Toll booths on Beltway 8 (Houston, West: rental car, rentals, buy)

[Thoreau424]

Okay, I've been away from Houston for awhile. But I thought I could pay tolls with money in the far right lanes. At least, in the past, I could always pull up and give an attendant money, and then continue on. But today, on the south part of it (b/w Gulf Freeway and 288), none were manned, and there was no option.

I currently live out of state, and so when I come to town, I use a rental car. It's much cheaper and smarter to just pay for the one or two that I need to run through, rather than spend $15 a day. But have they stopped the attendants and ability to manually pay per use?

Everything looks the same as in the past: the far left lanes have the EZ Tag signs and people just speed through, and the far right lanes have booths and "Change Made" signs. But being unmanned and no arm to lift up, those lanes now seem basically the same as the others, just people go a little slower through them.

I wish I could just bring only my EZ Tag on my truck, but they'd probably right me up for it not matching the vehicle. Just bummed because I'll probably get a fine for using the toll tag on the rental car when I wasn't planning on using it. Thanks.

[oceangaia]

I think they quit manning the booths with covid. Now I think if you don't have a tag they scan your license plate and send a bill by mail. The trick with rentals is that they often have a tag that will ding you at a much higher rate so you need to turn off or block their receiver. Even then the tag will read to the rental owner and they will bill back to you with fees. If you have a Ex tag or Tx tag account, you can input the rental license plate as a temporay car on your account and it will bill to the account at the standard toll rate.

If you have an EZ tag already, just go to your online account and change the tag to the rental license plate.


Edit: just checked my account, in the Existing Vehicles and EZ Tag page, there is a link Add A Vehicle Temporarily. Put your rental license plate in there and you'll be charged the toll rates with no extra BS fees. I just did this last December with a rental and it worked correctly. I had to look it up because I forgot already.

[DRob4JC]

If you have an EZ Tag account - you can change the vehicle information if you swap the tag to another vehicle.

You buy a new car and you have a 30 day tag. You put in that info. You get your permanent tag - you change you info in your account. You should be able to change it whenever.

[Dopo]

HCTRA wasn't making enough money and had to replace the few jobs they created with machines

[astrohip]

Originally Posted by Dopo

HCTRA wasn't making enough money and had to replace the few jobs they created with machines

This isn't true. They make plenty of money, although it went down during Covid. And the goal is to always be more efficient. If that means finding ways to provide better service at a lower cost with reduced people, so be it.

Let's say a government (any gov.) comes to you and says: We can perform the functions of our duties with twice as many people as we need, but your taxes/fees will stay high, and go higher and higher. Or we can get more productive, finding ways to maintain those levels of service using automation & technology, which may lead to less employment, and thus enable us to not raise taxes/fees, or keep the increases minimal.

Your choice?

[Thoreau424]

Originally Posted by oceangaia

...Edit: just checked my account, in the Existing Vehicles and EZ Tag page, there is a link Add A Vehicle Temporarily. Put your rental license plate in there and you'll be charged the toll rates with no extra BS fees. I just did this last December with a rental and it worked correctly. I had to look it up because I forgot already.

That would be great, or would have been great (I'm just going to use the feeder roads of Beltway 8 south). I wonder if that works for cars from another state too (the rental car is from Louisiana, LOL).

I can understand not putting people in the booths, but they used to have those handy automated quarters / tokens lanes, again where you could use toll road without the EZ Tag, and without having to link up to a license plate, etc.

God knows I've gave the HCTRA tons of money from the mid-90's to about 2012. Anyway, thanks for the comments and updates.

[oceangaia]

Originally Posted by Thoreau424

That would be great, or would have been great (I'm just going to use the feeder roads of Beltway 8 south). I wonder if that works for cars from another state too (the rental car is from Louisiana, LOL).

I can understand not putting people in the booths, but they used to have those handy automated quarters / tokens lanes, again where you could use toll road without the EZ Tag, and without having to link up to a license plate, etc.

God knows I've gave the HCTRA tons of money from the mid-90's to about 2012. Anyway, thanks for the comments and updates.

I used it over the holidays with a rental plated in California. I'm in Texas. The change buckets were always malfunctioning and backing up lines when someone put in their coins, the gates didn't raise, and they sit there until an attendant notices and raises the gate.

[KerrTown]

Originally Posted by astrohip

This isn't true. They make plenty of money, although it went down during Covid.

That's the reason why the tollbooths on the Sam Houston south and west/northwest were the only remaining mainline toll plazas in Texas. The virus cut interaction and the lockdown cooled travel.

With the forced GOP "normal", traffic is starting to recover but interaction is still ruled out for as long as the virus stays active. Toll booths are not well spaced for social distancing and the volume of people is perfect pathway to infect the worker.

HCTRA finally joined the Pay by Mail system because of coronavirus, after years of being the oddball in the state. Their reluctance tried to encourage Houstonians to sign up for an EZ TAG.

I can't wait for the original Westside segment of SHT to be toll-free; if the day ever comes!

[RocketsFan1]

All tolls in Houston converted to Pay by Mail since Covid

So rent a tag if you are in a rental, or pay a premium on pay by mail