I have a confession to reveal here: I am a shunpiker — and although I have been one for years, I did not even realize that the term existed until earlier today, Tuesday, November 26, 2024.
Confession: I Am a Shunpiker.
A shunpiker is a person who deliberately avoids roads that require payment of a toll or fee to travel on them — usually by traveling on alternative routes which bypass toll roads. The travel could be via a road that charges no tolls or fees to use them — or it could be via an alternative mode of transportation.
According to the book The Mohawk Trail: Its History and Course — which was authored by William Bradford Browne — the term shunpike was coined as early as the year 1797, after Samuel Rice built a road over the Hoosac Range in northwestern Massachusetts. A road for stagecoaches was built nearby approximately in 1787, which became subject to control of the Turnpike Association incorporated in 1797. People who wanted to avoid the fees for using the turnpike used the Rice Road instead of the stage road — which is when the Rice Road earned the term shunpike.
Thrifty travelers of the Mohawk Trail forded the Deerfield River that same year rather than pay a toll at the turnpike bridge. By 1810, they won the battle for free travel on all roads in Massachusetts — but that victory was temporary, as it was apparently before the construction of the Massachusetts Turnpike and various bridges and tunnels which also require the payment of a toll to use them.
Although the interactive Google Map shown above did not preserve the Avoid Tolls functionality, a classic example of a shunpike is the following route of approximately 116 miles from south to north to avoid paying as much as $20.00 in tolls for passenger cars on the New Jersey Turnpike:
- United States Highway 1 from its intersection with Miller Street in Newark in New Jersey to its interchange with either:
- Interstate 295 in Woodborne in Pennsylvania
- United States Highway 22 west to The Garden State Parkway south to back on United States Highway 1 south to Interstate 295 in Woodborne in Pennsylvania, which is a quicker option but is longer in distance
- The terminus of Interstate 295 at Interstate 95 west of Newportville in Pennsylvania; and then to…
- The interchange of Interstate 95 to the other terminus of Interstate 295 south of Newport in Delaware
Some portions of United States Highway 1 are laden with traffic signals; but other portions are limited access highways or have no traffic lights in several locations — including but not necessarily limited to…
- Between Miller Street in Newark to North Avenue in Elizabeth
- The interchange with the terminus of Interstate 278 in Linden
- Between Smith Street in Avenel and Julius Street in Woodbridge
- Between Pierson Avenue and Prince Street in Edison
- Between Plainfield Avenue in Edison and a small shopping mall in North Brunswick
- Between Carnegie Center Boulevard in Princeton in New Jersey and Old Lincoln Highway in Bensalem in Pennsylvania — with the exceptions of
- One traffic signal at Bakers Basin Road in Lawrence Township in New Jersey
- A toll of $1.50 for EZPass customers or $3.00 for everyone else to use the southbound lanes of the Trenton-Morrisville bridge over the Delaware River — no toll is charged on the northbound lanes — but one can take Bridge Street over the Lower Trenton Bridge to avoid this toll
…and if the traffic signals are green, this shunpike potentially rivals that of the New Jersey Turnpike. The good news is that fewer traffic signals are along this route than when I used to take it.
Final Boarding Call
If tax dollars were not used to pay for roads and highways, then I would not mind paying tolls so much. I simply do not like the potential double taxation aspect. Either use tax dollars to pay for roads and highways — which might potentially be unfair to someone who does not drive or own a car — or have certain highways funded only by toll revenue.
I am not ashamed to be a shunpiker — but I also will not spend hours and the cost of fuel to go out of my way to avoid a simple toll, either…
…as that could potentially take a toll on me.
Do you know of any shunpikes that could save fellow readers of The Gate With Brian Cohen money without sacrificing much time and fuel? If so, please post them in the Comments section below.
All photographs ©2021 and ©2024 by Brian Cohen.
