The new ‘highway robbery’? Toll bills on this Metroplex trip cost Keller woman $100
One Keller woman experienced a tough case of sticker shock after a recent drive from Alliance to Richardson.
“New meaning for ‘highway robbery,’” wrote Lex Fitzgerald in a post on a Facebook group for Keller neighbors on Monday, Nov. 25. Using express lanes on the hour-long drive cost her over $100, with one 13-minute stretch coming in at more than $42. “How is this not some sort of fraud? What in the actual world?!”
After her post garnered some strong reactions, Fitzgerald realized she was actually billed $103.66 for a trip from Alliance to Richardson and back, but the difference did not assuage her frustration with the bill.
“This whole situation is still incredibly confusing to me,” she said in an audio message sent to the Star-Telegram.
Fitzgerald used TEXpress lanes and ones operated by the North Texas Tollway Authority, a nonprofit governmental organization that administers the Toll Tag on her windshield. The tag, however, did not work, which is why she received a bill in the mail.
While NTTA tollways charge fixed rates, TEXpress lanes lanes are owned by the for-profit companies and use dynamic pricing, a system that sees prices change based on traffic flows.
Fitzgerald’s bill came from ZipCash, which bills tollway riders who do not have a Toll Tag and charges them as much as 100% more than the listed toll tag price, according to the website for North Tarrant Express Mobility Partners, the company that owns and operates most of the lanes Fitzgerald used that day.
A ZipCash representative told her that they could adjust the bill to reflect the Toll Tag prices, Fitzgerald said, but that would only account for $68 of a $150 bill for this and two other recent trips.
She and others who commented on her post said the confusion in their bills begins on the highway, where it is difficult to figure out how to exit the express lane before accruing more charges not posted at the entry point.
“I can’t say for certain that I was able to get off beforehand,” she said.
Robert Hinkle, a spokesperson for North Tarrant Express Mobility Partners, the company that owns and operates the TEXpress lanes on Loop 820 from I-35W to Euless, did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but he explained dynamic pricing to a Star-Telegram reporter in May 2019 for an article about drivers facing soaring rates on Tarrant County’s toll roads.
“The dynamic tolling system for the North Texas managed lane corridors, that is designed to keep a certain level of traffic moving at a minimum of 50 mph at all times, is working as expected and according to the regionally approved policy providing drivers in North Texas a reliable alternative for their daily trips and commutes,” he said in a statement.
“As the managed and express lanes network expands, traffic volumes on those corridors continue to grow and driver behavior is evolving,” he continued. “As a result, tolls during peak travel times have periodically spiked due to high demand in the managed lanes, and have impacted a small percentage of overall drivers.”
Others said they have experienced the same thing, not being able to exit the express lane before passing through other checkpoints that tack on more charges.
Using North Texas’ TEXpress lanes is “easy and safe,” according to the TEXpress website, which features step-by-step instructions on how to use the lanes, the signage and how to enter and exit the lanes.
The sprawling web of toll roads in North Texas are a direct result of Texans’ distaste for raising taxes, according to a Dallas Morning News investigation published earlier this year.
The state’s first tollway authority was established in 1953 after lawmakers accepted the reality that they wouldn’t be able to expand Texas highways with the federal funding or higher taxes, that investigation found.
Fitzgerald, who has lived in other pricey parts of the country, such as Florida and New York, said she has never seen toll charges so high elsewhere.
Even New York City prices for tolls aren’t this expensive, she said.
This story was originally published November 26, 2024 at 10:11 AM.
