Then the bill comes the following month, and I’m supposed to remember where I was, and further, without contemporaneous records, be able to contest it if there’s an error?
And how long will it take the state to correct such errors? You know the answer … eons!
My answer? No way!
So now, the proposal is that they will just read my license plate. I can just see the fraud now.
People painting a 3 on their plate to look like an 8 to fool the system into billing someone else.
Or even fake temporary plates that can be removed at the end of the trip and stored in the trunk. Right?
The open door for fraud is immense. Sure, you have high resolution cameras, right?
They can see through caked on snow and ice (or perhaps I get to drive for free if the conditions are so bad)?
Are human beings going to look carefully at the images to see if the plate is genuine or a fraud? Who’s going to pay for that?
I doubt a machine can really tell every possibly fraudulent plate.
OK, perhaps some of those scenarios may be far-fetched, but what about the state itself?
What about software errors in the system such as the “car as truck” fiasco a few years ago?
What if the state’s system is cleverly hacked by outsiders to avoid charging certain drivers and overcharging others? What about corruption from inside the state, where extra trips are randomly added to driver’s bills, perhaps only 35 cents here and there (the current Mass Pike Toll if driving from 128 to Framingham) to avoid immediate detection?
So, here’s my request: That there be a method by which drivers can receive information at the time the toll is registered. When Fast Lane was first implemented, years ago, I pictured a device in my car that would print out a slip, like a cash register receipt, every time I passed through a toll station, confirming the date, time, and amount I was being charged (and printed more clearly than the grainy Mass Pike receipts of today!).
That way, if there was an error, I could contest it right away, instead of waiting an entire month.
OK, so that would be a colossal waste of paper.
But I am requesting that if you pass a law to automatically charge me tolls as I drive, that the state is required to notify me each and every time I’m charged, on the spot.
You can send a text to my cell phone. Or send an email message to me immediately. Or, perhaps, send a signal that a smart-phone app — that I can download for free — can receive and register the toll in an internal list, so that I can later upload that to my computer to compare with the bill that comes at the end of the month.
Or the state provides a unit that I can buy, at my option, to place in my car that shows when a toll has been charged, with read-only access from my computer.
Something! I need something to give me a legal leg to stand on, rather than just be faced with a bill from the state that I must pay without question. Otherwise, it’ll be time for a class action lawsuit. I’m sure it’s unconstitutional to just charge me without providing me a means to defend myself.
This viewpont was published Wednesday, March 27, 2013.
