Posted on 11/25/2013 3:32:00 AM PST by markomalley
So what happens when you repeatedly drive through one of those E-ZPass gates without paying? On the Dulles Toll Road, Reston’s Jason R. Bourcier decided to find out. He told NBC4′s Chris Gordon that “a friend told him that when the toll booths were unmanned after 11:30 p.m., you could use the road without paying.” Boy was that friend wrong.
Bourcier, 33, received a bill for $202,000 (!). Not all of that was for tolls. Some was for the fines for not paying the tolls, which is $500 for the fourth and subsequent offense, and some was for administrative fees. Bourcier told USA Today that he was working at night and asked an attendant “if the cameras were on when there were no attendants on duty. He said they weren’t. So I started going through without paying the tolls.” More bad info.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
He worked out a payment deal to pay $150 a month — for 54 years, until July 2067. He’ll be 87 then.
The strong arm of government.
They should just make him pay the tolls, with maybe a 5% penalty. This is B.S.
After four violations you boot the car and charge a $1000 service fee. Even the settlement is insane.
3 weeks later get the letters in the mail. Want to charge us fees, fines etc... to the tune of $500.00> Finally after about 20 calls we get it settled and new EZ- passes in the mail.
Their system stinks.
Declare bankruptcy and pay nothing.
Yeah, I have mine attached to a credit card. (Same one I use for my $30/month to FR. Hint.) Anyway, we went up to Maine last summer and got an email from EZ-Pass warning us that we had less than the required minimum in our account. Seems that the expiration date on the credit card had passed, even though the account had been updated with a new card and expiration date. Got home with about $7.00 bucks in the account, but if it was close. Now I check the status of the account (and added another card) before I take any trips using it. (It stays in the house except on road trips.)
You have to pay to drive up the the east coast? It’s free along the west coast.
I do not like those EZ pass things.
We went home to CA for a visit this summer. We chose not to get an EZ pass card for the rental car, since we did not anticipate going over many bridges. And we could always pay toll if we did happen to cross a bridge—right? Actually, no. The toll booths on many bridges are not staffed. There is nothing like sitting there in traffic, waiting to cross the bridge, and all the signs are telling you that you need EZ pass to cross—but you don’t have it, you don’t have any way of getting it at that point, and you can’t even get off at the exit before the bridge because of traffic. That one ended up costing us $37 later on. (Getting the EZ pass with the rental would also have been an expensive option—it would only have saved about $7, given that we crossed one bridge once.)
I understand the desire to streamline traffic by removing the toll booths, but why can’t there be at least one manned toll booth for the people for whom crossing that bridge might be a one-time event?
Yeah, but it's so far away - I'd lose it all in gas by the time I got there...;-)
Why don’t you have free Interstate freeways?
Where was that toll bridge? Was it in San Francisco?
I live in Md.
Going sout I can go to Fla. with no tolls.
Going North it is $45 to get to Connecticut.
Them Yankees are still making us pay for losing the war.
By the way Maryland had tolls too. Our boy Owe Malley just jacked up every toll in Md. He must be a Baltimore Yankee.Us folks here in Southern Md. just get screwed by the Democrat Cabal.
Never trusted it. Always stock up on singles and quarters before road trips, even if I don’t think there are toll roads along the route. Prefer that sort of hassle to the other kind.
The mid-Atlantic states and on up into New England are mysteries to me.
If push comes to shove, you cover up your license plate.
I moved from Seattle to KY a couple years ago. I visit the kids and grandkids a lot in Chicago. However, when we go there, we avoid the toll roads, though we carry a jar of change, just in case.
If I were in a state that had toll roads, I’d move. And I’ve already proven that if I don’t like the politics of a state I’ll leave it. There are too many horror stories of friends getting nailed by the state for unpaid tolls even though they did pay. Heck, I’ve had unmanned booths tell me I owe money even after putting the correct amount and more.
I don’t do tolls and will move heaven and earth to avoid them.
Never trusted it. Always stock up on singles and quarters before road trips, even if I don’t think there are toll roads along the route. Prefer that sort of hassle to the other kind.
Fortunately, we’re old and have had our fill of cities. We don’t feel the need to see those sights any more and would be comfortable never leaving our farm for the rest of our life. But you gotta get beer some time.
The system is automated whether it's sending out the first notice or the 100th. There is no 'administration' taking place.
I'm not defending his actions but government is up to its old tricks here. They should be restricted to the words 'tax' and 'fine' when it comes to extorting cash. Fees, assessments, etc. are statist euphemisms and poor ones at that.
Not indexed to inflation, he will be able to pay it off cheaply in a few years when the dollar is worthless.
It was the Golden Gate bridge.
I’ll make sure to avoid using it the next time I visit home.
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