They are taking away our open highways

[MineralMan]

48. Yes. For long, pre-planned trips, it's easy to plan around

toll roads. The real issue comes in around major urban areas, where tolls on interstate highways can present some real challenges for both commuters and commercial travelers. Tolls are used in Minnesota only for high speed lanes on Interstates. Mostly they're for single-occupancy cars, but that may be changing down the road. I don't commute, so my travel is almost always during off-peak hours. Such toll or HOV lanes aren't really important to me.

For a few long-distance trips, I've actually bypassed entire states where the only reasonable route was a toll road. On the other hand, when I've had to make a trip in the shortest possible time, I haven't minded paying a toll if it saved me hours of travel time. It's all a matter of choice for me. For others, of course, the choices are less simple.

As I learned today, when the Interstate Highway System was first started, most of the early segments of it were, in fact, toll roads. Some of those are still toll roads, particularly in the Eastern states.

On principle, I prefer to avoid toll roads, but I'll use them if necessary. There's almost always a way to bypass them, though, and some of those routes are far more enjoyable to drive. For example, I detest the Pennsylvania Turnpike. It's exceptionally boring.