Years old toll malfunctions still haunt motorists.

Published Friday, May 20, 2005, in the San Francisco Chronicle

It tolls for thee -- bridge scofflaws get notice
Collection agency seeks payments for Golden Gate district

By Michael Cabanatuan

Thousands of motorists who -- knowingly or not -- zipped past the
Golden Gate Bridge's distinctive toll booths in the FasTrak lanes as
long as four years ago without paying are receiving notices from a
collection agency, some seeking hundreds of dollars.

The bridge district, which is trying to eliminate a deficit projected
to total $70 million over the next five years, has turned over
thousands of toll violations dating back to 2001 to OSI Collection
Services. Many of the collection notices were sent out this week.

Mary Currie, bridge district spokeswoman, said the collection effort
was a matter of fairness and fiscal responsibility for an agency
contemplating increases in bridge tolls and bus and ferry fares to
balance its budget. About $550,000 in tolls and $3.2 million in
penalties are being turned over to the collection agency.

"We don't want our good customers -- the ones who pay their tolls when
they go through the FasTrak lanes -- to have to pay more to make up
for those who don't pay," said Sally Hinds, the bridge district's
FasTrak coordinator.

The bridge district introduced its FasTrak system in July 2000. As it
rolled out, expanded and streamlined its electronic toll-taking, the
district let many toll evaders go. It sent out two notices to
motorists whose tolls hadn't been collected by the electronic toll
system, then stopped pursuing those scofflaws who still hadn't paid
up.

Until recently. Last fall, the district decided to clean up its
backlog of violations. It dismissed all toll violations from the
system's first six months, issued letters warning toll evaders with
multiple violations including at least one in 2004 that a hold would
be put on their car registrations until the bill was paid and turned
over cases involving multiple older violations to the collection
agency.

Some of those bills can be pretty steep. With fines increasing for
each violation, someone who ran the toll booth without paying five
times would pile up more than $300 in tolls and penalties.

The bridge district expects that OSI will collect about $750,000.
After the company is paid commissions, the bridge district would
pocket about $530,000, according to a district report.

Currie acknowledged that the FasTrak system had some flaws in its
earlier days, including an inability to read some of the supposedly
compatible FasTrak transponders that Caltrans issued to East Bay
commuters. Other problems may have caused some notices to be sent to
incorrect addresses or assessed to the wrong vehicles.

Hinds said the district would waive the penalties -- but still collect
the overdue tolls -- for anyone who could convince the agency they had
never received the notices demanding payment or had a valid FasTrak
account at the time of the violation.

Anyone who believes they received the violation notice in error should
contact the collection agency, which will work with the bridge
district to investigate, Currie said.

"We're not here to take money from people who don't owe it," she said.
"If you didn't go through, we don't want you to pay. But if you're a
repeat violator, you need to pay up."


E-mail Michael Cabanatuan at mcabanatuan@...