I was running a little late today, so I decided to take a shortcut on
the 241 toll road. The section I took has an unmanned toll booth at
the end of the off-ramp; the toll is $0.75. As I rolled up to it there
were two other cars stopped in the cash lane ahead of me. The lead car
seemed to be just sitting there waiting - I assumed he either he had
no money and didn't know what to do, or had deposited his money and
was waiting for the green signal to come on. After a few moments, he
threw some more money into the basket; still no green. Finally he gave
up and drove through the red signal. Looks like he'll be getting a
hefty bill in the mail.

Then the second car pulled forward, and the driver threw a handful of
change into the basket all at once. No green. He reaced out and
jiggled the asket with his hand. Still no green. He threw in some more
coins. Finally the light tuened greemn and he drove on. Then it was my
turn.

I had my three quarters ready, and tossed them in one at a time,
waiting for each one to register before throwing in the next. I
learned long ago, back when this toll road was first built, never to
throw multiple coins at once, as sometimes the machine fails to count
one or more of them. As I tossed my quarters, I noticed that the
machine was registering more than $0.25 with each toss - as if my
coins were dislodging one or more other coins that were tossed in by
earlier cars and had somehow gotten stuck. After my second quarter I
only owed $0.15, but all I had were quarters so I tossed one more and
"overpaid" by $0.10. The green light came on and I drove away.

It occurred to me that the first guy was probably screwed. Not only is
he going to get a violation notice in the mail with a hefty fine, but
when he tries to claim that the machine was broken and did not
register his coins they'll check their records and see that nobody
else had any problems that day and will assume he's lying - "case
closed!"