Vehicle classification problems

Of course some American toll authorities have ‘solved’ this problem by simply accepting the vehicle class encoded in the toll tag and hoping the tractor-trailer owner doesn’t think to apply for a tag for a private auto and then stick this in his truck! Most however are now installing automatic vehicle classification and imaging systems.

Here the French have another problem: “By contrast to the United States a highway company does not have the right, at least for the time being in France, to photograph the number of a vehicle that is breaking the law to identify the driver and to take legal action to recover what is owed.”

These French guys need a little education in Yankee turnpike chutzpah!

For 8 years the Oklahoma Turnpike sent violators a series of progressively more threatening letters and bluffed most of them into paying up. Only after millions had coughed up their tolls plus penalties did the Turnpike publicly admit they had no legal authority to follow through on the threats, and that they had never attempted to prosecute the few who simply ignored all the letters. Then they told the state legislature that unless they were given legal powers, there would be a drastic decline in turnpike revenues and a need to appropriate budget money for the toll roads’ upkeep. That got the requisite law passed pronto.