ETR is Canadian for toll road

[beige_alert]

It turns out that “ETR” stands for “Express Toll Route,” something that I, living in the USA, did not know until it was too late to figure out a different route. (I still haven’t the slightest what QEW means, but evidently not toll road.) I’ve finally gotten the bill, $10.12 Canadian for 25.1 km on the 407ETR on my way from Toronto to Niagara after FKO. That’s $4.22 for the toll plus various fees for not having and account set up or a transponder or any of that, not spending a lot of time driving around Ontario. They have a convenient web site for payment. I can’t exactly complain about it, given that I’m in favor of this sort of thing, though the extra fees being bigger than the actual toll seems slightly annoying. It always fascinates me that each state in the US (let alone other countries) has a different way of organizing their toll roads, if any, and, obviously, it’s out of the question for neighboring states to use the same toll transponders.

Comments

[jerusha.livejournal.com]

Actually, (and about !ing time, IMHO), IPass and EZ-Pass have unified their systems, with full interoperability [except, according to the web, some non-highway facilities like airport parking that accept EZ-Pass but not IPass]. You can therefore use your transponder from either authority on certain toll roads and bridges in Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, and West Virginia.

It would be nice if the toll authority responsible for the 407 ETR would unify with those systems, but I'm sure the cross-border nature would be a bureaucratic nightmare. OTOH, if other toll-collecting authorities in the USA would join their systems with the EZ-Pass/IPass system, that would be lovely, and more plausible.

QEW, I believe, is the Queen Elizabeth Way.

[jerusha.livejournal.com]

Duh! That's the EZ-Pass list of states; obviously, IPass ties Illinois into the same network. (Well, OK, obviously for northern Illinois and some southern Wisconsin readers.)

[peteralway.livejournal.com]

I thought it was Queen's Express Way.

Time for Google

You win. Queen Betty Way.

[maverick-weirdo.livejournal.com]

Alice: Well, I'm trying to find my way home...
Queen of Hearts: Your way? All ways here are my ways!

[tigertoy.livejournal.com]

When I went to my first FKO or two (at the not-so-swank hotel farther north on Dixie than the current one), the 407 was free for out-of-Ontario drivers. Then they figured out how to make their license plate recognition cameras read US license plates, and the FKO progress reports warned "ask not for whom the road tolls; it tolls for thee."