Ohio Turnpike
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Ohio Turnpike Sign
The Ohio Turnpike is a publicly-built toll east-west expressway across northern Ohio. It enters Ohio at the Pennsylvania state line near Petersburg, Ohio, feeding to and from the Pennsylvania Turnpike and at the Indiana state line, feeding to and from the Indiana Toll Road near Columbia, Ohio. To the west it leads toward South Bend, Indiana and Chicago, Illinois; to the east it leads toward Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and points in the middle-Atlantic states. It passes such large cities as Toledo, Cleveland, Akron, and Youngstown.
It was built during the 1950s by the Ohio Turnpike Commission which continues to own and operate it. Tolls, collected at interchanges and near the state line by ticket upon leaving the Turnpike, financed the cost of original construction and debt service and now maintenance and renovation projects. All of it is incorporated into the Interstate Highway System as Interstate 80 and Interstate 90 west of greater Cleveland, Interstate 80 south of Cleveland and north of Akron, and Interstate 76 between the junction of Interstates 76 and 80 west of Youngstown. It was built as a long-distance route, and nowhere as an urban highway; it in fact skirts the large cities along its path, probably as cost-containment.
It had relatively few access points (17) when built, but in recent years more have been added. Some of those access points, new and old, include Interstate 75 and Interstate 280 near Toledo and serving also southeastern Michigan; Interstate 90, Interstate 71, and Interstate 480, serving Cleveland; Interstate 77 and Ohio State Highway 8, serving Cleveland, Akron, and Canton; Interstate 76 and 80, which switch highways, serving Akron to the west and Youngstown to the east, and Interstate 680, leading to and from Youngstown.
In 1998, the turnpike commission began phasing in the marking of exits by milepost. The old exit numbering system was phased out within four years.
The segment between the Indiana state line and Cleveland is part of (with the Indiana Toll Road) what John Steinbeck called "US 80/90" (by mistake), the most boring road in America. Low, flat, and with few curves, that segment has no scenic attraction. It is definitely not a highway for pleasure travel as such. East of Cleveland it enters more hilly terrain that becomes characteristic of western Pennsylvania.
The 'toll booth' scene in the movie Close Encounters of the Third Kind, which supposedly occurred at the western end of the toll road, is not a genuine portrayal of the toll road.