Toll road authorities; much maligned?

[STLmapboy]

Recently, I saw this on Google Maps. The Northwest Parkway Toll Authority, running that road in Denver, has an astonishing 1.1 stars over 278 Google reviews, being by far the poorest reviewed company over 100 reviews I've seen on there. (There are enough allegations of fraud and shady business practices for the reviewers to band together and file a class action lawsuit, which is mentioned in no less than 7 reviews!). But tollway authorities across the country have similar stories--from Florida's Turnpike Enterprise to the HCTRA and more. I know people don't like paying tolls, but there seem to be a few constants here--poor service, bogus charges, and late-mailed bills that consequently have high late fees. All are strong claims. Any other factors that give tollway authorities such a poor name?

[Rothman]

Read The Power Broker.

[Mr. Matté]

Blaming the messenger (or I guess the biller in this case).

See also: Animosity towards the IRS though it's Congress who sets the taxes

[jeffandnicole]

Recently, I saw this on Google Maps. The Northwest Parkway Toll Authority, running that road in Denver, has an astonishing 1.1 stars over 278 Google reviews, being by far the poorest reviewed company over 100 reviews I've seen on there. (There are enough allegations of fraud and shady business practices for the reviewers to band together and file a class action lawsuit, which is mentioned in no less than 7 reviews!). But tollway authorities across the country have similar stories--from Florida's Turnpike Enterprise to the HCTRA and more. I know people don't like paying tolls, but there seem to be a few constants here--poor service, bogus charges, and late-mailed bills that consequently have high late fees. All are strong claims. Any other factors that give tollway authorities such a poor name?

Morr than 278 people use thr road in an hour.

Just goes to show if people have an issue, they'll leave a review. If they had no problems, they won't tell anyone.

[STLmapboy]

Read The Power Broker.

It's on my list. But is it really 1366 pages? 

[Rothman]

Read The Power Broker.

It's on my list. But is it really 1366 pages? 

Yep.  The citations and references are so dense that I got through it in very small chunks each night.  That said, it is something of a page turner anyway and is probably the best biography I've ever read.

[formulanone]

Just goes to show if people have an issue, they'll leave a review. If they had no problems, they won't tell anyone.

tl;dr is that nobody is going to go out of their way to rate most places run my any government-run entity (or contractor) highly even on a good day. They aren't going to campaign or ask for better ratings, due to a lack of "rate-able" competition. The fact you can even give it a score on a five-point scale is ludicrous.

Don't read too much into it.