http://www.thenewspaper.com/news/14/1475.asp

Virginia: Toll Cameras Cost More Than They Save
Virginia toll cameras will cost more than the amount they will collect
in unpaid fines.

Dulles toll cameraThe Virginia Department of Transportation announced
yesterday that it had added a $7.6 million ticket camera system to the
Dulles Toll Road to collect an extra $1.2 million a year in unpaid
tolls. Because the Dulles route has one of the lowest non-payment rates
in the country, and the investment would take more than six years to
recoup the investment in hardware -- not counting upkeep -- in unpaid tolls.

The device, however, is not intended to merely collect unpaid tolls. The
camera will record all passing cars and impose a $25 ticket (called an
"administrative fee") if sensors fail to register a toll road user's
E-ZPass or Smart Tag. VDOT plans to collect even larger fines from
anyone with three or more photo violations and block renewal of their
motor vehicle registrations.

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I wonder if VA will start using the same transponder vendor that the IL
toll road authority did some years back.... where the transponders had a
rather high failure rate....

And just think... if one's transponder fails... he could easily rack up
those three strikes in one round trip... long before he is alerted by
mail the transponder isn't registering.