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    Cracking Down on Parkway Toll Violations in New Jersey

    By Nancy Lichtenstein | Yahoo! Contributor Network – Fri, Dec 30, 2011
    This story comes from the Yahoo! Contributor Network, where individuals publish their unique perspectives on some of the world’s most popular websites.
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    COMMENTARY | The Garden State Parkway is planning to crack down on toll violators who go through the exact change lane without remitting the proper toll, according to an article on nj.com. Those who frequent the Parkway find this announcement bemusing. If ever a governmental department deserved the label Kafkaesque, it is the New Jersey Turnpike Authority (which also operates the Garden State Parkway, according to its website).

    Family members I visit frequently live off of exit 165N. The tollbooth there has only exact change and EZ-Pass. No matter how much I want to be law-abiding and pay the toll, if I don't have 35 cents on me at the time all I can do is take the envelope (if there is one) and mail it in, if I remember to.

    One day I missed the exit and got off at 168N instead, only to find there's no tollbooth there. Now when I'm short I drive three miles out of my way to avoid the toll. It wastes my gas (which costs a lot more than 35 cents) and the Turnpike Authority loses a toll, but hey, at least I'm in compliance.

    Get EZ-Pass? I refuse to. See, the Turnpike Authority sends out a letter demanding $20 if you drive through that lane and fail to pay. However, if the reason is a malfunction of the device, they only collect the toll itself.

    The letter about the EZ-Pass violation is sent first class and costs 39 cents to mail. They next mail three reminders, for a total of $1.56 in postage. The toll itself costs 35 cents. In summer 2006 I had a malfunctioning EZ-Pass device and got more than 100 such letters. Math is not my strong point but even I can tell from these numbers they're fighting a losing battle, and as a New Jersey taxpayer, I refuse to subsidize it, so I got rid of my EZ-Pass on principle.

    According to an article about the history of the Garden State Parkway on nycroads.com, the Turnpike Authority loses "more than $125,000 a year" in lost tolls from the exact change lanes. If they handle it same way they handle the EZ-Pass tolls, they will spend more than $195,000 a year collecting those tolls. With business practices like this, it's no wonder our state has one of the highest debt loads in the nation.

    Nancy Lichtenstein is an experienced news, lifestyle and entertainment reporter with a degree in journalism from Fordham University. She is a lifelong resident of North Jersey and her goal is to make the rest of the country realize that there's more to Jersey girls than "the Real Housewives" (although she has had her picture taken with some of them) and that most of the real "Jersey Shore" has class.

     

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