MPG Out of state attendees

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thewishman

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Joined
Mar 9, 2006
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8,181
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Reynoldsburg, Ohio, USA.
The MPG was awesome and I'm looking forward to the next one. Mark, John, Ed and all of the people that made it happen - you are wonderful and generous people!

A question for the people that drove from out-of-state - am I the only one anticipating the Illinois State Police breaking down my door to haul me in for toll evasion? I have not received any instructions or bill.

Next year, I'm thinking about "borrowing" a stranger's license plates to reduce my anxiety.
 
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randyrls

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Joined
Feb 2, 2006
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4,821
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Harrisburg, PA 17112
Chris; Unfortunately; the states now "share" driver information. So every state government has your license information. Gives you a warm fuzzy feeling, no?

The latest scam is that advertising a car for sale, DON'T show the license plate! Someone will copy the number, then use it and you get the bills.
 
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mg_dreyer

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Joined
Dec 1, 2006
Messages
839
Location
Aurora, Ill, USA.
The MPG was awesome and I'm looking forward to the next one. Mark, John, Ed and all of the people that made it happen - you are wonderful and generous people!

A question for the people that drove from out-of-state - am I the only one anticipating the Illinois State Police breaking down my door to haul me in for toll evasion? I have not received any instructions or bill.

Next year, I'm thinking about "borrowing" a stranger's license plates to reduce my anxiety.
Thanks for coming out and glad you had a good time. It was a blast having the group back together and seeing so many new friends.

As for out of town friends the group is getting so much bigger than "Midwest" - we had 26 states and a few from Canada. Can't image how many tolls were missed.

If you did not come out this year bring your quarters for next year - the tolls should be open. If you did come out we thank you. We have a good time only when we see everyone else having a good time. See you April 21 and 22 next years. Who coming out?
 

monophoto

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Joined
Mar 13, 2010
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2,542
Location
Saratoga Springs, NY
A question for the people that drove from out-of-state - am I the only one anticipating the Illinois State Police breaking down my door to haul me in for toll evasion? I have not received any instructions or bill.
Reading between the lines, I think what Chris is concerned about is cashless tolling. This is a growing trend that has interesting implications.

The basic concept is that tolling systems on highways, bridges and tunnels (and related things like parking garages) are designed to work with transponders in the vehicle - when you pass a toll gate, the transponder is automatically read and a toll is assessed against the vehicle owner's account. This is actually a great concept because tolls can be collected without slowing down the flow of traffic while avoiding the costs of having human toll collectors. And in some places, there may even be a small discount off of the regular toll as an incentive to get a transponder and participate in the program. Programs are actually administered by businesses such as EZ Pass or FastTrack, and if you have their transponder, you then are set up to participate wherever they offer a cashless tolling service. So, for example, I live in New York, and travel over into Massachusetts frequently, and my EZ Pass transponder covers my tolls in both states, as well as for the parking lots at our local airport and train station.

The way these programs work is that you pay a deposit into an account, and then charges registered to your transponder are withdrawn from that account as those charges are incurred. When the amount in the account drops below a threshold, the system charges an associated credit card to restore the initial deposit balance in the account. The account owner gets a monthly statement that shows the tolls incurred and the end-of-period balance. In my case, I paid a $25 deposit, and the account tops up when the balance falls below $10.

But these systems have to have some provision for people who don't have the appropriate transponder. Most commonly today, that provision is in the form of automated license plate readers linked nation-wide databases that allow the operating company to send a bill to the vehicle owner. There is usually a service charge added to the bill to cover the cost of manual billing. That obviously can be more expensive than the toll, but I understand why it is done.

But there is another situation that is harder to understand - rental cars - because the license plate is linked to the rental car agency and not to the driver of the vehicle. What can happen in this situation is that the rental car company outsources the toll responsibility to a third-party. This can get expensive for the person who rents the car. Several years ago, I got hosed by one of these outfits who calculated their bill as the sum of the actual tolls plus a daily service charge for each day of the car rental - so crossing the Golden Gate Bridge one time (posted toll was $5) cost me more than $30!

It turns out that sometimes there is an option to bypass the billing company by registering the car license plate together a credit card number and a period of time - that way, your credit card gets charged any actual tolls you incur during the specified time period, but not that outrageous daily service charge. But you have to read the fine print to discover find out how to do it, and then take the initiative to go on-line to register the rental.
 

Mike8850

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Joined
Jun 12, 2008
Messages
631
Location
Freeland, Michigan, USA.
"It turns out that sometimes there is an option to bypass the billing company by registering the car license plate together a credit card number and a period of time - that way, your credit card gets charged any actual tolls you incur during the specified time period, but not that outrageous daily service charge. But you have to read the fine print to discover find out how to do it, and then take the initiative to go on-line to register the rental."
This is what we did and it took a few weeks to hit our credit card.
Mike
 

studioseven

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Joined
May 6, 2014
Messages
793
Location
Wisconsin
We drove to the MPG from Wisconsin.. We were forewarned so had purchased a pass prior to leaving. Illinois charged us a little over $5 for using their highways for two days. Right about the same as when we had to pay at the booths. I don't see any of the states going back to collecting the tolls at the booths. They are probably saving money not having to pay the toll booth workers. That was always a dangerous job anyway.

Seven
 
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