The North Texas Tollway Authority is trying to shame scofflaws into paying their toll tab by publishing a 751-page PDF containing the names of more than 26,000 people who have never paid their bills.
The outstanding bills on the list run from $2,500 to a whopping $179,000, which the NTTA claims is owed by Amber Young, of Dallas, for more than 8,000 unpaid trips past toll booths.
“Who is going to pay that?” Michael Lindenberger of the Dallas Morning News wondered of Young’s outsized bill in a blog post. “Even the folks who live at the bottom of the list owe more than a trip to Vegas and a nice steak dinner would cost. The folks with a 100 unpaid tolls, a little less than a month’s worth for a daily long-distance commuter, owe more than $2,000 in fines.”
Matt Peterson of the Dallas Morning News notes than 21 other people, in addition to Young, owe more than $100,000.
Lindenberger notes that the people at the top of the list “owe enough to buy a townhome in Uptown and avoid the commute altogether.” He said NTTA made a “a clumsy gamble” in switching to a system of all-electronic tolling, which created “a system that requires far more good faith than apparently exists amongst its customers, and a reaction that creates staggering — some would say impossible — fines.”
