Person Hated Paying Tolls, Burned Toll Booth Down

Some people were so unhappy with the toll booth in their town that they’re actually celebrating the fact that someone burned it down.

By on June 4, 2018
(Photo by Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images)

Look, we all hate paying tolls. A fee for driving on a road is miserable. It’s a little more understandable crossing bridges into the Bay Area, but still annoying. Whether it’s because you don’t think it should cost what it does, or more because you hate slowing down, then speeding back up. And toll booths cause traffic, there’s no question about that.

Someone in a small town hated paying tolls so much that they decided to set their local toll booth ablaze. Arson is never the answer, but the townspeople are leaning towards liking what the guy did. He’s even been called a “hero” for doing what he did. The toll booth in this town in Manchester, England is quite the irritation of the residents. The fee is only 12p, which is about $.16 in US terms. It’s not so much the fee that was the problem though, it was the traffic. The drive between towns where the toll booth is located is only a few minutes. But with the traffic, it would take an hour or more to get there. One resident says “Before I wouldn’t dare nip to the shops for some milk because it would take an hour and a half for what should be a three-minute journey.”

See also: You may have to pay even more to get to downtown San Francisco.

Overall, the townspeople have been happy without the toll booth. Some residents are even saying the arson was a “blessing.” The towns plan to replace the booth, but they’d like to update it, likely with the new video tolling tech. It will take a picture of your car as you pass through, and you’d get a bill in the mail. Just the same as a lot of the tolls work around here in Northern California. Read up on more about the toll booth here.

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