Yes, I’ve had the same experience, and also heading to the southwest from Chicago and back. IMO it’s the best thing that’s happened to the highway system in my lifetime.
And OP, I grew up in Illinois and though I don’t live in it anymore, I drive through parts of it pretty frequently. If the cost of having open road tollways is having unobservant drivers like you miss tolls that only the blind can miss, it is well worth it. You would rather every other driver on the roads be stopped by barriers to pay tolls every ten miles so you don’t need to read the signs? I don’t think so.
It certainly has its advantage. I think what it should do is simply eliminate the violation fee for out-of-state drivers, or give it a much longer grace period. It was not the open toll road made it difficult, it was the unsound law system and the power-abusive Tollway Customer Service Center.
Not sure - I know the Indiana Toll Road is rented out to a private company on a contract, but I’m pretty sure IDOT gets the other toll money. Anyway, that Chicago Tribune columnist deals with both public and private situations.
I’m pretty sure much of the loss of the grace period was caused by your own admission that you’ve moved numerous times since registering your car. Tracking down someone who has moved multiple times is not an easy task.
No, because in many areas, such as those with “Port Authorities”, no one loses their job when EZ Pass comes to the area.
Also, many processing fees and extra charges don’t go to the road commission, port authority, etc – they go to the company who process the fines, etc.
E.g, there are some areas where they pay 25 dollars to their vendor to collect a toll w/fine, but the road authority/commission/whatever gets the 2-dollar toll fee and that’s it. They lose money when you skip a toll even if you pay the toll AND fine eventually!
So, there are holes that keep the port authorities, road commissions and states from coming out ahead, because the business model and return on investment they are pitched by the vendors is weak, and the EZ Pass system winds up costing money, and they only way to fix it fast is to jack up charges or create new ones for toll skippers, because no one will ever get bad press after going after scofflaws more aggressively… even though those ‘scofflaws’ are often just you and me making simple mistakes!
Trying to cite it brings up so much nonsense and I don’t have time to sort it (also, this is not GQ). I’ve worked with consultants who have seen and reviewed the proposals.
The Indiana Toll Road was leased to [Statewide Mobility Partners LLC](Statewide Mobility Partners LLC) by the State of Indiana and the Chicago Skyway was leased to Skyway Concession Company, LLC by the City of Chicago. Both companies are owned by a partnership between Cintra Concesiones de Infraestructuras de Transporte SA (Cintra) and Macquarie Infrastructure Group (MIG).
The Illinois Tollway system is administered by the Illinois State Toll Highway Authority. The Tollway Authority is separate from the Illinois Department of Transportation which is responsible for most other state roads. The Chicago Skyway, although it has always charged tolls, was never part of the Illinois Tollway system and the Indiana Toll Road has nothing to do with any agency in Illinois.
The grace period was only seven days. Besides, they never sent out a notification for the toll, they just sent out the violation notice. I believe they should send out a toll notice before that. It also doesn’t explain Tollway Customer Service Center held the payment of $83.20 for three weeks until it escalated to $283.20 before they decided to contact me and told me the credit card number was invalid, while the number was valid.
Also, in response to the OP: Unless you’re driving completely unaware of the need to read signs warning you a couple miles in advance that you’re approaching a toll plaza, and directing you what to do if you need to pay in coins, there’'s no way to miss a plaza, even with the open road plazas.
Those hassling the OP about not reading signs or following the rules listed on the road are off-base. Whatever signs he ignored, according to him he made three good faith efforts to pay the tolls required: (1) at the toll both he finally stopped at, (2), on the phone at the information line, (3) by mail with a credit card. Any one of these should have been sufficient. Perhaps he’s just lying about all that. I don’t know. But focusing on the initial infraction seems unreasonable.
OP, I’m not sure what to do, but I can appreciate your frustration and outrage at dealing with the system you’re up against. Good luck.
I don’t know about Illinois, but Texas does have toll roads that do not have cash windows. You must pay either with an electronic toll pass, or they mail you the bill. No toll booths, just the archway. Once you get on the highway, you have to go through the arch. Calling them traps is probably strong, because there are signs as you get on the roadway telling you, but the billing is automatic.
The real point here is the ridiculous amount of the escalation. No matter how or when the driver tried to make amends they should not have to deal with a rent sized payment to resolve a toll booth fee. A few dollars turning into hundreds is crazy and whatever person or group is in charge of this ridiculous practice needs to find a much less damaging process to collect missed tolls.
Does anyone know someone who received a bill in Canada for a missed tollbooth in the U.S.? I accidentally blew through a tollbooth in Wisconsin (I think) and I never heard anything about it.
Wisconsin doesn’t have tollbooths. Illinois and Indiana are the closest likely candidates. Google “(state name) missed toll” to get you to the official site and how to deal with it.
Couple of things would have reduced the confusion and prevented the problems.
Assuming he missed the tolls, but did try to pay, first he should have checked back 3 days later by phone or online. Gives the toll violations to be processed into the system.
Second, should have kept the DMV up to date and had car registration from the correct state and address. This caused delays due to mail trying to track him down, and burned his grace period.
Third, when the $285 fee was being processed and pending and was told that charge was being reversed, he should have waited until it cleared (zeroed or paid) before paying a second time. Or he also could have put a stop payment with his credit card and protested with them.
I sympathize with getting the run around and feeling like they didn’t help clear it up, but the OP contributed to this more than anything by his own actions.
Many people, including most Dopers, are very competent at navigating the sort of puzzles OP was faced with. Other people have limitations. My own performance on such matters is intermittent; I might well have made most of the same mistakes OP made.
Otherwise intelligent Dopers don’t seem to accept this:
OP has apologized for being so inferior to elite non-blind drivers like you. He just wants to get his excess payment back.
Some of these points are valid but still you’re blaming the victim. On his first phone call he should have been informed that there was a delay before tolls would be posted. And to suggest that he should have assumed the agent might be lying when told charge had been reversed, is to admit the system is broken.
It may be worth noting this thread was from a year and a half ago, and some random one-trick-pony Googler who got pissed about tolls revived it, but I decided to respond after another Doper raised a related question. So directing ire at people here may be a tad belated.