Crackdown: Tollways OK $25 Fines for Scofflaws

It’s official: no more free rides on Orange County toll roads.

After a debate Thursday on the wisdom of cracking down on first-time toll violators, Transportation Corridor Agencies officials voted to retire their warm and fuzzy approach to motorists who drive through toll plazas or in FasTrak lanes without paying.

From now on, a driver--whether a premeditated toll cheater or just lacking the exact change-- will be mailed a notice requiring payment of a $25 fine. Ignoring the notice will bring another $25 fine and the news that the driver’s car registration can’t be renewed until the fines are paid.

Toll authorities say the number of violations is out of control. Unless they get tough with first-time offenders, officials say, they’ll have to raise tolls.

“People are downright cheating, and it’s costing our honest customers,” said TCA board member and county Supervisor Todd Spitzer. The agencies run the San Joaquin, Eastern and Foothill toll roads.

The toughened policy, which will take effect next month, does have one perk for toll runners--it reduces the maximum penalty for one violation from $96 to $50. But the new policy also allows the toll authority to levy fines quicker. Motorists will get only two--not five--notices before they are reported to the Department of Motor Vehicles.

Critics of the new policy say it will be a public relations disaster. First-time offenders should simply be asked to pay the toll--the current practice--or to sign up for FasTrak, which allows drivers to zip through express lanes without stopping at a toll booth. In most cases, they say, first-time offenders failed to pay because they were confused or did not have the exact change required at automated toll booths.

“We hear a lot about blatant toll violators, but this is not what we’re talking about here,” said board member William L. Ossenmacher, a Dana Point councilman. “We’re talking about people who could be good, paying customers. If you slap them with a $25 fine, they will be bitter about these roads forever.”

Fellow board member and Irvine City Councilwoman Beth Krom agreed.

On one of her first trips along the county toll roads, Krom said she pulled up to a toll machine that would not accept her $5 bill. As other drivers behind her made angry gestures, Krom said she grew increasingly anxious.

“I finally had to go to the car behind me to ask him for change,” Krom said. “I still have a certain fear that I will inadvertently wind up on a toll road without any change.”

Fans of the get-tough policy insist such innocent episodes are rare.

“I do see people blowing the tolls off,” said TCA member and Rancho Santa Margarita City Councilman Jim Thor . “They’re not fudging for change, they’re just blowing it off.”

Toll officials try to catch toll violators with cameras that record license plates. Recently, however, they acknowledged that as many as half of those images are worthless--either because of poor quality or because the vehicle had obscured or temporary plates.

County Supervisor Tom Wilson, also a TCA board member, jokingly suggested that be taken into account.

“They might be fined as first-time violators, but it’s probably their hundredth violation,” Wilson. “It’s just that it’s the first violation we’ve been able to record.”