407 - a love/hate relationship

There is an electronic toll route highway just north of Toronto, Hwy 407 aka Electronic Toll Route aka ETR aka 407ETR.

http://407etr.com/

It's quite stupid that the government decided to lease out the business for 99 years because this route is actually a money making road that, as usual, the government, for whatever stupid reason (Liberals or Conservative), cannot run it as a profit business (see Ontario economy budget).

Now, the company that runs 407, I believe has kept the same type of billing system. Here is how it works:

- you lease a transponder, a device that tracks your entry and exit point on the highway
- the transponder is either $21.50/year or $2.50/month
- 2 types of transponder, light vehicles (cars) and heavy vehicles (transport trucks, and bus)
- approx 18¢/km for off-peak hours and approx 20¢/km for peak hours

Toll route doesn't really exist in Canada (mostly due to the taxes we pay) and if I remember correctly, people objected to paying to drive this highway. But if you look at it now, people use it like other roads.

So, why is it so good that it's also bad?

First, it saves time. You will get a few minute extra of sleep in the morning.
Second, convenient. If you live close to 407, it makes sense to use this then to drive down approx 15min to the alternative non-toll route Hwy 401.
Lastly, saves gas. Because you get on the highway right away and it's QUITE rare to see traffic jam on 407, it's smooth sailing.

Today, I went to Oakville (two town west of Toronto) and it was about 85km drive from my house. If I had used 401 to Oakville, I would be fighting traffic around Yonge St, then around Hwy 427, then Hurontario on Hwy 403 in Mississauga, THEN on QEW Oakville where the Ford plant it. This route without traffic would take approx 45min to 55min but with traffic in those area specified, I would guess about 2 hours and that is just normal traffic congestion. If an accident or a road closure happened somewhere along the way, I would guess it would take closer to 3 hours.

My route this morning was 407 to 403 to QEW and exit Dorval. It's approximately 80km. The only problem I bumped into was on QEW exiting to Dorval. Total time? 45min. On my way back, I took a slight different route since it was lunch time, traffic was not that bad and I went QEW to 403 to 427 to 407. I had to get back to work and couldn't tell if 401 was going to be nice during lunch time, so I decided to use 407. Total travel time? 30min.

Yes, you read that right. I drive FAST and blazed 407 like it was a racetrack with one hand on the wheel and a burger in the other. I was hungry, ok?

Total distance travelled; approximately 200km.
Total time on the road; approximately 2 hours.
Total cost on 407 round trip; $25
Total time saved; who knows but I'm going to guess that I saved 2 to 3 hours on the trip.

So, for $25, I saved myself 2 to 3 hours AND the headache of stuck in the traffic...

407... why do you have to be so convenient and so expensive at the same time?