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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/
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Phoenix666 on Monday February 13 2017, @12:56PM
TFS cites the Tri-State area, and it makes total sense that people evade tolls. Between New York and New Jersey you cannot avoid tolls, and they are very expensive. I blanche at paying them the couple times of year I cross the Hudson or hop across from Staten Island. People who live in the strange and mysterious land of NJ pay them every day, both ways (mostly).
Even within NYC you can get hit with tolls. You can avoid them with alternate routes, but you have to know the tricks.
Once upon a time I might have thought that tolls are reasonable to pay for the maintenance of roads that see such heavy traffic. But the roads are not adequately maintained, with giant potholes opening up all the time which are seldom fixed, so that justification goes out the window. Also, after 20 years of political activism I know how rife with corruption NYC, New York State, and New Jersey are (for those who aren't locals, the Bridgegate scandal that caught New Jersey governor Chris Christie is a small window into it); tolls are nothing more than yet another way to move money from the pockets of those who work into the pockets of politicians, bureaucrats, and cronies, who don't.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Monday February 13 2017, @05:27PM
The toll roads of NY and NJ also show that the Democrats are not interested in working-class voters, and instead want to harm them. Toll roads disproportionately hurt poor and working-class people, who already have enough trouble affording transportation expenses, whereas rich assholes in limos really don't care about a $10 toll. NJ and NY are liberal Democrat strongholds, and yet they have the worst toll roads in the country. But down in the Deep South where it's impossible for Democrats to get elected, there's no toll roads anywhere.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 14 2017, @05:50PM
NJ and NY are liberal Democrat strongholds, and yet they have the worst toll roads in the country
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_Christie [wikipedia.org] looks like a Republican
2. If you drive 100 miles on NJ Trunpike, it's $10. Otherwise, no, much cheaper, try $3 or so,
http://www.state.nj.us/turnpike/toll-cars-2012.html [state.nj.us]
But down in the Deep South where it's impossible for Democrats to get elected, there's no toll roads anywhere.
Are you kidding me??
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_toll_roads_in_the_United_States [wikipedia.org]
Texas? Florida? Alabama? Oklahoma? Really!? Check the facts instead of making shit up.