day, the stupid toll booth didn’t register my loonie and some bridge commission employee gives me shit.
Uh…Why do we have all these stupid toll booths again? It’s like going through some Palestinian checkpoint to work everyday. The tolls are retarded, they slow everyone down and we pay for all these guys to walk around, ‘managing the bridge’. Give me a break! Ever been to Vancouver? Some 6 big bridges onto that peninsula and not a single toll. American tourists come here and look across the Halifax Harbour to the tolls on the Macdonald bridge and ask, “Is that a border crossing over there? Is Dartmouth a demilitarized zone or something?”
Nope, all those guys in uniform and that office building attached to the bridge are all there to collect tolls so we can pay for all those guys in uniforms and the staff that runs the MacPass office and the permanent maintenance crews and the shiny police car-looking suvs all to run a stupid bridge?!?!!!
We suck.
—Bridge Commission is Retarded!
This article appears in Apr 23-29, 2009.
Uh….the toll booth didn’t register your LOONIE because, if you read the sign, it doesn’t take LOONIES it only takes QUARTERS.
Dumbass.
You deserved to get yelled at.
The other day someone cut in front of me to get into the MacPass only lane, only one little problem, they didn’t have a friggin’ MacPass!!!
Yes, going over the bridges is EXACTLY like travelling into Palestine. Ever been to New York? Bigger than Vancouver, has toll bridges.
I hear you OP. Having lived in Vancouver it was at first strange to see these toll bridges, then trying to figure out what the hell you’re paying for. My first time going through there I tried to pay with dimes.
Aren’t there tolls everywhere in the States, not just on bridges?
Go back to school and pay attention to the ‘Reading and comprehension’ class.
Or eff off back to Vancouver, we like the slower pace here and we don’t have a downtown eastside – the most disgusting place on earth.
I thought I had seen the most gross slums in 3rd world countries years ago until I went to Vancouver, makes the Congo look civilised.
Ok, first of all, you can pay with lonnies and toonies too. If there was a 100 dollar coin you can bet you could pay with that too. So dumbass yourself pretty kitty.
And true, lol, crossing the bridges is a little different than travelling in Palestine. The bridge commissioners don’t point machine guns at you or anything…
And for Vancouver, I wasn’t saying it had no tolls because it was bigger. Yes, the GW bridge in New York is like 8 bucks!
The Eastside in Van. is a slum because all the mentally ill drug addled homeless people in Canada make there way there because they can live outside without dying in the winter.
Vancouver is awesome! So is Halifax. The bridge commission sucks!
The catch basins are designed to take quarters and tokens. They can’t be guaranteed to read anything else(and God only knows if that jams anything up in there), which is probably why there’s a GIANT 3×25 sign above the tolls. You can pay with any monetary amount you want, as long as you’re flicking 3 quarters in the basket.
Related bitch:
I was once angrily told by a tollbooth attendant: “I can’t be making change like this during rush hour.” …which was funny because they were under a giant sign reading “Change”.
Ooooh OP called me a dumbass because I called him/her a dumbass! Good one! What are you? Fucking 10 years old?
Go read the toll booth sign again: it takes QUARTERS ONLY. QUARTERS. Your fucking reading comprehension skills need work, Bridge Bitcher. I suggest you take notice next time you cross either bridge.
The fucking baskets don’t read anything but quarters. But since you know everything, I’m sure they’re supposed to read YOUR loonies. But only yours.
Fuck, it amazes me how some people can actually manage to get out of bed and get themselves dressed in the morning, let alone in a car and over a bridge.
MACPASS!!! Get it and stop holding up traffic throwing loonies in the fucking coin slots.
The toll baskets take quarters, loonies and toonies. If you don’t believe me, ask the HDBC.
The thing that gets me is the sudden increase over the last couple of years in commissionaires strolling back and forth across the toll lanes like ducks in a shooting gallery, and the installation of those dumb saluting-arm barriers that never seem to work right. What a waste.
PK— Bridge Boy (he’s immature to be a man/bitcher) should be his name. It doesn’t take half a brain to get dressed and drive a car. This is the guy who probably yells at the meter maid when he doesn’t put money in a meter and gets a parking ticket. BRoc— I’d like to say there are some of us who don’t travel to the Darkside (I especially like the Palestine allegory) on a regular basis, so a MacPass might not be an answer. Although, if you travel across more than 3 times a week, of course.
It is pretty amazing pretty kitty- I agree! Now go back to literally interpreting every sign you see rather than using your brain. It is fun to cut people up pretty kitty and I see you are a pro but if you don’t get your facts right, you will keep coming off looking like a douche.
ummm bridge bitcher, doesn’t interpreting consist of “using your brain”…i donno, thats just my opinion, and what fact’s isn’t pretty kitty getting right. The tolls do take loonies, but factually speaking, I’m pretty sure that the sign does say quarters only…I could be wrong though. Either way, it doesn’t seem like pretty kitty is the one coming off as a douche, if you even know what that word actually means.
I think it deplorable we entertain toll roads of any kind in this country. And here in Halifax where winter parking fine revenues would pay for bridge maintenance twice over… why do we put up with this shit?
For the record… those machines don’t make change and they take only quarters.
kay and pretty kitty – the machines DO accept loonies. I’ve done it several times when I didn’t care about the extra 25 cents and didn’t want to wait in the Change lane line-up. I’ve never tried toonies though.. I’m not that extravagent.
If you don’t have the 3 x 25 cents or a macpass, just pull into the change lane and get your loonies/toonies/whatevers changed into quarters. Plan ahead (or get the MacPass) and you’ll never run into this problem.
Actually the toll for cars is .75 cents but it is more for trucks $8.00 for an 8 axle truck to cross. $2.50 each way for a bus of 16 or more.
That is why the toll booths officially accept toonies and loonies. I know the sign says 3x .25 but that is for idiots who can’t think for themselves (eg. it is a minimum of 3 x .25- no pennies, nickels or dimes)
So all those truck drivers should go and protest- ‘Pretty kitty says the sign says 3 x .25 so I am not paying the extra $7.25!)
JB Nice to hear that lovely martime hospitality.
“Or eff off back to Vancouver, we like the slower pace here and we don’t have a downtown eastside – the most disgusting place on earth.”
You don’t like us ‘come from awayers’ here do you.
I know your not all xenophobic here but here’s a good example of one.
Get a MacPass or go through Bedford. Stop whining! There are toll roads everywhere. Deal with it.
As someone who regularly drives large vehicles through the toll booths, I decline your request for me to protest PK’s way of thinking. Metro Transit does what just about every trucking company who deals with Halifax does and gets a MacPass. Not only is it faster, but the cost to cross is a lot less (buses go from $2.40 to $1.20 a crossing). Also, large vehicles are only allowed to use the 3 toll booths on the right side of the MacKay going in either direction. They are either change lanes with an attendant, or MacPass. It’s moot on the MacDonald as buses are the only allowed large vehicles there and they mostly deal in MacPass.
#@%$- we don’t mind ‘comefromawayers’except when they post ignorant bitches blaming someone else for their lack of comprehension. Nova Scotia is full of CFAs and we think life here is preferable to life in most other parts of Canada. Sure it has problems but having met thousands of visitors from around the world I can assure you they really appreciate what we have here, as will you as time passes.
I am well aware of why DTE is a slum, what amazes me is that politicians representing that area seem incapable or unwilling to improve the 18th century situation.
To be clear, loonies are perfectly acceptable on both bridges…
Secondly the longstading toll has more to do with our governments idiocy but using borrowing foreign currency to pay for the bridges, and shortly after doing this the exchange rates lets just say didnt go the way they anticipated, so they refinanced them again, with another currecny and, just imagine, same thing… They ended up costing a LOT more then they should have. not to say this is still why we pay, I think they like the constant money being thrown into their open baskets…
the troll under the bridge will take loonies…..
I heard that too LOGIC – it was something to do with borrowing from Germans when the Mark was introduced or something.
And everyone: They will take loonines, but don’t expect any change back. I used to do it all the time before I wised up and got a MacPass. It costs less to cross and you don’t constantly have to wait in the Commissionaires line to get change. And you can set it up for auto top-up when your funds get low. Seems like a no-brainer to me.
I wish they’d make more “MacPass only” lanes to encourage everyone to get one.
More MacPass lanes sounds like a good idea, but not everyone should get a MacPass for the reasons Dr.fever mentioned. So, if you make too many macpass lanes, you could end up with cars backed up onto the bridge waiting for their turn through the one booth that still makes change. What’s the ratio of MacPass only to change booths now?
There should be only one non-MacPass lane, at the far right. Everything else should be MacPass only. Get with the program.
Yet more of that Maritime Hospitality at work there, Keith. Thanx for that. Yup.
Actually, it is mainly the existence of tolls on the old bridge that I resent. It does make sense to have mostly MacPass lanes on the new bridge but the need for the Bridge Commission to run tolls on the MacDonald bridge is long past. It isn’t anything special and the tolls divide the Hfx-Dartmouth downtowns needlessly.
I know the government fucked up on the financing of the bridges but come on already! It was built over 50 years ago, is fairly short by modern standards and certainly doesn’t require dedicated ‘bridge police’ SUV’s, parked with a commissioner ready to…..uhhh…?
I think we can all handle the trip across without all the extra support from bridge police. I know they have to deal with toll jumpers but lets just move all that action off the Macdonald bridge by canning the toll and upping the one on the Mackay to a loonie 🙂
Bridge police also deal with non toll jumpers. jumpers being the operative word. I think at least once a month.
Don’t forget the regular crackups. There’s always at least one accident on the bridges per week, and someone needs to go push them off. You wanna wait for the tow truck, or the convenient SUV?
Can you imagine the insanity in this place if one bridge had no toll? The cheap assholes in this town would wait for an hour in gridlock for their free pass while the other bridge was empty.