Stealth Toll Increases in Dallas -

The Bush tollway has gone cashless. All the main toll booths have been blocked off and everyone now goes through the tolltag lanes. If you don't have a tolltag they send a bill to the owner of the license plate. They are starting to rebuild the tollbooths at the 183 interchange and working north and east. They will reach us in Plano about the time hell freezes over. Also, the tolls on Bush have gone through the roof also. I have stopped using the toll roads unless really necessary.

 

After traveling on the tollway with the new cashless system for the past couple of months, I have yet to receive a statement.

 

And I thought the $0.80 to exit the Dallas North Tollway at Mockingbird was insane! O_O

 

I THINK (I know, that's dangerous) the tolls have dropped on 190, and I drive it twice a day. It's $.75 each 'major' booth, used to be $1. If you don't have a TT, you get billed for the $1. I used to spend $6/day, now it's down to $4.50. I'm not a fan of all the money they wasted building the massive toll plazas at Coit, Marsh, and Sandy Lake though. Their 'upgrade' also effectively eliminated my short cut when traffic backed up going East in the afternoon.

EDIT: Boy was I wrong. No two tolls are the same....

http://www.ntta.org/AboutUs/Roadways/TollRatesPGBT.htm

 

It wasnt too painful for you was it??? LMAO

 

I've got good meds.....

 

And you probably get them for free!!! LOL

 

They did a mythbusters show on this. It was proven impossible, even when they did it in a lambo at over 150 mph.

 

Has to be 165 plus.
What you save on tolls can be applied towards bail.

 

Hardly a stealth increase; it was on the news for about a month before the change. In fact, that's the only reason I finally got a toll tag -- who the hell has 1.26 in 'exact change'?

 

Um, you don't need it with zip cash.........

 

So, the NTTA is submerged in debt. They raise the rates and go "payless".

I wonder of the $$ the NTTA actually collects from Zip customers offsets the hourly rate they paid the people to sit in the booths and make change.

My wife renewed her CC info with them after her old card expired. They tried to tell her that she owed almost $500 in "admin fees" for $25 in toll charges. She settled for $40. Which I still disagreed with.

Take the northbound Tollway at Arapaho for example. There are 8 lanes that converge into one exit lane and 7 northbound lanes. After they remove the booths are they going to take out the additional lanes as well or will they create a 70mph bottleneck from 7 to 3 lanes?

Additionally. Can the DMV collect unpaid funds from tolls when the car is being re-registered (since they provide address info to the NTTA)?


I should stop before my blood pressure gets too high....

 

I’m no economist…But simple supply and demand dictates that for an increase in price there’s a decrease in demand. That being said, I would think that the product being offered (the toll road) would be something more price inelastic more than elastic.

It’s inelastic to me, as I have been taking Preston to NW Hwy from Keller Springs. Going from $1.55 to $2.30 is enough to keep me from using the toll road. I wonder how this elasticity (or lack of) figured in to their rate increase?

 

No zip cash north of the George Bush...

 

I thought 121 had been using it since it opened?

 

..& that's how I got hit with those outrageous fees. For someone like myself that doesn't use the toll roads much I thought the whole net work was Zip cash. It almost became a expensive trip to attend Cars & Coffee.

 

Have you guys ever paid the toll to drive around Austin? I was in the coach and since they charge by the axle, I think it cost me $32.00 to avoid that hell hole of a traffic jam called I-35 Austin.

GT

 

That pisses me off to no end. The main purpose of buying and paying for the toll road around austin was to relieve traffic of the semis and large rigs that drive up and down I-35! And, rather than create an incentive for those multi-axle vehicles to use the tollway they PUNISH them by charging them more money!! ARRGHGHGHHH!!

I suppose the thinking was "Hey, let's rely on the tractor-trailer driver's to use common sense: Yes it's a $10 toll. BUT that =less time on I-35=more loads=more money.

 

The reason/logic behind charging per axle is that large, heavy vehicles will wear down a road quicker.

///Michael

 

I'm fine with that, but that price is quite expensive. When I visited the first toll station, they said $8.00. No problem, but then I hit (I think) three more before I got back on to I-35. That just seems excessive, but hey, I'm a business guy and I want people to pay what I charge for stuff.

GT

 

They will accumulate until you owe as much as your car is worth, then you simply give them your car.