| Don't
Credit the Toll Road |
| Once again residents in Herndon, Reston and
Eastern Loudoun are under attack by the Toll Trolls, those
Virginia Department of Transportation officials who want to
doubleäyep, double!äthe toll on the Dulles Toll Road. |
| Already we are the only people in the greater Washington
area made to pay a toll to get where we need to go. Motorists
driving to the airport use the Access Road, hence avoiding
the toll. So the freight-paying is up to the Herndon, Reston,
Eastern Loudoun folks just trying to get by, get to work,
and get through the day without being stuck on VDOT's roads
for two hours. |
| And now they want to double the toll unlessäand this is
a big unlessäwe agree to use its Smart Tag. Smart Tag is an
electronic toll collection system hooked into your credit
card. It allows drivers to pre-pay their tolls and speed through
the toll booths while a device records their Smart Tag number
and subtracts the amount from their credit card balance. |
| Now that's just what I wantäthe commonwealth with a direct
line into my credit card. It gives a new meaning to the "wealth"
in commonwealth. |
| What the state wants toll cash-payers to do is to make them
pay double the amount that Smart Tag users pay. |
| Here's the way it works: You must make a deposit of $15
by check or credit card. (The state holds this money. You
can't use it.) The deposit is waived only if you have a minimum
balance set up in your Smart Tag account which is automatically
replenished with your credit card. |
| If you use VDOT's system you get to pay the regular fee
of from 25 cents to 50 cents to use the public toll road.
If you want to pay cash (my mother always said "use now, pay
now"), VDOT officials will make you pay double the fare, or
from 50 cents to $1 for the 13-mile road. |
| There are many things wrong with this plan. |
| ® Not everyone has a credit card, either by choice or by
financial hardship. Paying double the toll only adds to the
hardship. Hunter Mill District Supervisor Cathy Hudgins (D)
said in last week's Observer she believes Smart Tag penalizes
drivers who do not use or cannot afford the Smart Tag. |
| ® Having to use a credit card or pay double penalizes the
poor and those who wish not to use credit. |
| ® Having the state dip into your personal accounts is frightening.
The state can't tell us, or refuses to tell us, where all
that toll money goes. Do you think the state will know who
is looking at our credit records? |
| ® How can the state demand that we use a credit system or
pay double? What ever happened to cash and carry? |
| ® Speeding through the toll booths while using a Smart Tag
is dangerous. It is a disaster waiting to happen. |
| ® Doesn't the toll road make enough off of us already? And
think of this: All of that "deposit" money and "minimum balance"
money would be invested by the state, making millions more
off toll road users. It's free money for the state. |
| ® Where does all that money go, any-way? I don't think we've
ever been told the entire truth about that. |
| ® Demanding the use of a credit card or double tolls only
gives the state more information on us, like when we travel,
where we travel, what credit rating we have, and a host of
other private information. |
| VDOT shouldn't be thinking of doubling the toll, they should
be thinking about how to get rid of the toll entirely. How
many times have we paid for that road? How many pot holes
need filling? How many roads around the state are the people
in Herndon, Reston and Loudoun County paying for? |
| It's a really bad idea, and I don't think we should take
it. In fact, the toll road is a really bad idea, and I don't
think we should take that, either. |
| And that's Our Town this week. |
