The cost to travel the Pennsylvania Turnpike from Lancaster to Harrisburg or Lancaster to Philadelphia has more than doubled over the past seven years and has risen 45 percent for those using E-ZPass.

Those toll increases are just plain unfair a result of Gov. Ed Rendell's failed bid to toll I-80 and thus spread the pain of paying for Pennsylvania's infrastructure needs to the north as well.When the tolling plan failed, the turnpike commission's contribution to PennDOT was reduced to $450 million per year in 2011, down from $750 million in 2008, $850 million in 2009 and $900 million in 2010. The turnpike share of PennDOT's road and bridge funding, nearly $2.3 billion last year, will sunset in 2021.Still, turnpike drivers are paying for work on other roads and bridges and that cost is being borne by those driving between Pittsburgh and Philadelphia while I-80, the state's other major interstate, is unaffected.A gasoline tax would be the fairest way to fund road and bridge projects.It is a user tax, higher on diesel because the large trucks that put the most wear and tear on the roads are mostly fueled by diesel. And, minus those who make quick trips in and out, it is paid by drivers from out of state as well.In 2013, Gov. Tom Corbett signed a gradual elimination of the state's cap on its Oil Company Franchise Tax. Corbett was trying to keep his no-tax-increase pledge of 2010, so a straight per-gallon tax on gasoline and diesel was not on the table. The lifting of the cap is expected to raise gasoline prices by about 10 cents per gallon and the price of diesel by about 13 cents per gallon this year, and could raise those per-gallon prices by 28 cents and 40 cents, respectively, over five years.The first of those increases took effect Jan. 1 but most drivers probably didn't notice it thanks to falling oil prices which make up more than 60 percent of the price of gasoline at the pump.Pennsylvania's roads and bridges still need work, so we should accept the impact of the lifting of the franchise tax cap.The increase in turnpike tolls, on the other hand, is not fair, and Pennsylvanians who travel it would be right to ask their lawmakers in Harrisburg to take non-turnpike roadwork off the commission's books.LNP