To the editor:

As I sat in backed-up traffic for about the fourth day in a row on the single-lane portion of the I-70 turnpike, I wondered, “Why am I paying toll on the portions of a toll road which have been under construction for more than two years?” Aren’t toll roads supposed to be expressways?

Perhaps KDOT should require KTA to refund fares to KTAG users who have suffered through narrow lanes, closed exits and untreated bridge joints which knock my car out of alignment. The pièce de résistance happened about a week ago when the KTAG toll-gate malfunctioned (again) and came down on my car for no reason. As it scratched my new car hood and went flying to the ground, I wondered, “Why does KTA use parking lot toll gates for an expressway?”

In Atlanta, they have overhead readers for multiple lanes and a 35 mph speed limit through the entrances and exits on their freeways. If you don’t have a pass, the reader takes a picture of your license tag and sends you a ticket. How many times have you had to stop because someone went through the KTAG line without a reader in their car or slowed to 5 mph behind a big truck.

I guess I-70 does resemble a parking lot at times. I sometimes want to pull the Jet Blue escape slide. I would, but KDOT decided that they would close the bridge on 24-40 too.