Pike patrol strives to collect more in fees

If you have ever broken down on the Massachusetts Turnpike, you may have received some surprise help changing a tire or adding a few gallons of emergency gas to your tank from a roving emergency service worker.

The Turnpike Authority's 10 emergency service patrol trucks were on the chopping block a few months back, when executive director Alan LeBovidge was searching for ways to erase multimillion-dollar gaps in the budget. LeBovidge figured that in the age of cellphones, drivers without an American Automobile Association membership could call a private emergency service if they were in a pinch.

He's had a change of heart. The current set of 10 trucks will stay. But the authority is trying to mitigate the $1 million annual cost.

Step one: The Turnpike Authority board approved a $376,000 sponsorship deal that will put the Commerce Insurance logo prominently on the trucks once the sides finish negotiating the final details.

Step two: The agency will try to collect more fees for the service, which currently brings in about $100,000 a year.

Motorists are now asked, on the honor system, to pay a $20 fee with an envelope they get from the patrol member. But not everyone is asked to pay. If you need only a little gas or water, you are less likely to get one than if you get help changing a tire or some other substantial assistance, said Steven Jacques, director of business development for the authority.

"It's a true honor system and it's based on guilt," said Michael Angelini, an authority board member who has used the service in the past.

Jacques said the authority is looking at raising that fee and accepting credit cards on the spot, to get more people to pay. Stay tuned.

Unscrambling transit plans
Just about anyone in the state who cares about public transportation can name a new rail line, trolley service, or subway extension that they insist would change everything for the better.

For some, it's adding a rail branch, like a line to Fall River-New Bedford. For others, it's a key connection, like extending the Blue Line so that it connects with the Red Line. And of course, there are plans to bring the Green Line to Somerville and Medford, create an "urban ring" - bus or rail - around the perimeter of Boston, and build a tunnel connecting the two branches of the Silver Line between downtown and the Seaport.

Most of these projects have been laid out in plans or written into legal requirements somewhere in the state. But it's tough to keep track of them all, much less figure out which ones will actually get built.

A new report from the Massachusetts Public Research Interest Group, called "Connecting the Commonwealth," attempts to make sense of the projects. Of course, the people at MASSPIRG are very protransit and don't really want to say no to anything. But the report offers a pretty comprehensive description of all the options out there. You can link at it here: www.masspirg.org/report.

School zone zone-outs
Few of us see the horrors wrought by Massachusetts drivers as intimately as Ken Bonacci. He swoops up schoolchildren who are carelessly running into traffic, and he may come within inches of getting knocked off the road by a car speeding in a school zone.

Thankfully, through 16 years as a school crossing guard in Beverly, Bonacci, and the children have avoided accidents. The retired mail carrier said few people obey the 20-mile-per-hour speed limit, even in the morning when the sun is hampering their view and they are coming down a hill toward his crosswalk at Ayers Ryal Side Elementary School.

"Ninety-five percent of the people that go through there, go through there every day. So its not like it's a surprise that they're in a school zone," he said.

But his biggest pet peeve is cellphones and other driving distractions, a topic that comes up frequently in this column.

"They could be on a cellphone, they could be text-messaging. I've seen them comb their hair. I see them pet their dog. You name it," he said. "It's pretty scary."

A bill that would have required drivers to use a hands-free device while on a cellphone died in the Legislature last year. Bonacci said he would at least like to see one for school zones. Even without a law, he would like a see a little more common sense.

"People have to realize they're in an area with a lot of children," he said. "And being children, they do things that are unpredictable."

Please send complaints, comments, or story ideas to starts@globe.com. The column and a listing of major road closures and other transportation advisories can be found at www.boston.com/starts.