How much inconvenience are we willing to tolerate for the sake of … convenience?

Down in Baltimore County, somebody keeps rolling through the Interstate 95 express lane at White Marsh without paying the required toll. And I really, really, really wish it would stop.

Why should I care about a total stranger's apparent violation three counties over, you ask?

Because the license plate on the offending vehicle is one digit different than the one on my car, and the Maryland Transportation Authority's automatic reader keeps reading it as mine. So every time the real violator blows through the toll booth, I get a "toll due" letter — which interestingly includes a photo of the vehicle in question and a second photo of the license plate.

And not a half-inch from the photo of the offending plate, my own number is printed on the form. And it's clearly different from the plate in the photo.

Any human seeing the two could tell they're not the same.

And there's the problem.

No human sees the letter before it goes out.

So I automatically get these letters even though it's clearly not my car, clearly not my plate, and I rarely have occasion to travel in Baltimore County.

And every time, I have to call the MTA's customer service number, navigate through the circular maze that is its automated answering system (this week that took nearly 15 minutes) and then wait to speak to an actual human to clear this matter up.

This week, "your wait time to speak to a customer service representative is approximately 24 minutes," I was told. I waited as there is no other option, by phone, by mail or online, for this particular issue. The only options by these means are "Driver is not owner," "Leased vehicle," "Dealer/transporter plate" or "Stolen." There's no option for "That's not my car and that's not my plate and your automated reader apparently can't read."

Let me say up front that when I finally do reach a human, that person is always helpful. But this time, I asked if there were some way this plate could be flagged so that I don't get these letters every month.

And the answer is no. "We don't have any control over that," the customer service representative said. And apparently it happens a lot.

She added that the person who's driving through the toll booth probably actually has an "E-ZPass" and isn't intentionally avoiding the tolls, but the reader is misreading the plate.

(And I thought those who have E-ZPasses have transponders in their vehicles to identify them and the plate readers were only for those who don't have them. I guess that's what I get for thinking; I really must stop doing that.)

The only thing I can do to stop it, she said, is to get a new license plate.

Well, I'm not going to do that. It's not my fault the other person's plate is constantly misread.

I have had to make these calls every month this summer. And the customer service representative told me it happens "a million times a day," which I'm certain is a little bit of an exaggeration, but it makes a point: It's happening to a lot more people than yours truly.

So in the immortal words of Carrie Bradshaw, I couldn't help but wonder: How much time, paper and postage is being wasted because the "readers" are misreading the plates? How much time is being wasted for innocent parties and for state employees as a result? And how much inconvenience are we willing to tolerate for the sake of … convenience?

It's also an illustration that as much as technology does for us — and I'll be the first to testify to that — it can so easily be counterproductive without human oversight.

And apparently the Maryland Department of Transportation agrees. A case in point, also courtesy of MDOT, is a letter from the Motor Vehicle Administration informing me that it's time to renew my drivers license. It suggests I save time by renewing online.

And hey — I'm all for not having to make a trip to the MVA office, so I was game.

So I went to the website where I learned that the required vision screening could be waived if I'd had an eye exam within the past two years. Lucky me! I'd just had an exam in June.

But I wasn't eligible to renew online until the eye doctor submitted the required form. So I called the office and asked if they could send it.

Well, no. They can complete it, but they couldn't upload it to the MVA system. I'd have to pick it up myself.

So I went back to the MVA website and asked the little "chatbot" how to submit this information, as I couldn't find a place to upload it, either.

Its reply? My options, apparently, were to snail-mail it or — guess what? — take it to the MVA office myself and hand it to the person at the information desk.

Now that rather defeats the purpose, doesn't it?

Tamela Baker is a Herald-Mail feature writer.

More Tammy: Want to know what this column is about? You'll have to read past the headline.

This article originally appeared on The Herald-Mail: License plate reader error shows MD MVA's struggle with convenience