EZPass Toll System Saves Tons Of Money... So Maryland Wants To Charge People For It
from the brilliantly-stupid dept
Electronic toll systems have become quite popular around the country -- and have been proven time and time again to be amazingly successful on both sides of the equation: they help ease traffic by speeding cars through toll booths, and they greatly decrease the costs involved in managing a toll system, by decreasing the number of toll-takers necessary. In fact, many states offer incentives for using such systems -- including here in California, where the tolls are cheaper if you're using FastPass (what it's called here). On the east coast, many different states have all agreed to use a single system, called EZPass, which I remember being quite popular (and useful) in New York many years ago. Maryland is one of the states that uses EZPass, but as Wayne White points out, that state is now going in the other direction when it comes to incentives: it's going to start charging you $1.50/month just for having an EZPass device, whether or not you use it. So, this great device helped ease traffic and should have significantly lowered the costs for the Maryland Transportation Authority, and it's response is to charge everyone for it?
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Re:
Welcome back to the 80's
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sad but true.
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New york has been talking about doing the same thing
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MTag
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Ok.....
Actually, I wonder about politicians all the time.
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EZ ZPass NY
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(*New Yawk*?)
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EZ-Pass stinks
If they implement some plan to charge me extra for that privilege I'll revert to just acting like I throw change in the basket and fly on through for free and toss the useless EZ pass box in the garbage.
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Re: EZ-Pass stinks
>that privilege I'll revert to just acting like I
>throw change in the basket and fly on through
>for free and toss the useless EZ pass box in the garbage.
You need to return the EZ pass or they charge $25/unit to not return it.
How fast do you have to be going for it not to register? There is a 55MPH toll gate on a DE road. It may be they got you for violating the posted speed limit which is pretty low on the Garden State Parkway.
Get rid of NJ one anyhow they now charge you a buck a month for it. Find a state without a monthly charge like VA. VA calls it FAst Pass but it is the same thing. It doesn't matter where the tag is from although it is a pain in the tail when the battery in it dies to get a replacement.
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Re: Re: EZ-Pass stinks
That it doesn't register in your state has to be BS.
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NJ Charges $1/month
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Re: NJ Charges $1/month
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Seriously
Or maybe it is the dumbass surcharge for not slowing down to their posted speed limit so the machine can read your EZ pass.
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Basically, governments use budgets opposite from everyone else. Most people and companies figure out how much money they have coming in over the budget period, and then decide how to spend it.
Governments figure how money money they'll need for a given budget period, and then decide how they'll raise the money to obtain it.
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Not here yet, but...
Of course, what happened at the turn of the year is all the toll rates went up; they just didn't go up as much if you had the beeper.
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When ATMs were new, there were no charges for
using them. Then, people got hooked.
When cable was new, no commercials.
Then people got hooked.
At one time, you could resell your airline
tickets. But, the airlines wanted more money,
too -- so they put a stop to that.
When satellite radio was new, no commercials.
When the internet was new, no commercials.
Now everyone is sniffing your stream to make
an extra buck.
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I'm pretty sure that's what non-profits do too.
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MD squeezes EZPass users other ways too
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Re: MD squeezes EZPass users other ways too
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Sometimes the MD government reminds me a lot of that old Robin Hood animated movie.
"B-but, sherriff, that money's for the poor!"
"That's right. And I'll just take it for poor Prince John. Every little bit helps."
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Tolls are the devil's work
So roughly $20 bucks (low estimate) to and from work per politician equals how many hundreds of millions of wasted tax dollars??? I'm no mathmatician, but it sounds kinda like an Obama "tax cut" if you know what I'm sayin...
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NJ Charges Statement Fees Too!
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Calif charges
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Make's sense to a 2 year old...
Since it saves them money, why not charge and "save" more? VA is free but they want a minimum of $25 [when you hit that they add via credit card].
Charging might, just might... (no it doesn't) if they knocked off some of the toll charge.
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Losing Proposition
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god i love oklahoma, they may do some things wrong, but they do a whole lot more right.
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But Mike should post some evidence that these systems "Save tons of money" for the toll system. They can actually cost a lot of money to implement to start, and the jobs of toll-booth personnel that might be lost are likely made up with back-office staff at the managing agencies.
To take just one agency, the NY Thruway Administration, E-ZPass account management costs about $24 million annually, and administration fees are only $1.5 million (E-ZPass violations are, interestingly, $3 million). So you can't just dismiss or discount the costs of administering the system.
Let's not make too big a deal of this.
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Back in the day
there was no speed limit.
Untill some DumbS&(^ smacked thier car right into the toll plaza.
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Here in Indiana...
Today.
Of course, tomorrow is always a new day (despite the SURPLUS the state has).
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Write a check at the store and they won't charge for it.
Even though there's more handling of the check cashing process. Use you debit card because it's convenient and bang, you get hit with a $2.00 POS charge.
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1) No fee for the tag, $1 per month service fee, save 10% on tolls
2) No fee for the tag, $5 per year service fee
3) Pay for the tag, but no service fee
I don't have one myself since I don't travel the turnpike enough, but it's always better to have options.
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convenience fee
Sure it is a convenience to me, but it is also a major convenience to them as well. I know they probably have to pay a certain amount to the credit card company, but when none of my other bills were charging an amount for credit transactions I figured they were just trying to milk me for money. Anyway this seems like the same idea. We'll try to make the cost low enough that you ignore the price. I have an ezpass, but I don't use it enough to justify even $.50 a month. Sorry not going to happen!
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Free E-z pass
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MD EX Pass Fee Avoidance
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EZPass
$1.50 a month is a backdoor method of increasing a commuter
from $0.40 to 0.47 a month and the 60 to 45 day reduction
is a way of getting free money by a faster expire rate.
I would have prefered if they just moved the commuter fee to
$0.50, no fee and left the 60 days.
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Oh and since they hid it so well...
toll changes listed.
if you check tolls it shows just the current rate.
For the complete details, check here burried on their site
http://www.mdta.state.md.us/mdta/Home/publicnotice.pdf
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Re: Oh and since they hid it so well...
For reasons not related to the fee, I had decided to google for how to close my EZ Pass account, and I came across these commentaries about the fee. Otherwise, they hid it well enough that I never would have noticed. Congratulations Premier O'Malley - you're going to make up that lost state revenue from the people who can least afford it in this economy - the dumb ones who don't pay attention to this stuff.
Just canceled my MD one and signed up for a VA one.
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You still have a voice
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Also, I paid a deposit to get mine before they were charging the $1.50 a month, so I asked what happens to all the deposits since they are now charging monthly instead of an initial deposit. they told me "your deposit gets absorbed".
I wish I could do that "hey you stole my wallet!.....no I didn't, I absorbed it!"
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Maryland EZ Pass...worst service, ever!
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Then we'll see everyone run for conver - though I think that would be somewhat difficult in New Jersey's Gov.'s case.
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