$15,000 in Toll Penalties?! It Can Happen Faster Than You Think

Bay Curious

KQED

History, Society & Culture, Places & Travel

4.9 • 999 Ratings

🗓️ 6 January 2022

⏱️ 14 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Bay Curious newsletter reader Mike Robbins wrote to us saying he has thousands of dollars in toll violations and penalties. The number seemed so high we were incredulous. But, it turns out if you miss a few toll invoices, or don't pay them quickly enough, it's easy for a $6 or $7 toll fee to escalate into thousands of dollars of debt. We explain how and what's being done about it. Additional Reading Hit With Bridge Toll Debt? We Explain the Change That's Led to Skyrocketing Bills for Drivers 'High Pain, Low Gain': How Bridge Toll Penalties Pile Debt on Lower-Income Drivers Ways to Pay Your Toll, Invoice or Violation Reported by Dan Brekke. Bay Curious is made by Olivia Allen-Price, Katrina Schwartz, Sebastian Miño-Bucheli and Brendan Willard. Additional support from Jessica Placzek, Kyana Moghadam, Paul Lancour, Suzie Racho, Carly Severn, Lina Blanco, Ethan Lindsey, Vinnee Tong and Jenny Pritchett.

Transcript

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0:00.0	From K-QED.
0:03.0	Hello, hello and happy New Year everyone.
0:07.0	It feels good to be back in the host chair after a couple of restful weeks away.
0:12.0	Not long ago, we sent out a monthly Bay Curious newsletter on the topic of bridge tolls,
0:17.8	answering some of your questions about how the money is used.
0:21.0	A guy named Mike Robbins wrote us back, saying he was more than $15,000 in debt because of those
0:28.4	bridge tolls. $15,000, I thought, how could that be?
0:34.3	I forwarded his email to KQED's transit editor Dan Brecky
0:38.2	and asked him to look into it.
0:39.9	What he found frankly shocked us. Mike's story was not at all unique.
0:45.0	Today I'm curious we investigate how unpaid tolls could snowball into a mountain of debt and what's been done to help folks out.
0:55.0	I'm Olivia Allen Price, this is Bay Curius.
1:00.0	Support for Bay Curious is brought to you by Sierra Nevada Brewing Company, still family owned, operated, and argued over.
1:07.0	Explore their brews wherever fine beverages are sold and taste how trailblazing runs in the family.
1:13.8	Visit Sierra Nevada.com to find your new favorite beer today.
1:19.6	When the coronavirus pandemic hit, Caltrans pulled all the toll takers off the bridges.
1:24.8	You can't hand cash over and keep six feet of distance after all, so there were some real safety
1:30.0	concerns.
1:31.0	Practically overnight, toll collection changed.
1:34.0	Now, if you use Fast Track, that's the electronic system that works via a toll tag in your car, this probably wasn't a big deal.
1:46.1	You may not have even noticed.
1:48.0	But if you paid your tolls in cash, this was a huge change.
	...

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