WSDOT found to wrongly charge 226,000 tolls in December

Once again WSDOT proves the I-405 Express Toll Lanes are an overly complex system riddled with points of failure.  This time it is with the “Value Pricing” that incorrectly charged at least 226,000 drivers in the month of December.  WSDOT didn’t even discover the problem until King 5 News brought it to their attention.

In October WSDOT was found by King 5 News to be double-billing some drivers when the system could not properly read their GoodToGo Pass.  In that article, WSDOT asked drivers to be patient as it would take up to a year for them to work out the problems with tolling.  Meanwhile, it is up to the drivers to carefully monitor their bill and make sure they aren’t getting over-billed.  Sadly, if you do have to call customer support, expect to be on hold for 30 minutes before you even get to talk to someone.

Drivers have also found that the FlexPasses don’t work in many cars that have metal in the windshields.

Then there is the problem with motorcycles getting charged even when the toll system recognizes them as motorcycles and knows they should be free.

This is a chronic problem that has happened repeatedly with the GoodToGo Passes and is not limited to the #405ETL.  King 5 News uncovered a similar problem  where people are charged an extra $0.25 when the camera fails to read their pass.

WSDOT is potentially overcharging drivers millions of dollars with all the problems in the system.  The burden of monitoring and reporting the problems is left to the drivers.  And WSDOT thinks it’s OK that we tolerate this for a whole year?  The reality is we can forever expect such problems to occur as is proven by the problems with the 520 tolls that are well over a year old and still having problems.