| The
Challenge of Hidden Tolls |
| My normal morning and evening drives do not take me along
our legendary major thoroughfares, but this week an assignment
had me traveling east on the Dulles Toll Road at just after
9 a.m. |
| As I approached the main toll plaza, I prepared for traffic
back-ups. Traffic exiting at Tysons Corner was backed up onto
the highway. Traffic exiting to head west on Route 7 was a
mess, clogging the exit and at least one travel lane on the
toll road. |
| But as I drifted off to the right to head for a full-service
toll window, the roadway cleared and I noticed that there
was very little traffic at the "exact change" and full-service
windows. At least two of the windows were open with no cars
at all waiting for service. I was shocked, to say the least.
Where was everybody? |
| Meanwhile, off to the far left of the toll plaza dozens
of cars every minute sped through the two Smart Tag automated
toll lanes. It was like a river of traffic speeding along,
the distance between cars maybe a couple of car lengths. |
| I watched these people churn through the toll plaza on the
way to their busy lives, and I thought first that the automated
toll lanes were a huge contributor to lessening traffic delays
at the toll plazas. |
| But I also thought about how easy it is to run right through
a toll plaza without realizing how high the tolls are when
the money is paid through a little transponder. When my family
and I traveled to Michigan last summer, we were able to bypass
some of the traffic back-ups on the Pennsylvania Turnpike
by using our Smart Tag transponder. As a result, we had no
idea how much we actually paid in tolls for the trip. |
| Sometimes, technology can bring great convenience, but it's
easy to overlook the cost. |
