Living in Central Florida, I can say for a fact that our local economy slammed to a halt once all of the tourists and conventioneers stopped coming. The obvious changes were to the theme parks, hotels, restaurants and all of the secondary and tertiary businesses that depended on tourists as their customers. But there was an additional group of employees who were told to stay home because of the coronavirus – the toll booth operators.
All of the E-Pass tolls run by the Central Florida Expressway Authority have been operating without their attendants since March. That didn’t mean you were able to travel without paying tolls like during other emergencies in Florida. It just meant that the Expressway Authority would be sending you a bill for of your tolls, without charging the $2.50 surcharge they usually tack on to bill-by-mail.
I have an E-Pass so I have been paying my tolls as usual, but I must say that it felt good to see the electronic message boards telling drivers that the toll attendants were back and to make sure to stop and pay your toll. As per the Orlando Sentinel:
Toll collectors will return to Central Florida expressways on June 1 after weeks of closure during sheltering from the coronavirus pandemic.
Orlando has its share of problems, like any city in the United States right now. Many of those issues have nothing to do with the coronavirus. Seeing one of the precautions that was taken due to COVID-19 go away makes me hopeful that eventually, we’ll get back to an environment where we can live with the aftermath of coronavirus. It almost feels like that we’ll be able to get over the virus before we’re able to deal with the other issues faced by the United States of America.
#stayhealthy #staysafe #washyourhands
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This post first appeared on Your Mileage May Vary
