Texas Tribune / Shelby Knowles
An indication on a toll highway in Austin.
Robert Witchel rigorously avoids toll roads each time he drives from his house in Northwest Travis County to the Veteran Affairs clinic in Southeast Austin.
His means takes him half an hour longer — generally even an hour with visitors — however he swore off pay roads about 5 years in the past, ever since he racked up about $600 in unpaid tolls and late charges he says he didn’t owe.
Regardless of having a TxTag digital sticker issued by the Texas Division of Transportation for computerized toll funds, he wasn’t informed for greater than a yr that his account was not being charged. It took a number of calls to customer support to search out out that his fee methodology was outdated. In the long run, he paid $120 to settle the debt and determined to depart Texas’ toll highway system endlessly.
“It’s a rip-off,” stated Witchel, a U.S. Coast Guard veteran.
For years, Texas drivers like Witchel have complained about toll fee issues like double billing, rejected computerized funds, inaccurate expenses and invoices with a whole lot of {dollars} in late charges and fines. Toll authorities have acknowledged points and solved a few of them, however others have persevered.
Lawmakers have been hesitant to intervene within the state’s toll highway system, a mishmash of businesses and contractors that generates greater than $2 billion a yr and has improved mobility in Texas’ largest metropolitan areas, however typically forces drivers to pay to get from one level to a different — and take care of the frustration of an surprising invoice.
Throughout this yr’s common legislative session, lawmakers filed at the least 9 toll-related payments, together with proposals that sought to cap fines and charges, eradicate misdemeanor expenses for delinquent customers and make toll roads free to make use of as soon as the bonds issued to construct them are repaid. Solely a kind of payments, Home Invoice 2170, turned legislation. It requires toll entities to inform customers with digital tags when an computerized fee is rejected. The legislation takes impact Sept. 1.
The Texas Division of Transportation and the North Texas Tollway Authority stated they took no official place on the failed toll-related payments mentioned through the session.
Activist teams that search reforms to the state’s toll roads say the brand new legislation shall be an enchancment, however they expressed frustration with the shortage of a statewide restrict on how excessive charges and fines can go. Toll operators, for his or her half, say they’re receptive to person expertise points, however up to now they’ve argued for conserving harsher penalties to discourage nonpayment. Transportation consultants say regional authorities additionally resist altering how they function toll roads as a result of they’re a dependable financial useful resource that helps pay for different mobility enhancements.
Charges, fines and the Texas Legislature
Texas has a fragmented tollway system. TxDOT operates 13 out of the 42 toll roads within the state, not counting border crossings and bridges or Excessive Occupancy Car lanes. The remainder are managed by county or regional toll authorities, that are unbiased authorities businesses chargeable for constructing, working and sustaining sure roads of their jurisdiction. They’ll challenge bonds to construct roads and recoup the fee by way of tolls, or they’ll associate with a non-public firm that pays for half or all the constructing prices in trade for a revenue from future tolls.
The largest toll entities within the state are TxDOT, NTTA within the Dallas-Fort Price space, the Harris County Toll Highway Authority within the better Houston space and the Central Texas Regional Mobility Authority within the Austin metropolitan space. A few of them, like TxDOT, NTTA and HCTRA, challenge their very own digital tags. Most of those tags can be utilized on any toll highway within the state.
When a automobile with an digital tag passes by way of a toll sales space, an computerized cost is made to the person’s account. If the fee is rejected, the toll entity sends an bill by mail. Nonetheless, many drivers have complained that they didn’t obtain their invoice on time or that they didn’t know they owed any cash due to an issue with their computerized funds. And in the event that they don’t pay on time, late charges begin accruing and should result in payments of a whole lot of {dollars}.
HB 2170, the one toll-related legislation handed this yr, requires every toll entity within the state to inform customers instantly by mail, e mail or textual content message when a fee is rejected. It additionally mandates toll entities to ship the bill by mail with a transparent message outdoors the envelope indicating it incorporates a invoice that should be paid.
“The general public just isn’t adequately notified that these hidden charges are entering into these payments,” stated Rep. Bobby Guerra, D-Mission, who authored the invoice. “They solely know that they take their toll and impulsively they’re getting all these loopy payments and they’re outrageous.”
The laws acquired bipartisan help as a result of it was the least controversial of the toll-related proposals filed this yr, Guerra stated. Different proposals did not garner adequate help as a result of they affected the state’s tolling enterprise mannequin extra instantly, he stated.
One of many failed payments was Senate Invoice 316, authored by Sen. Bob Corridor, R-Edgewood, and supported by Texans Uniting for Reform and Freedom, a bunch crucial of the state’s tolling system.
The invoice would’ve capped late charges to $6 per bill and $48 over a 12-month interval. The Legislature handed the same legislation in 2017 capping late charges to the identical quantity, nevertheless it affected solely tolls managed by TxDOT. This resulted in various charge standards amongst toll entities, generally subjecting drivers to totally different guidelines when transferring throughout the identical metropolis.
Within the Austin space, for instance, there are 5 toll roads managed by TxDOT and 6 by CTRMA. Since 2017, TxDOT has charged a $4 late charge per bill, lower than the cap by legislation. In contrast, the CTRMA expenses a $15 late charge per bill. Based on CTRMA’s web site, a driver might face a invoice of as much as $550 in charges and fines, plus the unpaid tolls, after 120 days of nonpayment.
Following the approval of the 2017 legislation, now-suspended Lawyer Basic Ken Paxton issued a nonbinding opinion saying the cap ought to apply to all tolling entities, however some like CTRMA and NTTA didn’t undertake it. When the legislation went into impact in 2018, CTRMA’s then-executive director Mike Heiligenstein informed information station KXAN-TV that he agreed there ought to be some form of cap on late charges however most popular to maintain an quantity that was “painful sufficient” to incentivize individuals to pay tolls.
SB 316 additionally would’ve eradicated misdemeanor expenses for nonpayment, lowered them to civil offenses and capped fines to a most of $25 per unpaid toll. Below present legislation, a toll person can face prison expenses after 120 days of late fee. And drivers who accumulate 100 or extra unpaid toll expenses inside a 12-month interval will be listed as recurring violators. This may block drivers from renewing their car’s registration or ban them from toll roads. A automobile that circulates on a toll highway it has been banned from could also be impounded.
TxDOT stated in a press release it has not filed a misdemeanor case with the courts since 2017.
Terri Corridor, founder and director of Texans Uniting for Reform and Freedom and no relation to Bob Corridor, applauded the passage of HB 2170 however blamed toll entities for stopping SB 316.
“The entities don’t even attempt to attain out to drivers and inform them that there’s an issue as a result of they’ve a monetary incentive to let all these fines and charges begin backing up,” Terri Corridor stated. “They’ll make tons of cash off drivers by having this downside occur.”
Home Invoice 3843, which might’ve instructed the Texas A&M Transportation Institute to conduct a examine of the state’s tolling entities centered on billing practices, error charges and buyer complaints, additionally failed throughout this yr’s common lawmaking session.
Different failed toll-related payments embrace a moratorium on tolls for one yr, a reduction program for seniors and a proposal to eradicate tolls as soon as tolling entities have earned sufficient to repay the bonds they issued to construct these highways. An identical invoice to eradicate tolls additionally failed in 2021.
‘Working exhausting to repair bugs’Tolling entities stated they’ve improved their companies lately.
In NTTA’s case, customer support was the important thing, stated Arturo Ballesteros, the entity’s director of presidency affairs. Ballesteros stated NTTA had already carried out a lot of the measures in HB 2170 earlier than the legislation handed, though it must additional enhance its textual content message notification system. One of the vital recurring issues reported to NTTA was failed funds when customers’ credit score or debit playing cards expired. That was solved when banks began renewing playing cards routinely, he stated.
TxTag has additionally been criticized by customers and lawmakers for billing issues. Since 2013, it has modified software program distributors a number of instances and fined two of them for failing to adjust to the phrases of their contract.
In 2020, TxTag carried out a system improve that led to technical issues and person complaints. A yr later, TxDOT canceled the contract with the seller, IBM, and paid again $11.7 million to drivers for overcharges related to the system improve.
TxTag has had issues with expertise through the years however has been fixing them since getting a brand new vendor in 2021, in response to Randy Machemehl, professor in transportation engineering on the College of Texas at Austin and former director of the college’s Middle for Transportation Analysis.
“Know-how is getting higher yearly,” he stated. “TxDOT is working exhausting to repair bugs.”
TxDOT stated it’s unaware of any widespread points at the moment affecting drivers. TxTag notifies customers when a fee is declined and alerts them 25 days earlier than a bank card on file is ready to run out by way of e mail, textual content or cellphone. The company stated that TxTag was already sending out these sorts of notifications earlier than HB 2170 was handed and has made different enhancements like hiring extra customer support representatives, enabling net chat and offering further coaching.
The Central Texas Turnpike System, which handles TxDOT’s toll roads in Austin, has additionally made enhancements to its automated fee system, in response to two research launched by the entity. In 2018, greater than 600,000 funds with digital tags have been rejected; that quantity dropped to just about 90,000 in 2022, representing 0.15% of all TxTag transactions that yr.
Nonetheless, Machemehl, a self-proclaimed toll supporter, stated toll operators ought to be cautious when sending invoices for unpaid tolls. Drivers don’t reply nicely to receiving a invoice for a whole lot of {dollars} because of technological errors. Fines are meant for drivers who truly did not make a fee and shouldn’t be despatched out when the toll operator’s system made a mistake, he stated.
“They need to present respect for individuals,” Machemehl stated.
‘Its personal cash machine’
Tolls generate additional assets for regional transportation authorities, which explains why they resist eliminating them, stated Rob Stein, a specialist in city coverage and professor of political science at Rice College.
The present toll system “created its personal cash machine,” Stein stated. “If you happen to construct extra toll roads, builders and grocery shops will construct in these areas. You not solely get extra individuals residing across the toll but additionally gross sales tax revenues and property taxes.”
NTTA made greater than $1 billion in tolls in fiscal yr 2022, in response to monetary statements. HCTRA earned greater than $800 million in the identical interval, TxDOT practically $500 million and CTRMA about $175 million.
The cash collected from tolls pays for highway upkeep, operation prices and the bonds issued to construct them. When personal companions assist construct the roads, earnings are additionally shared with them. And when there’s nonetheless a surplus, it may be utilized in non-road initiatives. The Harris County Toll Highway Authority, for instance, accepted a plan final yr to make use of its surplus to construct pedestrian and bike trails within the county.
Tolls have been an answer to highway enlargement underfunding, stated Andrew Waxman, a UT-Austin professor and economist who research the hyperlinks between environmental outcomes, city insurance policies and inequality. Waxman identified that fuel taxes have traditionally been used to pay for highway building. However these taxes have a flat fee of 20 cents per gallon bought within the state, which suggests the cash that comes from them doesn’t go up with fuel costs and isn’t up to date for inflation.
Over time, the funds obtainable for roads have lagged behind building prices, and the hole has widened as electrical autos turn into extra in style, Waxman stated. In response this yr, Gov. Greg Abbott signed Senate Invoice 505, which creates a charge for electrical car registration. Cash raised from these charges will go into the state’s freeway fund and is supposed to compensate for the lack of gas-tax assortment. The legislation goes into impact Sept. 1.
Toll roads are additionally promoted as a means to enhance visitors movement, Waxman stated.
“The standard strategy to decreasing congestion is so as to add extra lanes. The issue with constructing wider roads … is that the extra house is stuffed up with extra vehicles,” he stated. “One other solution to deal with that’s to cost individuals to make use of the highway, rising the fee reasonably than increasing the provision of house. That’s not one thing that individuals are very comfortable to listen to.”
Toll roads in Texas proceed to develop. Based on a 2022 TxDOT report, there are greater than 30 toll initiatives below building or being deliberate, which might add about 300 extra miles to the practically 900 miles of toll roads that exist already within the state.
Disclosure: Central Texas Regional Mobility Authority (CTRMA), Rice College, Texas A&M Transportation Institute and College of Texas at Austin have been monetary supporters of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan information group that’s funded partly by donations from members, foundations and company sponsors. Monetary supporters play no position within the Tribune’s journalism. Discover a full listing of them right here.
This text initially appeared within the Texas Tribune.The Texas Tribune is a member-supported, nonpartisan newsroom informing and interesting Texans on state politics and coverage. Be taught extra at texastribune.org.
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