If at First You Decline, CHP May Collect That Toll

Toll evaders on the San Joaquin Hills and Foothill North toll roads had better be on alert: California Highway Patrol officers have stepped up enforcement on those roads.

In an effort launched last month, Orange County toll road officials hired CHP officers to go after violators. While toll evaders are already captured on videotape and can be tracked down through their license plates, officials say some drivers still manage to get away without paying.

Cars pass through toll plazas in the county’s 51 miles of toll roads about 220,000 times each day, officials said.

“This is an issue we have been tackling for months,” said Lisa Telles, spokeswoman for the county Transportation Corridor Agencies. “The CHP is checking for people who do not have [transponders] and are using those lanes.”

The issue, Telles said, is how to “curb that behavior.”

In the first four weeks, officers issued 79 warnings and 34 citations, Telles said. Offenders may simply pay the toll soon afterward, but penalties mount the longer they wait. The cost to the agencies for the overtime patrols was about $3,000, she said. So far about $20,000 has been earmarked for enforcement, and officials said that could increase depending on how well the program works.

“It’s not fair to our customers who are driving every day and pay a toll,” Telles said. “We want people to know that if you are driving these roads you need to pay.”

The enforcement steps come as the San Joaquin Hills tollway board of directors is searching for ways to generate more revenue on a road that has lagged traffic projections from the start.

The $1.7 billion in bonds for the road were recently downgraded by one of the nation’s top three bond rating agencies, and another issued a warning that the project’s outlook had changed from “stable” to “negative.”

A meeting on ways to increase revenue on that toll road will be held at 1:30 p.m. Tuesday in the agency’s Irvine headquarters.