According to a report in the Austin American Statesman, motorists on three Austin toll roads have been double-billed since charges began in January. One out of every 600 vehicles was double-billed in that time period. The money has been refunded, but it shows the clear danger of relying on machines to enforce traffic laws.
You would think that the authorities would make sure that this kind of thing never happens again, but they haven’t fixed the flaw in the system completely. They’ve just reduced the frequency of the mistakes. The Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) estimates that from now on only one out of every 2000 vehicles will be double-billed. This is unacceptable.
The system is already set up to make it difficult to dispute charges and some people may not even realize that they’re being overcharged. Even when the facts are clearly in the driver’s favor, they are still forced to go through a lengthy court process to rectify the situation. TxDOT insists that any overcharge will be refunded, but if they can’t fix the toll system they have in place it’s hard to trust their billing system to do the right thing.
