The Exact Change Lane

I had to take a ride on the Pennsylvania Turnpike the other day and as I came up to the toll booth I remembered a conversation I had with a friend a few years ago. It was never resolved and I was wondering if anyone might have the answer for me.

At some places EXACT CHANGE lanes used to be common. Presumably a means of relieving traffic congestion. This function is currently accomplished by the EASYPASS lanes; an electronic way of paying the toll on a pre-paid account requiring your car to merely slow down at the toll booth.

But what I was wondering about (back then - when people manned the exact change toll booths) was about the toll takers. The people themselves. You know, what was their story? I mean, where did they fit in - in the toll taker hierarchy?

Were they trainees? Was making change considered more difficult and they gave the new guy a job he couldn't screw up? Did they take night classes to learn how to make change and be surly at the same time? Did they get some kind of pin (like pilot's wings) when they moved up? Were they able to sit at the big table at lunch time?

Or was manning the exact change toll booth considered a reward? A position reserved for senior toll takers who have, after long years of dedicated scowling, earned the right to not have to deal with a $20 bill for a 35 cent toll, or daffy women who rummage in their purse for five minutes before coming up with the $20 bill for the 35 cent toll. Was the exact change toll booth a way to ease into retirement. A decompression chamber where the old toll takers could gradually find their way back into normal society?

Or did manning the exact change toll booth have nothing to do with relieving traffic congestion and have everything to do with relieving mental pressure? This is similar to my previous scenario but in this case everybody gets to rotate in and out of the exact change toll booths as they show signs of stress. This makes sense, too, because I have occasionally seen toll takers try to smile for no apparent reason. I mean, you've never heard of a toll taker going boothal have you (like going postal except in a booth)? You know, coming back after hours or on their day off and throwing pennies at their supervisors and hapless co-workers? Shouting obscenities and putting orange traffic cones where nature never intended them?

So I don't know. There must have been a procedure to determine who got to man the exact change toll booth. Was it training, a reward or a mental health tool? Or maybe it was just a union thing.