Tag Archives: North Texas Tollway Authority

local news

Tolls … and more tolls

CHARLESTON. W. Va. — My journey eastward from Texas has introduced me to a new way of paying tolls on highways.

You have to possess plenty of cash as you make your way through the gorgeous state of West Virginia.

The toll road along Interstate 77/64 requires motorists to shell out $4.25 at each station. That’s cash money, man! They advise you that credit cards or debit cards won’t work.

Good thing I had some extra scratch in my pockets when I drove toward this lovely city. I did ask one toll-booth attendant: What happens if I don’t have any cash? He said the state mails a bill to my house. I presume Big Brother will have photographed my license plate and matched it with the address in the massive data base.

Fine. I preferred to just present the cash, even though it’s a bit of a hassle, given that they don’t tell you how far ahead the next toll station might be. Digging for cash in the front seat of my pickup isn’t exactly a convenient endeavor.

I have been spoiled by the North Texas Tollway Authority system. You buy a Toll Tag, which then bills a credit card account you put on file. You run out of money in the account, NTTA puts another $20 in the account from which it draws funds whenever you use one of the many toll roads that crisscross the D/FW area.

But, hey … every trip away from home is a learning experience.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

local news

Toll roads: They’re everywhere, I tell ya!

One of the adjustments to moving from the Texas Panhandle to the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex involves my motor vehicles.

And I don’t mean the traffic.

I’m talkin’ about toll roads. They’re all over the place.

We live just a stone’s throw from the Sam Rayburn Tollway. We’ve got the North Dallas Tollway. There’s the President George Bush Turnpike about eight miles or so south of us. I know I’m missing a bunch of them. But you get the drift.

Don’t get me wrong. I don’t object to the toll roads. They’re necessary for paying for the wear and tear we motorists inflict on our highways.

What’s especially non-objectionable is the way the North Texas Tollway Authority assesses these tolls. The NTTA deploys cameras along the highways. You pass under them, the cameras snap a picture of your license plate and then the NTTA sends you a bill. I just paid a bill for $8.08, which was the fee we paid for driving along the Rayburn toll road en route to a furniture store in The Colony, and then back to our new digs in Fairview. Not bad.

Moreover, it beats the dickens out of the way some states assess tolls. Take Oklahoma, for instance. Not many years ago, about four years or so, my wife and I found ourselves on a toll road north of Oklahoma City. We had to fumble around for the correct change as we motored along the highway and approached a toll booth.

Ridiculous, I’m tellin’ ya!

The NTTA does it right. I appreciate the absence of the need to be carrying cash with me as I try to get from place to place. I’ve still got to learn my way around without the hassle of fumbling for cash.

Come to think of it, the technology the NTTA uses to assess toll fees reminds me of the red-light cameras that cities such as, say, Amarillo use to nab traffic violators who just cannot obey traffic signals’ instructions to stop when the light turns red.