am I the only one this stupid

[randyb359]

I took the PA turnpike to Ohio back in July. I got my ticket when I got on but never saw anywhere to pay. A couple days ago I get a notice in the mail that I exited through an EZ Pass lane without paying and they want $47.5 $22.5 toll and $25 service fee(it would have been $1 if I had paid). It gives an interchange number witch doesn't exist on there website but must be the Warrendale one. I looked at the satalite image from google and there is one lane that goes straight ahead and a bunch that goes off to the right. I assumed that was an exit and didn't pay any attention to any signs about paying since I was not exiting and have driven that part of the highway many times years ago and always paid at the Ohio line. When did they start charging tolls in the middle of the road and having lanes with no gates?

[Ct. Ken V]

Hi, randyb359,

As near as I can tell from my Yahoo maps the Ohio Turnpike is a toll road in both directions & so is the Pennsylvania Turnpike from Warrendale eastbound in both directions. But for some reason I-76 eastbound is a toll road from the Ohio border all the way to the Warrendale toll plaza while there is no toll charged if you're going westbound between Warrendale & the Ohio border. So I guess they choose to collect a toll before you get to the interchange for I-79.

I'll agree with you "a little bit" that the straight lane might be construed as a "straight-thru-to-your-destination" lane, but really, how many times have you seen what appear to be 8 lanes before an exit if you haven't already gone down an exit ramp to get to a toll plaza? And there must have been plenty of signage to tell drivers to stay left for E-Z Pass tagholders or to divert to the right to pay a cash toll.

You could call the E-Z Pass people & try to explain to them what happened & why (the reason you stated here) & they may choose to waive one, both, or none of the fees. It's worth a try, but it may not help either. A friend of ours didn't realize she was in an E-Z Pass only lane until she got up to the booth area & saw no coin-toss basket, so she honked to get the attention of a toll collector. He/she came over and refused to take the money saying it was our friend's problem for not paying attention. And of course nobody behind her would let her back up to change lanes. So she pulled over beyond the toll plaza & went into the office to try to pay it there, but they told her they could not take her money there either because the damage had already been done. She had passed through an E-Z Pass lane with no E-Z Pass, so a picture had been taken of her license plate & she would be sent a violation notice with a fine to pay plus the toll amount. I think she made out a check for the amount of the toll only (& NOT the fine amount) & stapled to the check an explanation note of the circumstances & the fact that 2 different people she tried to pay at the booth & the office refused to take her money at the scene. I think she said she got her canceled check back (mean'g they accepted it as final payment?) & never heard anything more from the toll people again.

How come your toll is so high (the $22.50)? Would that be for the whole PA Tnpk up to Warrendale, since E-Z Pass didn't know where you got on? Hopefully you kept your "ON" ticket because they didn't need to collect it at the Ohio border any longer (& you probably got a new one going into Ohio anyway). If you still have it, make photocopies of both side of it & if it's got a magnetic stripe on the back of it, you may have to send in the original "ON" ticket (unless it's got an entrance # equating to your point of entry) for them to consider dropping your $22.50 toll back down to the original $1 due. They might be able to do that for you if you still have the ticket. As far as the $25 service fee you could beg & plead with them saying you were distracted by your wife or disruptive kids & didn't see any of the signs (I think their cameras only take pictures of the license plate & NOT the passenger compartment). And don't forget to add (like you said above) that it's been many years since you drove that stretch & you used to pay the toll at the Ohio border and that the booths looked like an exit to you & you knew you weren't getting off the pike before reaching Ohio. Without that "ON" ticket I don't think any of this will work to get you out of the $47.50 bill. Let us know how things work out for you though.

You might want to consider getting one of those E-Z Passes though if you do any amount of travel'g on any toll roads. They do help you save gas & brake wear (acceleraion & stop & go) & save time NOT having to wait in long toll lines while people fumble getting their money out & the toll-taker is making their change. And in some places the tolls are discounted by 10 % (or maybe more) for E-Z Pass tagholders instead of paying the full toll in cash (maybe cash gets you discounts on your gas but not on your tolls). If you do get an E-Z Pass, there are 2 things you might want to keep in mind : don't exceed the posted MPH when passing through the lane & don't follow the car in front of you too closely. Either situation can cause the system to NOT be able to read the transmitter box on your windshield & as you already know a picture of your plate will be taken & you'll get a violation notice again with a fine to pay along with a toll for the longest section of toll road from where you got on or off. If you ever don't get your green light, wait only a couple of days for the trip info to post to your account & then explain the circumstances while everything is still fresh in your mind. It's easier to correct something before hand than to try to do it a month later when you get your bill or a violation notice. If the problem occurs out of your home state (or out of the state your E-Z Pass was issued in) it may require you to contact the out-of-state E-Z Pass agency [but by calling your own agency listed on your monthly bill (you usually don't get a bill if there was no E-Z Pass trip activity during your billing cycle) they may be able to help you out with the out-of-state problem]. If you get a yellow light saying to "call E-Z Pass", call them as soon as possible to find out what the problem may be. It's usually not serious.

Ken (in Bolton,Ct)

[PriusRos]

I can't respond to your particular situation but I had a similar experience in Denver. I was on the toll road from Boulder to Denver, racing to get to the airport. I made an early exit because I had to get gas. This was a big mistake because I ended up go in a circle going through a toll booth that wasn't manned and I had absolutely no change on me. I then found myself getting back on at another un-manned booth, which I had to blow through again. (I didn't find a gas station either.) I later got billed about $27 for a $1.50 toll.

[PriuStorm]

Ken, thanks for taking the time to explain the EZ pass ins and outs... I wasn't considering getting one before, but because I read the OP's problem and your suggestion, I'm going to look it up now. Thanks again.

[Ct. Ken V]

Hi, PriuStorm,

Glad to be of help. Probably each state operates their program a little differently. Ours is called Fast Lane & is issued by the Mass Turnpike. It works in Mass, Conn, Maine, N Hampshire, NY, NJ, Del, Va, & Maryland. I haven't had the chance to try it in any other states yet. It's tied to a credit card & pre-loaded with a $20 balance to my Fast Lane account. When that bal gets down to $10 or less, it withdraws from my credit card (actually an ATM/debit card) an amount to pre-load my account back to exactly $20. It could even sit at $10.01 for months of un-use until I have to pay let's say a 35 cent toll at which time it will load $10.34 back into my account to make it the $20 again. In 6 days in June I incurred $38.35 in toll charges on a round trip from CT to VA, so the system (think'g I might continue to make high usage) pre-loaded me to a $50 level to be safe. I will talk to them & see if they will charge back the extra $30 to my debit card (they think it is a credit card, but maybe since it IS a debit card they won't be able to---I'll have to find out from my credit union what they say too) because we normally don't make that much use of it in such a short time.

A lot of the E-Z Pass lanes are marked for between 5 & 15 MPH, but some are marked for 35, 40, or even 50 MPH and it's such a breeze to not be stuck wait'gin the stop & go "cash" toll lanes. We didn't want to be bothered to get the Fast Lane/E-Z Pass transponder in the beginning either, but soon noticed how fast other people who DID have the transponders were getting through the tolls (even if the had to slow to 5 MPH---at least they didn't have to stop & stay in the long lines. Now we watch the others who are stuck wait'g as we breeze by & say how lucky we are to have our Fast Lane. Then we shake our heads & wonder why we used to sit in those same lines & why we didn't get our Fast Lane sooner. It's such a convenience (almost to the point of being a necessity), just like cell phones, i-phones, Blackberries, & laptops.

One other thing, you don't have to have one transponder for each car (unless you & another family member will be travel'g toll roads at the same time). You can just get one & register all the family cars on your account & then swap the transponder back & forth between cars as necessary (be sure to order extra sticky strips ahead of time---enough to fasten to each car). Call them up to cancel a car's registration plate when you sell it & add the new car on. If the plate # is still the same, you still need to call them because they also require the make, model & color of the cars that are registered to your account. If you wind up with a temporary loaner or rental car that you want to use on toll roads with your E-Z Pass, you'll have to call them to both initiate & later cancel the registration [& you will have to remember to hold the transponder up near the center of the windshield as you pass through the toll area (unless you have requested some extra stickey stips beyond the quantity for the number of cars you own)].

Ken (in Bolton,Ct)

[JackDodge]

To err is human but to really screw up, well, that's what government does best. They're so terrified of treating anyone differently that they basically treat everyone like s**t. Government is the one "industry" that can truly be automated. Why not deal with a machine when the government people act like machines?

[Boo]

Another advantage of the E-ZPass is that in addition to whatever standard discounts it gives over cash, you might be able to get even greater discounts (a) for tolls that you use often, and (b) for owning a Prius -- in New York there's a "Green Pass" program that gives cars like the Prius a greater discount on the New York Thruway and the bridge and tunnel crossings operated by the New York & New Jersey Port Authority during off-peak hours. Plus, you get a cool green colored transponder instead of that boring white one.

A possible disadvantage or cost of the E-ZPass is that some issuing agencies charge an administrative fee. My issuing agency charges me $1 a month.

[jammin012]

Originally Posted by randyb359

I took the PA turnpike to Ohio back in July. I got my ticket when I got on but never saw anywhere to pay. A couple days ago I get a notice in the mail that I exited through an EZ Pass lane without paying and they want $47.5 $22.5 toll and $25 service fee(it would have been $1 if I had paid). It gives an interchange number witch doesn't exist on there website but must be the Warrendale one. I looked at the satalite image from google and there is one lane that goes straight ahead and a bunch that goes off to the right. I assumed that was an exit and didn't pay any attention to any signs about paying since I was not exiting and have driven that part of the highway many times years ago and always paid at the Ohio line. When did they start charging tolls in the middle of the road and having lanes with no gates?

Suggestion: Move to the west coast.

[morpheusx]

I drive that stretch frequently and it's been that way for a while now. The first change they made was about 5 years ago when they added the booths you turned in your ticket paid your toll from where you got on, if you got off any exit between the booths and the border no additional toll but if you went to Ohio another $1.50 toll at the border. About 3 years ago they got rid of the additional toll at the border (if you were going west) and doubled it going east $3.00 immediately when you go from OH to PA and all exits including I-79 no additional toll.

[Mouth]

Suggestion: Move to the west coast.

Or the Southeast