Transponder Fee Takes Good Toll : Transportation: Most TCA customers who have returned the devices rarely use the county’s pay roads.

The vast majority of toll road transponders turned in since the imposition of a $1 monthly fee came from drivers who rarely or never took the county’s pay roads, toll road officials said Friday.

An analysis of FasTrak transponders returned between July 1 and Aug. 6 showed 88% had not been used in the previous 36 days and the remaining 12% had accumulated only an average of $4 in charges for the month.

The 417 devices analyzed were brought back by drivers who cited the new fee for giving them up.

Toll road officials voted in June to charge a $1 monthly fee for users of the devices who spend less than $25 a month on Orange County’s 51 miles of toll road. The fee was needed, officials said, to offset mounting costs of supplying the devices.

Toll road officials also hoped a fee would encourage drivers who use the roads infrequently to return the devices, which cost about $30 each. The toll road agencies will spend about $2.8 million this fiscal year to purchase more than 100,000 transponders.

Lisa Telles, spokeswoman for the Transportation Corridor Agencies, pointed out that drivers who use the roads infrequently can still pay the old-fashioned way: with cash at a toll booth.

Of the 3,300 accounts closed since June, about one-third of customers said they were doing so because of the new fee. Closures have been at twice the rate recorded before the fee was imposed.

The toll roads have more than 141,000 FasTrak customers, who can travel the San Joaquin Hills, Eastern and Foothill toll roads without slowing down to pay tolls--which instead are automatically deducted from their prearranged accounts.

Some toll road board members had expressed concerns that any fees might alienate loyal toll road customers.

FasTrak customers in Orange County who got their devices through the 91 Express Lanes--on which there are no cash toll booths--pay a $5 monthly minimum.