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posted by on Monday February 13 2017, @07:44AM   Printer-friendly
from the boycott-bridges dept.

No one likes to pay tolls, some more so than others. And toll-collection agencies across the country are fed up. Some drivers blatantly zip through toll gates without paying. Others get more creative, like the truck driver accused of using fishing line to flip his license plate to avoid capture, or the motorcyclist who used a toggle switch to retract his plate.

Agencies that operate highways, tunnels and bridges say they're losing millions of dollars annually to the scofflaws, and they're stepping up efforts to collect what's owed with a stronger police presence, partnerships between states and other stricter enforcement measures. The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey's police force has arrested several drivers in recent weeks who had each racked up hundreds of toll violations and owed thousands of dollars — or much more — in unpaid tolls and fees. The toll evaders were charged with theft and other criminal charges.

Evaders cost the Port Authority about $31 million in unpaid tolls in 2015, the last year for which data are available. A recent audit showed the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission lost about $37 million to toll violators. "Toll evasion is costly for everyone, especially law-abiding drivers," said Joe Pentangelo, a spokesman for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey police department. "Getting toll cheats is just one of the many things our officers do, but it's an important task. It's something we take very seriously."

Even LEOs are not free from temptation:

In New York, the police department has had to police its own officers to make sure they aren't using a type of license-plate cover on personal vehicles that conceals the numbers. Spokesman Peter Donald told the New York Post that about a dozen officers were ticketed for having the improper covers.

Source:

http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/infrastructure/a25166/ways-avoid-tolls/


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  • (Score: 4, Informative) by Nuke on Monday February 13 2017, @11:06AM

    by Nuke (3162) on Monday February 13 2017, @11:06AM (#466534)
    In the UK toll roads are the exception. The public are very anti-toll roads, and you ought to get more anti in the USA too. One of the few tolls here is on the two Severn Bridges from England into South Wales and is the subject of a political row that has been going on since the first was built 40 years ago. Tolls were supposed to pay for the bridge, but God knows where the all money has gone because we are told even the first bridge still isn't paid for. A lot of it is simply paying for the toll operation itself. This ignores the cost of the time and fuel of hundreds of cars queuing at the toll booths at peak times every day. (There is no number plate recognition system).

    Tolls were common in the UK 100+ years ago. Where roads passed between fields their owner would set up a toll booth. Some scammers did even if they did not own the fields. Tolls caused some serious riots (like the "Rebecca" Riots c1840). In Scotland there were private tolls on some main roads as recently as the 1930s (the Scots' reputation for money-grabbing is based on some solid grounds). John o'Groats at the extreme North East of Scotland is named after a man called John who collected groats (an old coin) on the road there.. Technically I do own my half the road outside my house. However tolls were mostly swept away by legislation in the early days of motoring.

    Nevertheless, road pricing will have to be brought back with the advent of electric cars. At present there is a big tax on fuel, but when more people are charging their EV cars at home that tax will need to be made up somehow. Electricity for domestic use has a low tax and that will not change.
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  • (Score: 2) by Nobuddy on Monday February 13 2017, @11:50PM

    by Nobuddy (1626) on Monday February 13 2017, @11:50PM (#466787)

    The people hate them. The bought-and-paid for politicians love the bribe money they get from private toll companies.

    They have spent decades starving the infrastructure and forcing it to fall in to severe disrepair. This forces state and local governments to resort to installing tollways to maintain critical roads. The toll companies step in and manage it for a percentage of the take- that percentage often being the lion's share, leaving the state little money for maintaining it- so they have to come up with MORE money some other way to do what the toll was supposed to do in the first place.

    Ever drive on the PA tollway? its one pothole away from being legally a dirt road. A shitload of money in tolls- that all goes to pay the toll company so there is nothing left to fix the road itself.