According to the Texas Department of Transportation, more than one million drivers who pass beneath their cameras each year never see a bill for their tolls. As a result, the state loses nearly $1.5 million annually.
According to TxDOT spokeswoman Karen Amacker, there were about 75 million transactions on Texas toll roads last year. Drivers never got a bill in nearly 1.4 millon of those transactions.
An estimated 900,000 had government or non-U.S. plates, while 475,000 did not have an address listed in the DMV database. The pictures on about 112,000 cars were too blurry to use.
“These cameras take about 75 million pictures a year,” Amacker said. “And we are talking about 100,000 that come out blurry—that is a pretty good rate.”
TxDOT added the toll road cameras just a few years ago.
“Only about .15 percent of the pictures taken by our cameras are not readable,” Amacker said.
Still, it is revenue that the state would rather collect. TxDOT is currently owed tens of millions of dollars by delinquent drivers who are billed for their tolls and do not pay.
