Was reading Fark today and saw an article about the tolls on the dulles greenway not being monitored by cameras or anything!

http://www.dailypress.com/news/local/virginia/dp-va--tollcheats1216dec16,0,6277859.story

Very interesting. Here's the first little bit:

"When drivers blow through the toll lanes on the Dulles Toll Road without paying, a red security light immediately flashes and starts whirling in circles. A loud bell rings.

And that's it. Forever.

Despite the gaudy appearance of enforcement, it's all for show, state officials acknowledged. That little device that looks like it houses a camera? There's nothing in there. There is no equipment to catch toll cheaters. No pictures are taken. No ticket is issued. No note is sent home to Mom."

Rest of the article here: http://www.dailypress.com/news/local/virginia/dp-va--tollcheats1216dec16,0,6277859.story

Seems like it's true, I drove thru once with my EZPass still in the glovebox, got red light... and nothing.

However, I bet one day they'll start chasing the violators w/o prior notification

what sucks is that I pay at the exact change ones and it will steal money ALL THE TIME. Put the coins in one at a time or toss them in all at once, it does it randomly for both methods. I see it happen to others all the time and they just keep throwing more money in till the damned thing works.

I have decided to just run the damned light thanks to that. If they try to nail me I'll go to court on it since I can easily prove it happens. Then? 'Poof' to the enforcement policy, with the result probably being a law saying everyone has to get ezpass to drive on the toll road.

Great, and since I have a Virginia smart tag I'll have to drive to Maryland to get a properly labeled unit.

I think the bast thing to do is if you put in exact change and it won't let you through because it stole money, just sit there. Tell the toll operator you put in exact change and it was all the money you had. Then they have to stop the line and back up traffic. Maybe after a few times of doing this they'll fix the machines. Or maybe they'll just copy down your licesne plate and send you a bill, who knows.

whatever, it's bullshit... it's the point of a toll road to make up for the expenses for having it... seriously, i think they are just lining their pockets.


"the wisdom of the wise will perish, the intelligence of the intelligent will vanish."

I have done the above

the toll operators act like you are a total asshole for... wanting to go through a toll you paid for (or you get the "try again" look before they will help, which is bullshit)... no signs on the highway say "bring along extra change, just in case the machines fuck up, so you don't hold up the line!!!" I've seen people pump several dollars in just to avoid the embrassment of asking for help.

Maybe they should have those signs. Or have people "manning" the exact change booth. Or, just take away the damned arm and let people run it if they need to, and use... holy shit.. cameras..

My whole point here is that the citizens are being held responsible for fuckups that the gov't should have solved a long time ago and the gov't has the nerve, in that fark article, to make it seem like THEY are being cheated.

You have to spend money to make money, and they did not spend enough on the toll collection system to expect it to have thorough results. And that means we all get fucked up and down the line.

Of course, i (used to) only use exact change when I was in a real hurry, since I have to get a toll receipt for biz purposes. I've found the full service lanes to be WAY faster during peak and nonpeak. They should just switch to all ezpass and full serv. no exact change lines at all.

This seems to be true. A couple of times at around 10pm the Lesburg Pike toll booth was unmanned. There was no one and I did not have exact change with me. I waited until an SUV pulled up behind me and I asked them if they had any change and they said no. What do i do? nothing..i sit back in my car and mutter 'too bad' and drive through!

a couple of times that stupid red light does not turn green even when i've put in the exact change..so i drive through and that bitch ass alarm rings..freakin annoying.

Its true! I've ran through tolls before (smart tag sucks) and never recieved a ticket. Now I wonder how many cops will be posted at the toll booths to ticket anyone who runs through the toll booths. Why else would they advertise something like that!

Pay your tolls with pennys...

I think I'll hide my smarttag and run the thing from now on. If I get pulled over I'll pull out my tag before he catches me.

The infamous words of Shaggy, "It Wasn't Me"!

Only Illinois allows one to pay tolls with pennies.

Why? State of Lincoln.

I watch too much "west wing" I admit it.

Hmmm...I pay my tolls with pennys, well as much as there is in the ash tray, and make up the difference with silver coins. I sure it doesn't make that much difference to them. I can only hope that it it costs them (in labor) more to process pennies than they are worth.

you seriously paid the dulles toll with pennies?

I never actually tried it, just always assumed trivia knew more than I did about tolls

They have signs posted "no pennies". but they work. I don't think they are allowed to refuse them as they are legal tender. Sometimes I will take .50 rolled pennies and pour them in. Back in 94 when I moved down here, I herd of people doing this to piss them off. I have been doing it ever since.


Fuck them if they cant take a joke.

Yep, I've been running that road from 2001 - 2004 and nothing in the mail..just the ring-a-ling-a-ling of that K-mart blue light bell on the far left lane

=)

I've been dabbling with running it since this post came up and haven't received anything. According to the smarttag website, if you get the "Not Paid" light, you're supposed to pull over or contact them immediately and pay up.

I had a friend at the airport who used to ride his Harley to work...skipped the toll every day on his way in and out of work and never got caught for it.

PaperPusher Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I've been dabbling with running it since this post
> came up and haven't received anything. According
> to the smarttag website, if you get the "Not Paid"
> light, you're supposed to pull over or contact
> them immediately and pay up.


LOL...the honor system!

I might catch some shit for this, but I ran one almost two years ago on the Dulles Tollroad. Well, I didn't purposefully run it. I had just gotten back from a trip to Europe, and I grabbed two coins that felt like quarters and tossed them into the basket. Well, it turned out that I threw some euros in there instead. As I was leaving, the light came on, and that bell thing went off. I didn't know what to do, so I rolled out. Later on, I stopped by a police station in McLean to give them the money. The lady at the desk looked at me like I'm an idiot for stopping there to pay back .50 cents, but fuck it-I guess I'm honest like that. She actually told me not to worry about it, and that they only go after the people that run the tolls often.

lol thats funny, should have gotten it in writing.

Following instructions from my GPS, I got stuck in the EZPass lane and of course I do not have one. With traffic behind me, I couldn't do anything but go through, I was terrified. I've never done anything like this before and not being familiar with this road, I didn't know what to expect. What's going to happen to me?

They definitely have cameras now, they sent me a fine in the mail and a picture of my car/license plate. It was around $30 total, no biggie.

Now that the toll has increased greatly and is going to increase even more, pay with nickels.

$2.75 one-way takes 55 nickels. All it will do is abuse the toll booth operators and/or piss off the other users.

I once drove through the eastbound main toll plaza ez-pass lanes at 90+ mph and didn't see any lights at all.

wnrsm Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Now that the toll has increased greatly and is
> going to increase even more, pay with nickels.
>
> $2.75 one-way takes 55 nickels. All it will do is
> abuse the toll booth operators and/or piss off the
> other users.
>
> I once drove through the eastbound main toll plaza
> ez-pass lanes at 90+ mph and didn't see any lights
> at all.


Paying with nickels seems rather stupid. All that does is piss off the people who are in the same predicament. You probably don't have anywhere to go anyway. I guess it is a good way to feel important with impotence. As for speeding, I think that problem will resolve itself cuz you don't seem too bright.

wnrsm Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Now that the toll has increased greatly and is
> going to increase even more, pay with nickels.
>
> $2.75 one-way takes 55 nickels. All it will do is
> abuse the toll booth operators and/or piss off the
> other users.
>
> I once drove through the eastbound main toll plaza
> ez-pass lanes at 90+ mph and didn't see any lights
> at all.


translation:

"if you dont like the price of milk at Safeway, pay with nickels. All it will do is abuse the cashiers and piss off other customers- also I steal milk from the store and didnt get caught"

and they say it's immigrants destroying this country o_0

Ahh I got a damn court summons for the stupid $1 and .$.75 with civil fees of $100 and $250 which is just bull! I go on the toll everyday I ways have the toll amount! If I don't pay it's because the machine won't read my money! The booth people just tell me to go through! Most idiotic thing in the world how is it my fault! Help! I don't want to pay $400 for stupid $1 fees.

I ran a tollbooth a few weeks ago- not on purpose- it was the one coming to 28N off the dulles toll road- and let me find out at 8pm on a tuesday there was NO ONE in the booth with ONLY exact change and ezpass open. Of course I had no change OR Ezpass (all I had on me were bills and like $0.45 not enough LOL)- so I ran it.


Hope I dont see a fine in the mail soon for THEIR error- there was NO ONE THERE to take my money when there should have been!!!

I have NEVER paid toll for the past 6.5 years I have been using the road almost everyday and NEVER gotten a ticket.

kit.car Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> They have signs posted "no pennies". but they
> work. I don't think they are allowed to refuse
> them as they are legal tender. Sometimes I will
> take .50 rolled pennies and pour them in. Back in
> 94 when I moved down here, I herd of people doing
> this to piss them off. I have been doing it ever
> since.
>
>
> Fuck them if they cant take a joke.


7-11 sells bananas, and bananas come with a peal.

Several years ago someone using the toll road at Herndon threw their banana peals into the coin basket. The quarters just sit on the slimey peals. That happed a few times a month for over a year,



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/14/2013 09:27PM by Fairfax Boy.

Does anyone know if this is still the case? Realized today that my transponder fell off the dashboard and probably didn't register for several trips. Am I going to get a fine in the mail?

Then there are Greenway (in Loudoun) toll booths/gates on the other exits, not the main toll plaza, that will not accept cash at all. If you do have a transponder or a credit/debit card, the gate will not open to let you through and these gates are unmanned.

If you have an EZPass and your plate registered, they'll just bill your ezpass account for the trips that didn't register with the transponder.

wondering2 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Does anyone know if this is still the case?
> Realized today that my transponder fell off the
> dashboard and probably didn't register for several
> trips. Am I going to get a fine in the mail?


Chances are they were still able to read your transponder,I had my wife's in my glove compartment once and mine mounted on the windshield and the toll road charged them both when I went through.