Over the last few days, The Inky has had two stories of interest about toll highways. On Monday, the paper looked at toll cheaters and the recent efforts to crack down on them.

The bigger story is politicians in New Jersey and Pennsylvania are looking at leasing their turnpikes, but residents are skeptical. My instincts tell me that “transforming public utilities into private monopolies” is not a good idea.

Responding to Gov. Ed Rendell’s push for privatization, the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission has released a proposal (Post-Gazette) that would increase tolls by 25%, sell bonds, create a “congestion fee” in the Philly, Pittsburgh, Harrisburg and Wilkes-Barre/Scranton areas and install tolls on I-80. Apparently, the congestion fee would “encourage mass transit” but is that even an option outside of Philly? As for the tolls on I-80, I have mentioned before that I am not crazy about the idea, but would appreciate the irony a little bit. When I was in Northeast Pennsylvania as a Penn State Hazleton underclassman, lots of locals would complain about the I-80 westbound toll at the Delaware River as if were a grave injustice. They whined about Jersey being the tollbooth state, a nickname that might be more applicable to their home state by 2011.

It should also be noted that Pennsylvania congressman Bud Shuster was the chairman of U.S. House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure for many years. He was in a position to fix Pennsylvania’s roads, but choose to funnel money to projects in his own district (two of them are named for him) above all else. When he lost his chairmanship he quit Congress. His son was elected to fill his seat.

More from The Collegian: Rendell: State roads ‘extremely challenged’, the Patriot-News: You may need $1 more for turnpike and the CDT: Rendell makes stop in county to push transportation funding plan