Are you one of them? (Houston: sex offenders, home, tax)

[elnina]

TxDOT says it's now identified the owners of about 28,000 vehicles who've racked up at least 100 unpaid tolls over a 12-month period. Fifteen hundred of those people have more than 400 violations.
Those who fail to pay will have their names posted on TxDOT and TxTag websites and shared with the news media. The web listings will include the violator’s name, city and state of residence, number of unpaid tolls and total amount owed in tolls and fees.

TxDOT Goes After Toll Road Scofflaws By Threatening To Make Their Names Public

[War Beagle]

I'm certainly not one of these people, but does TxDOT think this will actually "shame" people? Most people on the list would probably take it as a badge of honor that they have been able to stick it to "the man" so well. It's not as if anyone's friends or family will care that they are depriving the government of money.

[Schumacher713]

Yea, this is a stupid tactic. Why not just suspend their drivers license? Put a warrant out for their arrest after a certain amount of fines? They could also add it to the drivers license points system. It is theft in my view. You are using something without paying for it.

[elnina]

I think the next step is to:

- Ban their vehicles from using TxDOT toll roads with Texas Transportation Commission approval. If stopped by law enforcement, vehicles in violation of the ban can be ticketed and impounded.
- Report the habitual violators to county tax assessor-collectors to potentially block the renewal of the vehicle’s registration.

[houstonfan]

And don't allow them to renew their license. But then again, some of these people are also probably driving without a valid license. >

[EasilyAmused]

Do they list the name and the type of vehicle? I think that compromises individual safety, whether they were in the right or wrong. Even listing names on the net these days can set off a spark in some whacko.

I agree, suspend the license, don't list the violators publicly. It's not like they are sex offenders...

[elnina]

No, it says: they will post violator’s name, city and state of residence, number of unpaid tolls and total amount owed in tolls and fees.
It will be a public record, like everything else.

[sossie]

They need to take a leaf out of the "Parking Wars" show-find the car at the home or work and put a "boot" on it and then tow it away -then they can pay their outstanding tolls before they get the car back..

[statisticsnerd]

Originally Posted by War Beagle

I'm certainly not one of these people, but does TxDOT think this will actually "shame" people? Most people on the list would probably take it as a badge of honor that they have been able to stick it to "the man" so well. It's not as if anyone's friends or family will care that they are depriving the government of money.

Exactly. In fact, it just teaches people that they can skip out on paying tolls and get away with it, the mentality that "hey, if this guy blew through the toll plaza 100 times over the past year without paying, why can't I?"

[ethanw]

I HOPE TxDOT will go out of business. What TxDOT did with HOT (high-occupancy toll) lanes is an ABSOLUTE disaster. I've been taking the 59 HOV lane for the past 6 years to Downtown and I never experienced such disaster since the implementation of the HOT lanes. Every morning when 59 is a parking lot, they will open the HOT lanes for $4.50 a pop and the HOV lane will instantly become a parking lot as well. The HOT cars are now suffocating the HOV ones. I experience that every day now, THANKS to those GREEDY bastards. What used to take us to get to downtown is now double in time so might as well stay on the freeway which sometime is faster than the HOV lane.

I wish they will put the HOT lanes to vote just like they did with the cameras all over Houston