A tickle from the toll taker
During a recent trip in another province we happened to use a new highway. I understood that the highway was not exactly public. The term used elsewhere is toll road. Except that we never saw a toll booth or any other way to pay the small fee required. Instead several months later in the post we received a bill and this is where things get muddy. The stated toll for the highway was $1. Seems fair. But given that they took a picture of our vehicle license plates the added some additional fees. Little more than $4 to take that picture. A couple more dollars in processing fees. All in all before payment we had gone over the $9 mark. And there was a slight update that if we were to do this more than six times per year we could then purchase a transponder and do things at a rate that seemed better for everyone involved. My guess is that they are quite happy to take pictures automatically and swell the cost of travel by several 100%. Yes I realize the total bill was not that large but there were no signs to tell us we were going on to a toll road and there was no tollbooth and no other way of knowing that we were facing fees other than to wait for an unexpected paper in the mail. This is probably how a lot of economy is going to go in future. We used to say nickel and dime people. The price is much higher. I would love to have a camera that could capture an image at high speed and turn it into my name and address. The highway authority has to pay for such things so I guess swelling from $1 to nine makes perfect economic sense. I do miss the old way you threw a coin at a basket and waited for the light to change. A bit like a game in an arcade. We were offered none of that pleasure just the privilege of paying a bill to an unseen face in another province. Also almost every highway in that province is public with this small exception. Someone is making money otherwise it would not exist. And I say that living in a province separated from the outside world by a toll bridge. Tolls are insidious.
