MTA cracks down on toll cheats, collects $1 million, confiscates cars

[edwaleni]

https://www.northjersey.com/story/news/transportation/2023/12/15/mta-ramps-up-vehicle-seizures-of-bridge-tunnel-toll-evaders/71932709007/

Officers seized 44 vehicles registered to persistent toll violators at the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge from Dec. 12 through Dec. 15. The scofflaws accounted for approximately $922,500 in unpaid tolls and fees. One of the top persistent toll violators from this targeted enforcement owed over $52,000 in tolls and fees.   

Between Jan. 1 and Dec. 13, 2023, bridge and tunnel officers intercepted 2,705 vehicles — a 50% increase from the same time in 2022 and surpassing the total of 1,880 vehicles that were interdicted in all of 2022.

Bridge and tunnel officers have also issued 2,933 summonses for covered or obstructed license plates since the beginning of the year. 

The MTA collects about $2.4 billion in tolls annually, accounting for 13% of operating budget revenue.

If you use fake plates 'you're going to get busted'
Lieber also hoisted up fake license plates that have been recovered from seized vehicles, a tactic that could result in arrest.

"These bogus plates are sometimes from Georgia, some of them are from Florida ... and wow some of them are from New Jersey, the guys who don't want to pay congestion pricing," Lieber said.

https://news.yahoo.com/mta-cracking-down-fake-plates-231200803.html

NEW YORK - The MTA has announced that it is cracking down on fake license plates and toll evaders.

"It could be a bike rack, a Christmas wreath, or a clear or tinted case. If it's covering your license plate, the MTA says you will pay the price," said Metropolitan Transportation Authority CEO Janno Lieber on Friday.

MTA officials are warning drivers who use the region's bridges and tunnels that they, along with an army of cameras, are capturing the front and back of your car and are cracking down on drivers who don't pay their toll bills and drivers sporting expired and fake plates.

"Some of them are from Florida," said Lieber who held up fraudulent plates. "These are all fake plates we've recovered. And wow, some of them are from New Jersey, the guys who don't want to pay congestion pricing."

[ZLoth]

The worst offender is the driver of a Range Rover. The MTA said the driver owed more than $50,000 in unpaid tolls. The driver's license was suspended, and it's going to take a lot of money to get their car out of the MTA's lot.

$50K? And a suspended license, so theoretically, this driver will have to take the bus!

[kalvado]

So I guess this adds carjacking to the list of illegal things the MTA can freely do.

What I hear from NYC is that people are loosing shame. Retail inventory shrink is a debatable subject. But overabundance of paper temporary plates, peeled off plates, bent plates spills over to our neck of the woods. Fare jumping in subway is another thing.

Given police and DAs are totally disinterested in anything that doesn't mean fine via plea or multi-year jail term ..

Two links showing different aspects of the problem:

https://www.curbed.com/2023/12/congestion-pricing-gersh-kuntzman-toll-evasion-license-plates.html

And totally shocking story, imho

https://www.reddit.com/r/Albany/comments/188t2y3/counterfit_plates/

I can definitely see tension getting high

[1995hoo]

Here's Inside Edition interviewing the fellow mentioned in one of those stories who goes around looking for altered plates (YouTube suggested this video this morning):

https://youtu.be/mkW-v0-WJPw?si=d7sF59Tphtkuz6-V

[edwaleni]

Wow I didn't realize it was so common.

New York needs a "Stop a Douchebag" You Tube channel just for license plate cheats.

[storm2k]

So I guess this adds carjacking to the list of illegal things the MTA can freely do.

What I hear from NYC is that people are loosing shame. Retail inventory shrink is a debatable subject. But overabundance of paper temporary plates, peeled off plates, bent plates spills over to our neck of the woods. Fare jumping in subway is another thing.

Given police and DAs are totally disinterested in anything that doesn't mean fine via plea or multi-year jail term ..

Two links showing different aspects of the problem:

https://www.curbed.com/2023/12/congestion-pricing-gersh-kuntzman-toll-evasion-license-plates.html

And totally shocking story, imho

https://www.reddit.com/r/Albany/comments/188t2y3/counterfit_plates/

I can definitely see tension getting high

As far as the paper plates are concerned, NJ is at least trying to make some moves to curb the paper plate abuse and shore up its system which makes it way too easy to fraudulently print legitimate NJ paper temp plates.

[MASTERNC]

Why can't they do this in PA as well? So many plates are covered with dark covers or have defaced/worn characters. Some of this is due to poor plate manufacturing but even the inspection mechanics don't always want to sign off on new plates (my dad tried - had to go to the police to get a free plate replacement approved).

[Rothman]

Technically, license plate covers are already illegal in NY.  I've yet to see the law really enforced.

[1995hoo]

I saw a video somewhere of a motorized license plate cover with a remote control. Somewhat surprised we don't see more of those. They're less obvious compared to the lenticular ones.

Edited to add—found it in my YouTube history (not surprisingly, the comments on that video are populated largely by idiots):

https://youtu.be/JkbXZq7zhTI?si=rwMY0R2uOVTA1u8w

[kalvado]

I saw a video somewhere of a motorized license plate cover with a remote control. Somewhat surprised we don't see more of those. They're less obvious compared to the lenticular ones.

Edited to add—found it in my YouTube history (not surprisingly, the comments on that video are populated largely by idiots):

https://youtu.be/JkbXZq7zhTI?si=rwMY0R2uOVTA1u8w

Isn't that from a James Bond movie?

[1995hoo]

I saw a video somewhere of a motorized license plate cover with a remote control. Somewhat surprised we don't see more of those. They're less obvious compared to the lenticular ones.

Edited to add—found it in my YouTube history (not surprisingly, the comments on that video are populated largely by idiots):

https://youtu.be/JkbXZq7zhTI?si=rwMY0R2uOVTA1u8w

Isn't that from a James Bond movie?

I doubt James Bond ever drove a Honda Civic. But the thing I remember in a James Bond movie was an Aston Martin with a flippable motorized license plate that had different numbers on each side—something more like the flippable signs on the Jersey Turnpike, I suppose.

[MikeTheActuary]

Wow I didn't realize it was so common.

New York needs a "Stop a Douchebag" You Tube channel just for license plate cheats.

For a while, Kuntzman was handling that on Twitter:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1h2GraR-2MVP2XmRSOjsVEWdQQw9Lig7oXLIRjJDTTog/edit#gid=0

Meanwhile, regarding the dealer-printed paper tags...down in Memphis, "drive-out tags" have become a local meme due to the magnitude of the abuse.

[ZLoth]

Isn't that from a James Bond movie?

I doubt James Bond ever drove a Honda Civic. But the thing I remember in a James Bond movie was an Aston Martin with a flippable motorized license plate that had different numbers on each side—something more like the flippable signs on the Jersey Turnpike, I suppose.

Goldfinger (1964).

[edwaleni]

Why can't they do this in PA as well? So many plates are covered with dark covers or have defaced/worn characters. Some of this is due to poor plate manufacturing but even the inspection mechanics don't always want to sign off on new plates (my dad tried - had to go to the police to get a free plate replacement approved).

Of interest, the DMV in Pennsylvania is the most restrictive when it comes to identifying toll cheats.

Currently the Illinois State Toll Authority has a court action through the Illinois Attorney General to get the PA DMV to release more information on the plates detected on the system.

Illinois has found (so far) that almost all of the plates from Pennsylvania come back listed as "stolen".  In fact plates from PA are the largest abusers of the Illinois toll system by a wide margin.

Its as if people steal the plates in anticipation of traveling through the system to avoid payment *or* PA residents intentionally report their plates stolen after returning from their trip.

Since PA DMV has been so slow to resolve it and the back tolls and penalties were starting to add up the AG is now involved.

Illinois takes pictures front & back of each car passing through a gantry, but when this info is passed along to PA, it appears little is done.

[Rothman]

There's something admirable there about PA thumbing its nose at IL.

[kphoger]

Illinois takes pictures front & back of each car passing through a gantry, but when this info is passed along to PA, it appears little is done.

There's something admirable there about PA thumbing its nose at IL.

Why would PA make any real effort to help IL make money?

[edwaleni]

Illinois takes pictures front & back of each car passing through a gantry, but when this info is passed along to PA, it appears little is done.

There's something admirable there about PA thumbing its nose at IL.

Why would PA make any real effort to help IL make money?

My guess is that it will bubble up over the years and Illinois will file a brief with the SCOTUS to get PA to move. That is how Michigan got Illinois to move on the lake water issue.

The other option is for Illinois to put a funding rider in their next highway bill to pay PA to hire the people to get the information.

I wonder who the largest cheats are on the NY Thruway or the Tappan Zee?

[kalvado]

Illinois takes pictures front & back of each car passing through a gantry, but when this info is passed along to PA, it appears little is done.

There's something admirable there about PA thumbing its nose at IL.

Why would PA make any real effort to help IL make money?

My guess is that it will bubble up over the years and Illinois will file a brief with the SCOTUS to get PA to move. That is how Michigan got Illinois to move on the lake water issue.

The other option is for Illinois to put a funding rider in their next highway bill to pay PA to hire the people to get the information.

I wonder who the largest cheats are on the NY Thruway or the Tappan Zee?

Information sharing agreements are supposed to be reciprocal. So states with little or no toll-by-plate have limited interest to participate. PA turnpike should be a good argument for them to behave, though.

In general, I wonder what are the agreements on license and license plate information sharing. My bet is that information should be available in case of traffic violation/criminal case, but routine billing  may be not so clearly spelled out

[GaryV]

Well someone shares state info even if they don't have toll roads. I got a bill a few years back from ETR 407, where they scanned my MI plate. It could have come from some firm that trolls public records.

Now whether or not MI would do anything if I didn't pay, I don't know.

[1995hoo]

Illinois takes pictures front & back of each car passing through a gantry, but when this info is passed along to PA, it appears little is done.

There's something admirable there about PA thumbing its nose at IL.

Why would PA make any real effort to help IL make money?

My guess is that it will bubble up over the years and Illinois will file a brief with the SCOTUS to get PA to move. That is how Michigan got Illinois to move on the lake water issue.

The other option is for Illinois to put a funding rider in their next highway bill to pay PA to hire the people to get the information.

I wonder who the largest cheats are on the NY Thruway or the Tappan Zee?

Out of curiosity, what basis do you envision for the Supreme Court to have jurisdiction over a case of this sort?

[SP Cook]

Out of curiosity, what basis do you envision for the Supreme Court to have jurisdiction over a case of this sort?

The Supreme Court's original jurisdiction (original means the court sits as a trial court, not an appellate court) is when two (or more) states sue one another.

However in modern practice, the only types of cases the court gets under this clause are boundary disputes, most of which have been worked out by now, and things related water rights and agreements about water rights.  The court really doesn't try these cases, it appoints some retired federal judge as "Special Master" who issues a "report" and the parties then argue whether the report was right or not, which is really appellate.

However since there is no Constitutional duty for one state to share plate number with another, the Court would not take the matter up.  Pennsylvania can tell Illinois to pound sand, if it wants to.

[1995hoo]

Out of curiosity, what basis do you envision for the Supreme Court to have jurisdiction over a case of this sort?

The Supreme Court's original jurisdiction (original means the court sits as a trial court, not an appellate court) is when two (or more) states sue one another.

However in modern practice, the only types of cases the court gets under this clause are boundary disputes, most of which have been worked out by now, and things related water rights and agreements about water rights.  The court really doesn't try these cases, it appoints some retired federal judge as "Special Master" who issues a "report" and the parties then argue whether the report was right or not, which is really appellate.

However since there is no Constitutional duty for one state to share plate number with another, the Court would not take the matter up.  Pennsylvania can tell Illinois to pound sand, if it wants to.

Duh. You seriously think I don't know what original jurisdiction means in that context?

The question was directed to the person who suggested the matter would go to the Supreme Court.

[Rothman]

Out of curiosity, what basis do you envision for the Supreme Court to have jurisdiction over a case of this sort?

The Supreme Court's original jurisdiction (original means the court sits as a trial court, not an appellate court) is when two (or more) states sue one another.

However in modern practice, the only types of cases the court gets under this clause are boundary disputes, most of which have been worked out by now, and things related water rights and agreements about water rights.  The court really doesn't try these cases, it appoints some retired federal judge as "Special Master" who issues a "report" and the parties then argue whether the report was right or not, which is really appellate.

However since there is no Constitutional duty for one state to share plate number with another, the Court would not take the matter up.  Pennsylvania can tell Illinois to pound sand, if it wants to.

Duh. You seriously think I don't know what original jurisdiction means in that context?

The question was directed to the person who suggested the matter would go to the Supreme Court.

I don't think you know.

[NJRoadfan]

Some states don't pursue out-of-state toll violators even if they have an agreement. In many cases there is a fee they have to pay the other state to get the registration information. The cost to recoup the toll far exceeds the actual loss.

[kalvado]

Some states don't pursue out-of-state toll violators even if they have an agreement. In many cases there is a fee they have to pay the other state to get the registration information. The cost to recoup the toll far exceeds the actual loss.

If that is the case even with nearby states, an d tolls are nontrivial for a random commuter, then there may be too much of a reason to drive the car registered to someone relatives across state line.
Then differenting between once in a while visitor and daily commuter may be needed.