JerseyTrip-DelawareCrossingJerseyTrip-TurnpikeJerseyTrip-Pennside

So last weekend to took a trip to The Second Kingdom of Jersey. The maps will say New Brunswick or East Brunswick. That’s not quite right, though. The important part of the maps are three different ways of entering Real Life New Jersey.

The obvious way is straight from Delaware. I had been warned from multiple sources that this is actually not a good route to go and that instead I should go through Philadelphia.

Apparently there is a joke/observation in RLNJ that they never toll you coming in. Yet miraculously, I found out the one entrance where they do. In fact, exiting I-95 and going through Bristol and to the Penna Turnpike, they have you get a ticket and pay a $2.00 toll some 300 yards later. Most expensive toll driving ever. Especially when, contrary to the joke/observation, New Jersey asks for a toll some 1000 yards after I crossed the state line (not a toll to enter Jersey, precisely, but a toll station I guess I happened to run across right after entering the Garden State.

Being not-from-the-east-coast I am not particularly used to toll roads on major intersections, but I am getting used to it. Even so, $6.00 for such a small stretch was just galling.

On the way back it had me crossing while on I-95, which had me almost going straight out of Jersey, it seemed. I drove a really long stretch of Pennsylvania Interstate and, unlike the 300 yards, they didn’t collect a dime from me. So I guess it sort of evened out.

Oddly, one of my GPS apps suggested that I go through Harrisburg. Sounds interesting. Might do that next time.


Category: Road

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7 Responses to Now Entering/Exiting New Jersey

  1. Mike Hunt Rice says:

    Not that it makes much of a difference, but I believe the actual toll you paid for that stretch was $5.05 ($2.05 to PA, $3 to NJ).

    That is for 2.4 miles on the PA side and 6.6 miles on the NJ side.

    While it is the quickest way to get to where you were going, most people going to that part of South Jersey would just take the Burlington–Bristol Bridge instead. This carries PA 413 over the Delaware to NJ 413. And, just like the joke says, the toll of $2 is only charged going to PA.

    For going to where you were going, the most economical way is the reverse of the way you went home. Live and learn. Also, I noticed on my way back to the highway and Exxon station that was 10 cents a gallon cheaper than the one we stopped at.

    • trumwill says:

      It was 25-cents cheaper at the nearest place to where I was going. But it’s all cheaper than it is here.

      Really? It didn’t seem like nine miles at all. Particularly the 2.4 on the Penn side. Maybe I just trancated in my mind because I don’t really expect such a rapid succession of toll booths.

      • Mike Hunt Rice says:

        Particularly the 2.4 on the Penn side.

        Well that is the measurement between the booth where you got the ticket and the middle of the bridge.

        From toll booth to toll booth is 1.3 miles.

      • Peter says:

        The Garden State Parkway has one toll booth after another, especially in the northern part of the state.

        • trumwill says:

          Perhaps fortunately, I didn’t go much further north than New Brunswick.

        • Mike Hunt Rice says:

          To be precise, in a 23.6 mile stretch of the GSP in North Jersey there are four toll booths. However, a number of years ago the tolls were doubled and made one way, so one only has to stop twice. And since NJ is an EZPass state, one doesn’t have to stop at all.

          So, trumwill, did you run in Charles on your trip? If so, is he still in charge? I would love to be in charge of Nicole Eggert…

  2. Mike Hunt Rice says:

    Particularly the 2.4 on the Penn side.

    Well that is the measurement between the booth where you got the ticket and the middle of the bridge.

    From toll booth to toll booth is 1.3 miles.

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