According to Albany’s Times Union, the New York State Thruway Authority failed to collect some $4.5m in unpaid tolls from persistent E-ZPass scofflaws using highway I90. Thruway Executive Director Michael Fleischer defended his agency. "We have been working very cooperatively to get a contractor on board to collect the small fraction of the tolls that go unpaid." That has state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli's auditors questioning the authority's "management culture." Maybe it's got something to do with the Authority's proposed toll hikes for 2008, 2009 and 2010. The auditors get the connection: "Toll increases should not be a substitute for sound management practices." Meanwhile, in the tiny town of Halfmoon, officials are deciding how to deal with a large puddle at an intersection, which sometimes causes motorists to travel into the path of oncoming traffic; good thing they’ve scheduled a defensive driving class for February 16th. And in Guilderland, we learn that snow plowing a cul-de-sac is “quite a science.” And now you know the news.
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I travel the NYS Thruway every day to work and back. It is the most primitive toll road I’ve experienced to date, although certainly not the most expensive (Toronto’s 407 is $$$$).
They need to take a lesson from the Illinois toll roads, but that would result in less red tape and bureaucracy which would be very un-New Yorkish.
In addition, the tolls go to maintain the arcane Erie Canal System, which almost none of the travelers on the highway will ever use.
The New York State govt has to be one of the most disfunctional on earth. Thank generations of idiot voters for that.
I live on a cul-de-sac and thankfully they never plow it when it snows…I could only imagine the chaos that would ensue from some of my neighbors if they did plow.
I have an EZ Pass issued in Maine, and have experienced problems driving through certain toll booths in New York. My wife called the Maine Turnpike’s 800 number immediately after it failed to register at exit 49, and the CSR told us not to worry about it, because the NY thruway equipment sometimes doesn’t work as well as it should. We still managed to get charged for it however. If they are “losing” 4.5 million dollars, something is seriously wrong.
New York, one of the best run states in the country.
I live in cul-de-sac and my idiot, lawn-worshipping neighbors park their 2006-07 Chevys on the street to shield their turf whenever there’s a threat of a snow plow attack.
Oh, and talking about uncollected fines, I was ticketed $140 for parking in a school zone in NYC (not well marked) in 2005, appealed the ticket via the internet, and haven’t yet heard back from the city.
brettc :
January 30th, 2008 at 10:55 am
I have an EZ Pass issued in Maine, and have experienced problems driving through certain toll booths in New York. My wife called the Maine Turnpike’s 800 number immediately after it failed to register at exit 49, and the CSR told us not to worry about it, because the NY thruway equipment sometimes doesn’t work as well as it should. We still managed to get charged for it however. If they are “losing” 4.5 million dollars, something is seriously wrong.
Ah, yes. Another irritant. Their transponders work on maybe 50% of the booths. Gee, ya think they might want to fix that? Nah.
This discussion reminds me, I need to audit my bill for wrong charges.
The amount of unpaid bills is directly proportional to the amount of customers who believe they did not get adequate value.
There is a certain amount of cheaters and other late payers for any business, but the bottom line is that if you are getting a bunch of non-payers, then you are likely doing something wrong.
Last summer – about half way – driving to NC (from NJ) on vacation, I realized that my EZPass was not working. (at that point I started going through the cash tolls).
When I finally contacted the miserable customer service dept at EZPass — they told me that having the transponder really doesn’t matter. And given the age of my box, the battery is likely dead.
When the camera takes a picture of the license, its automatically matched against a list of EZPass owners — and the account charged.
And that’s what happened — tolls on the NJ Parkway, Thruway, and the bridges I went over all showed up on my statement.
In other words — if you don’t want to have the transponder in your car, don’t bother.
/p
DiNapoli also said the Thruway Authority failed to collect $27.5 million in unpaid tolls and penalties over a six-year period, pointing out that one out-of-state trucking company was cited for 2,226 violations and owes $59,159 in unpaid tolls.
http://www.bizjournals.com/buffalo/stories/2008/01/21/daily54.html
In other words — if you don’t want to have the transponder in your car, don’t bother.
When my transponder doesn’t register I sometimes get billed for going all the way to the end of the state… about $8.50. Just found one today – but to their credit (and mine) they always adjust it out.
I’m so ecstatic that something from the Times Union made it onto the site. I was raised in Albany- and yes, people there actually think the cul-de-sac science is real news that the nation should care about. It should make sense that the same people “losing” 4.5 million dollars are the ones reading and writing the cul-de-sac articles.