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Every time he drives from his home in Northwest Travis County to the Veteran Affairs clinic in Southeast Austin, Robert Witchel takes great care to steer clear of toll roads.
He now chooses to take a longer route, which adds an additional half an hour, and sometimes even an hour due to traffic. This decision was made five years ago when he accumulated around $600 in unpaid tolls and late fees that he believes were not his responsibility.
Even though he had a TxTag electronic sticker provided by the Texas Department of Transportation for hassle-free toll payments, he was unaware for over a year that his account was not being billed. After numerous calls to customer service, he discovered that his payment method was no longer valid. Ultimately, he paid $120 to resolve the outstanding balance and made the decision to permanently opt out of Texas’ toll road system.
Witchel, a veteran of the U.S. Coast Guard, declared, “This is a scam.”
For years, Texas drivers like Witchel have complained about toll payment problems like double billing, rejected automatic payments, erroneous charges and invoices with hundreds of dollars in late fees and fines. Toll authorities have acknowledged issues and solved some of them, but others have persisted.
Lawmakers have shown reluctance to intervene in the state’s toll road system, which is a combination of various agencies and contractors. This system generates over $2 billion annually and has successfully enhanced mobility in Texas’ major metropolitan regions. However, it frequently requires drivers to pay for travel between different destinations, subjecting them to the inconvenience of unexpected bills.
During this year’s regular legislative session, lawmakers filed at least nine toll-related bills, including proposals that sought to cap fines and fees, eliminate misdemeanor charges for delinquent users and make toll roads free to use once the bonds issued to build them are repaid. Only one of those bills, House Bill 2170, became law. It requires toll entities to notify users with electronic tags when an automatic payment is rejected. The law takes effect Sept. 1.
During the session, both the Texas Department of Transportation and the North Texas Tollway Authority stated that they did not hold any official stance on the toll-related bills that did not pass.
The activist groups advocating for changes to the state’s toll roads view the new law as a step in the right direction, although they are disappointed by the absence of a statewide cap on fees and fines. Toll operators, on the other hand, are open to addressing user experience concerns, but have previously argued for stricter penalties to discourage nonpayment. Additionally, transportation experts highlight that regional authorities are hesitant to modify toll road operations due to their significant economic contribution in funding other mobility enhancements.
Fees, fines and the Texas Legislature
Texas has a fragmented tollway system. TxDOT operates 13 out of the 42 toll roads in the state, not counting border crossings and bridges or High Occupancy Vehicle lanes. The rest are managed by county or regional toll authorities, which are independent government agencies responsible for building, operating and maintaining certain roads in their jurisdiction. They can issue bonds to build roads and recoup the cost through tolls, or they can partner with a private company that pays for part or all of the building costs in exchange for a profit from future tolls.
TxDOT, NTTA, HCTRA, and the Central Texas Regional Mobility Authority are the major toll entities in Texas. These entities, such as TxDOT, NTTA, and HCTRA, provide their own electronic tags, which can be utilized on any toll road across the state. The Dallas-Fort Worth area is served by NTTA, while the greater Houston area relies on the Harris County Toll Road Authority. In the Austin metropolitan area, the Central Texas Regional Mobility Authority manages toll roads.
When a vehicle equipped with an electronic tag drives through a toll booth, the user’s account is automatically charged. In cases where the payment is declined, the toll entity will send an invoice via mail. Nevertheless, numerous drivers have expressed dissatisfaction over not receiving their bills promptly or being unaware of any outstanding payments due to issues with their automatic payment system. Failure to pay on time can result in the accumulation of late fees, potentially leading to substantial bills amounting to hundreds of dollars.
The lone toll-related legislation, HB 2170, has been enacted this year. This new law necessitates toll entities within the state to promptly inform users via mail, email, or text message in case of payment rejection. Additionally, it compels toll entities to send invoices by mail, with a conspicuous message on the envelope indicating its contents as an unpaid bill.
“The public is not adequately notified that these hidden fees are getting into these bills,” said Rep. Bobby Guerra, D-Mission, who authored the bill. “They only know that they take their toll and all of a sudden they’re getting all these crazy bills and they are outrageous.”
According to Guerra, the legislation gained support from both parties as it was the least contentious among the toll-related proposals submitted this year. He explained that other proposals did not receive enough backing as they had a more direct impact on the state’s tolling business model.
One of the failed bills was Senate Bill 316, authored by Sen. Bob Hall, R-Edgewood, and supported by Texans Uniting for Reform and Freedom, a group critical of the state’s tolling system.
The bill would’ve capped late fees to $6 per invoice and $48 over a 12-month period. The Legislature passed a similar law in 2017 capping late fees to the same amount, but it affected only tolls managed by TxDOT. This resulted in varying fee criteria among toll entities, sometimes subjecting drivers to different rules when moving within the same city.
In the Austin area, for example, there are five toll roads managed by TxDOT and six by CTRMA. Since 2017, TxDOT has charged a $4 late fee per invoice, less than the cap by law. By contrast, the CTRMA charges a $15 late fee per invoice. According to CTRMA’s website, a driver may face a bill of up to $550 in fees and fines, plus the unpaid tolls, after 120 days of nonpayment.
Following the approval of the 2017 law, now-suspended Attorney General Ken Paxton issued a nonbinding opinion saying the cap should apply to all tolling entities, but some like CTRMA and NTTA did not adopt it. When the law went into effect in 2018, CTRMA’s then-executive director Mike Heiligenstein told news station KXAN-TV that he agreed there should be some sort of cap on late fees but preferred to keep an amount that was “painful enough” to incentivize people to pay tolls.
SB 316 would have changed the consequences for nonpayment of tolls by eliminating misdemeanor charges and replacing them with civil offenses. Additionally, it would have limited fines for unpaid tolls to a maximum of $25. As per the current law, individuals can face criminal charges if they fail to pay tolls for 120 days. Moreover, drivers who accumulate 100 or more unpaid toll charges within a year may be designated as habitual violators, resulting in potential restrictions such as being unable to renew their vehicle’s registration or being banned from using toll roads. In cases where a vehicle is prohibited from a toll road, it could be impounded if found circulating on one.
According to a statement by TxDOT, no misdemeanor cases have been filed with the courts since 2017.
Terri Hall, the founder and director of Texans Uniting for Reform and Freedom (and not related to Bob Hall), expressed satisfaction with the approval of HB 2170. However, she held toll entities responsible for the failure of SB 316.
Terri Hall stated that the entities have no intention to actively communicate with drivers regarding issues as it financially benefits them to allow fines and fees to accumulate. She further added that by allowing this problem to persist, they can generate substantial profits from drivers.
House Bill 3843, which would’ve instructed the Texas A&M Transportation Institute to conduct a study of the state’s tolling entities focused on billing practices, error rates and customer complaints, also failed during this year’s regular lawmaking session.
Other failed toll-related bills include a moratorium on tolls for one year, a discount program for seniors and a proposal to eliminate tolls once tolling entities have earned enough to pay off the bonds they issued to build those highways. A similar bill to eliminate tolls also failed in 2021.
“Working hard to fix bugs"
Tolling entities have claimed that they have enhanced their services over the past few years.
According to Arturo Ballesteros, the director of government affairs at NTTA, customer service played a crucial role in their case. Ballesteros mentioned that NTTA had already put into effect the majority of the measures outlined in HB 2170 prior to the law’s enactment, with the exception of enhancing their text message notification system. One common issue reported to NTTA was the failure of payments due to expired credit or debit cards, which was resolved when banks began automatically renewing the cards.
TxTag has also been criticized by users and lawmakers for billing problems. Since 2013, it has changed software vendors multiple times and fined two of them for failing to comply with the terms of their contract.
In 2020, TxTag implemented a system upgrade that led to technical problems and user complaints. A year later, TxDOT canceled the contract with the vendor, IBM, and paid back $11.7 million to drivers for overcharges associated with the system upgrade.
According to Randy Machemehl, a professor in transportation engineering at the University of Texas at Austin and former director of the university’s Center for Transportation Research, TxTag had faced technological issues in the past. However, they have been successfully resolving these problems since acquiring a new vendor in 2021.
He mentioned that technology is improving each year and TxDOT is diligently working to address any bugs.
According to TxDOT, drivers are not currently facing any widespread issues. TxTag sends notifications to users when a payment is declined and also alerts them via email, text, or phone 25 days before their credit card on file is about to expire. TxDOT mentioned that TxTag was already sending out these types of notifications before the passing of HB 2170. Additionally, the agency has made other enhancements such as hiring more customer service representatives, enabling web chat, and providing extra training.
The Central Texas Turnpike System, which handles TxDOT’s toll roads in Austin, has also made improvements to its automated payment system, according to two studies released by the entity. In 2018, more than 600,000 payments with electronic tags were rejected; that number dropped to nearly 90,000 in 2022, representing 0.15% of all TxTag transactions that year.
Despite being a toll supporter, Machemehl advises toll operators to exercise caution when issuing invoices for unpaid tolls. He emphasizes that drivers tend to react negatively upon receiving bills amounting to hundreds of dollars due to technological errors. He asserts that fines should only be imposed on drivers who genuinely neglected to make a payment, and not on instances where the toll operator’s system made an error.
According to Machemehl, it is important for them to demonstrate respect towards individuals.
“Its own money machine”
According to Rob Stein, an expert in urban policy and professor of political science at Rice University, regional transportation authorities are reluctant to eliminate tolls because they provide additional resources for them.
According to Stein, the existing toll system has effectively become a lucrative enterprise. He explains that constructing additional toll roads will not only attract more residents, but also encourage the establishment of new businesses like developers and grocery stores in those areas. This, in turn, would lead to increased sales tax revenues and property taxes.
According to financial statements, NTTA generated toll revenues exceeding $1 billion during fiscal year 2022. HCTRA amassed over $800 million in toll collections within the same period, while TxDOT accumulated nearly $500 million, and CTRMA earned approximately $175 million.
The money collected from tolls pays for road maintenance, operation costs and the bonds issued to build them. When private partners help build the roads, profits are also shared with them. And when there is still a surplus, it can be used in non-road projects. The Harris County Toll Road Authority, for example, approved a plan last year to use its surplus to build pedestrian and bike trails in the county.
According to Andrew Waxman, a professor and economist at UT-Austin who focuses on the relationship between environmental outcomes, urban policies, and inequality, tolls were implemented as a remedy for inadequate funding in road expansion projects. Waxman highlighted that historically, gas taxes have been utilized to finance road construction. However, these taxes have a fixed rate of 20 cents per gallon sold within the state. Consequently, the revenue generated from gas taxes does not increase with rising gas prices and fails to account for inflation.
Over time, the funds available for roads have lagged behind construction costs, and the gap has widened as electric vehicles become more popular, Waxman said. In response this year, Gov. Greg Abbott signed Senate Bill 505, which creates a fee for electric vehicle registration. Money raised from those fees will go into the state’s highway fund and is meant to compensate for the loss of gas-tax collection. The law goes into effect Sept. 1.
According to Waxman, toll roads are also advocated as a means to enhance traffic flow.
According to him, the traditional method of alleviating congestion involves expanding the number of lanes. However, the issue arises when wider roads only attract more vehicles, filling up the extra space. Alternatively, another approach to tackle this problem is by implementing road tolls, increasing the cost of using the road instead of simply increasing the available space. Unfortunately, this solution is often met with dissatisfaction from people.
Toll roads in Texas continue to expand. According to a 2022 TxDOT report, there are more than 30 toll projects under construction or being planned, which would add about 300 more miles to the nearly 900 miles of toll roads that already exist in the state.
Disclosure: Central Texas Regional Mobility Authority (CTRMA), Rice University, Texas A&M Transportation Institute and University of Texas at Austin have been financial supporters of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune’s journalism. Find a complete list of them here.
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