The service station buildings along the Ohio turnpike are the Taj Mahal of service stations (aka: rest stops) . They're extremely clean, spacious, and contain plenty of food choices. Not only do the McDonalds employees exhibit smiles at the counter but they actually speak English. Not broken English or ebonics. At the end of my trip, I almost didn't mind forking over $6.25 at the toll booth for my turnpike experience. By comparison, Connecticut's rest stops are total dumps. Connecticut could learn a thing or two from Ohio's rest stops. read more

Seriously? Every single time I have to activate a transponder it NEVER EVER works on the website & you have to call in. GUESS WHAT they are only open Monday-Friday......Ohio Turnpike Customer Service YOU SUCK read more

I recently broke down on the Ohio turnpike. First let me say, it was the single most terrifying experience I've had in the past 10 to 15 years. My husband and I actually said our goodbyes to each other while stranded on that road! Let me also say that there is an unusually large amount of construction on the Ohio turnpike right now. We got off work on Wednesday, September 17, 2025 in Norwalk, Ohio at about 4:15 PM. We jumped on the turnpike and got about 1 mile when my bearings/wheel hub broke loose. It was a close call. I nearly lost control of my truck but managed to get it safely off the road to the right. Two lanes of traffic were blocked off and the other two were moving quite fast. The semi trucks Wissing probably 70 to 80 miles an hour shook our truck as they go by. I would watch in my rearview mirror. The truck coming up close to us would go off the side of the road and I feared that someone would not be paying attention and possibly hit us. I called AAA immediately knowing that it might be a problem getting a tow two hours away. I spoke to the customer service rep and informed him that I'm on the turnpike. He said, I'm glad you told me that! They have their own everything. I thought oh great, now I'm going to be on hold forever and I'll probably get disconnected right at the end. He put me on hold, I sat there for probably 3 or 4 minutes thinking what the heck is taking so long?!? Don't they know I could be killed at any moment by this crazy traffic?!? The gentleman came back on and said I have the turnpike on with us and they are going to talk to you. I said ok wonderful!! Thank you so much!! The guy from the turnpike said, we have maintenance coming to you now, he's going to help you with traffic, we also have a tow truck in route, he'll probably be about a half hour. I said thank you, thinking what is this guy going to really do at rush hour?! Well let me tell you!! This guy shows up in a big truck with a bright flashing HUGE arrow on the top of his truck and parked behind us. He gets out of his truck, inches from racing cars and trucks!! He straps on his radio and everything else he has to himself and walks up to our window, he says Hi I'm Christian and I'm going to help you out by getting some of this traffic away from you. I said you're AMAZING!! Fearless!! Thank you so much for the help!! I so appreciate what you're doing for us!! He just smiled, as he walked out into traffic setting up cones and pointing to the trucks to GET OVER!! . About 15 minutes later a great BIG beautiful yellow flat bed shows up in front of me!! I was so relieved!! A flat bed!! Thank Goodness!! Out pops another fearless man!! This guys name is "Jess". He introduced himself and told me everything that he was going to be doing. He hooked up my truck, secured everything, turned off my four ways so I wouldn't have a dead battery and got back in the truck where we were waiting for him. He did this all so fast it was hard to believe that I was still in an emergency situation!! These guys are incredible!!! I gave him my address and off we went!! Two hour ride, we talked just like we were old friends. He even diagnosed my problem with the truck! He could tell by the way my wheel was leaning what was going on. It all made perfect sense now!! All the noise I heard and the cracking and crunching I could hear and feel!! Once home, Jess dropped the truck exactly where we asked him to. He looked at my AAA card & ID. I signed his phone and I thanked him graciously. What a day/evening!! Something that could ruin your whole day actually turned out to be so wonderful!! We averted a disastrous accident, we lived through rush hour traffic speeding past us, we got our truck home, had engaging company that kept me entertained as well as learning quite a bit of turnpike knowledge!! What is there to complain about?!? I promise to never complain about turnpike tolls again!! There is so much going on out there!! Those people are not only out there to help fix the roads, but they are there for you & me. (if we need them) I have a new appreciation for all those workers!! Bravo Turnpike!! Bravo AAA!! Thank you so much for having my back when I needed it!! Thank you to my hero's!! Jess & Christian, you two are amazing individuals!! You are FEARLESS!!! Keep on rescuing people!! You're great at it!! read more

Friday, 24 June 2016. Coming home from a long trip (over 1,000 miles) to the east coast, I had the great misfortune of being westbound on I80/90 in Fulton County, Ohio, some time after a collision between a tractor-trailer and a tank-truck carrying several thousand gallons of liquid hydrogen had resulted in an explosion which shut down the Interstate, apparently in both directions. Although the explosion had happened hours before we came into the area, there were no signs up advising drivers to get off of the Interstate, or how, or where. Had we know it wasn't just another slowdown for construction, we could have got off 10 miles before the site of the accident, and gone around to the north, and only lost as much time as the difference in speed limits would cause. Instead, by the time we were beyond this site, we were nearly four hours behind schedule, and instead of driving through Chicago in the early afternoon, we had to go through it during rush hour. The Turnpike and Police officials could have done plenty to direct motorists off intelligently, had more police at small town intersections, and the state might have forsaken a day's income in the local turnpike gates, which were teeny bottlenecks that cost easily 40 minutes to get through; for us, three times. That's two hours wasted waiting to go through a gate. I was left with the impression that Ohio was experiencing the very first highway shutdown in its history, and had no experience to look to in deciding how to move traffic and help out-of-state motorists get on their way. It is just dumb luck that we had filled our gas tank less than 50 miles previous, and that we carry a good supply of drinking water with us on a long-distance road trip. We also had two small dogs with us, and this was a really painful and unpleasant experience. In all of the intersections we passed through, in bumper-to-bumper traffic, and with dozens of trailer-tractors amongst us, only at one did we see police directing traffic through. This was in western Wauseon. I'm just glad I have an I-Pass, so going through the gates extra times didn't mean stopping and paying cash and keeping track of tickets. What a waste, though, I want a refund! read more

See all