There is no honor among toll dodgers.
A year after the MTA began experimenting with the state’s first cashless tollbooths, installed on the Henry Hudson Bridge, more than 95,000 drivers have ignored repeated letters asking them to pay up, officials told The Post.
They owe more than $1.6 million — 32.9 percent of the total $5 million billed by mail, according to MTA data.
Since the pilot program launched in November 2012, the MTA removed gate arms from the bridge between Manhattan and The Bronx. Cars cruise through without waiting on lines or stopping. “CASHLESS TOLLS. KEEP MOVING” a digital sign reads.
What the sign doesn’t say is that drivers without E-ZPass, about 6.6 percent, will get a $5 bill in the mail some 30 days later. Cameras take photos of their license plates, and the MTA finds the name and address of the registered owner. Customers can pay the toll online or by phone with a credit card, in person at a service center or mail in their payments.
Many just don’t pay.
Through September 2013, the MTA has sent out more than 452,000 violation notices — with a $5 late fee — to drivers who failed to pay their bills in 30 days. Some customers then coughed up their tolls, but most still didn’t in 60 days. The MTA then sent 319,270 further violations — adding a $50 fine. A collection agency squeezed some payments from those customers, keeping a 13.9 percent commission.
The MTA so far has sued just one customer. The Post found an MTA lawsuit, filed in August 2013 in Manhattan Supreme Court, accusing the operators of Allways East Transportation and Allways Yours Transportation, Yonkers-based bus companies, of 5,059 toll violations between January 2011 and March 2013 — racking up $285,000 in tolls, late fees and fines.
The company says it’s working on a settlement with the MTA.
Too many toll evaders thumb their noses at the mailings, MTA board member Charles Moerdler told The Post, because the pilot program, which was funded with $10 million for expenses, wields no penalties.
“I think that’s just human nature — they don’t take it seriously,” Moerdler said. “The key to this experiment is to have teeth in it.”
Moerdler supports a bill in Gov. Cuomo’s executive budget that would suspend the vehicle registration of a driver who gets three or more notices of unpaid tolls in 18 months and hike fines up to $500.
He said the $1.6 million owed is “real money” that could provide bus, train or subway service.
The MTA says the system helps traffic flow because motorists don’t have to switch lanes to get a cash-only toll lane or wait in line to pay.
It also cuts auto emissions and saves gas because vehicles don’t idle on line, it adds.
The pilot continues through the end of this year, at which point the MTA could decide to expand cashless tolls to its other eight bridges and tunnels.