FRAUDscoop

Fla. firm moves to Moore FayObserver.com - Fayetteville,NC,USA Florida has more than 25 unmanned Sun Pass toll stations. The stations automatically read a transponder attached to vehicles or a special card in vehicle. …

Fla. firm moves to Moore FayObserver.com - Fayetteville,NC,USA Florida has more than 25 unmanned Sun Pass toll stations. The stations automatically read a transponder attached to vehicles or a special card in vehicle. …

Great article about those HOT lanes, we paid to build these roads with our tax dollars, and now you have to pay again to use them, great idea..

MIAMI - Pay-as-you-go express lanes may be coming to Florida’s gridlocked highways if a $278 million transportation experiment works here. It’s a big if. Crews have installed seven miles of slender, 42-inch poles to create two new High Occupancy Toll lanes on northbound Interstate 95 in Miami. The state’s plan is eventually to create a 21-mile Miami-to-Fort Lauderdale zone that will give drivers who are willing to pay for it a 50-mph commute on a traffic-jammed highway that carries 280,000 motorists a day. But even before the first toll is imposed, Miami’s notoriously impatient and aggressive drivers are veering in and out of the new lanes like Olympic skiers on a slalom course. On the first day, accidents tripled. Tie-ups and tempers flared. Dozens of the 1,700 skinny “candlestick” barriers that separate the inner two HOT lanes from four local lanes were mowed down like blades of grass. Hundreds more of the white pop-up poles, set 20 feet apart, were scuffed and nicked by drivers who jumped into the express lanes to avoid congestion or jumped out to get to their exit. “What were they thinking?” said Jesus Urdaneta, a banker from Venezuela. “This might work in the Midwest or the Northeast but not in Miami.” Similar “congestion-priced” express lanes, sarcastically called “Lexus Lanes” by critics, are popular in states such as California, Minnesota and Colorado. Miami’s will be the first in the Sunshine State. Tolls, deducted electronically by SunPass, may vary from 25 cents to $2.50 for the initial seven miles, rising and falling with traffic volume. And if they work here, look for HOT lanes all over the state, including on Interstate 4, Central Florida’s most congested road.
Pay As You Go Express Lanes Proving Challenging in Miami « A1A South

The best thing that could happen is that the thief takes your sunpass and then they get a mailbox full of MDX citations ..

Crime Alert: Don’t Leave Your Car Windows Open - Miami News Story - WPLG Miami

The first time Dean Murphy saw a reacher, also known as a grabber, he was suffering from a severe spinal injury and was almost immobile.

The device is basically a long pole with a claw-like handle at the end of it. Its purpose is to help elderly and disabled people grab items that are up high or down low.

While Murphy recuperated from his injury, the reacher acted as his arms and fingertips. It was helpful to say the least.

But he said criminals have managed to turn that helping hand against him.

During a visit to a friend’s house, Murphy left his vehicle parked with the windows cracked open.

“I didn’t want to let the heat build up,” he said. “The alarm went off and I looked out the window and saw someone running.”

Murphy said the person was running with a reacher in his hands.

When he looked inside his car, he found his SunPass was out of place.

“I think he reached in, pulled the handle and it pulled the SunPass off. It dropped because it wound up all the way in my seat,” he said.

It kind of makes you think of that old saying, ‘give them an inch, they’ll take a mile.’ In this case nothing was stolen. But Murphy hopes it acts as a warning. Don’t leave your windows open.

I can’t wait for it to be complete so that the tickets start arriving

Toll lanes taking shape along I-95 - 06/30/2008 - MiamiHerald.com

Somebody forgot to tell the folks in the South Florida transportation business that these are supposed to be the slow, lazy days of summer.

Crews are furiously working to finish the first phase of a high-profile experiment that will transform the old, underused HOV lanes on Interstate 95 into the first variably priced High Occupancy Toll (HOT) facility in Florida.

Mammoth new signs, warning drivers of an upcoming tolling area, are up. Cameras and new electronic SunPass readers will be installed in the next couple of weeks.

[Speaking of SunPass — the new $5 mini-tag transponders will go on sale Tuesday. A media event with Florida’s Turnpike Executive Director Jim Ely is tentatively set for 11 a.m. Tuesday in Pompano Beach.]

By the second week of July, crews will be installing orange candlestick lane delineators that will create the barrier between the two ”express” lanes and the four ”free” general purpose ones.

A kickoff date is still to be determined. But Debora Rivera, who is managing the Miami-Dade portion of the project for the Florida Department of Transportation, says they are still aiming for late July to mid-August.

Here’s how it will work: SunPass customers will have an option — four lanes of ”free” traffic or two ”express” toll lanes with prices that vary depending on traffic.

The state will guarantee a 50 mph trip in the special lanes. If traffic is light, expect a 25-cent toll between downtown and the Golden Glades.

FDOT engineers are guessing it will probably rise as high as $2.50 during the peak of the p.m. weekday rush hours — but it could go much higher if traffic isn’t moving.

Owners of registered hybrids, carpools with three or more passengers, van pools, plus motorcycles, buses and emergency vehicles will be allowed to use the lanes for free.

Cameras will snap the license plates of vehicles that enter the tolling area without a SunPass transponder. Violations will be mailed to the registered owner.

Besides covering the construction costs, part of the toll revenue will be used to pay for additional Florida Highway Patrol and Road Ranger coverage on the corridor.

Phase 2 of the 95 Express program, which will create two express lanes on the southbound side between the Golden Glades and downtown Miami, is set to open in late 2009.

It will create a lot more headaches for commuters.

Crews are going to have to lift and elevate two bridges — from westbound I-195 to southbound I-95, and from northbound I-95 to westbound State Road 112 (the Airport Expressway) — and replace some support piers to create extra space on I-95.

UGLY PERIOD

Expect an ugly four-to-six-week period next spring of road closures and detours.

The work was originally scheduled for February and March, but Miami Beach leaders, in their typically measured, calm manner, threatened to tar and feather FDOT employees and contractors.

The folks on the beach had a valid point — this time. Why create more bottlenecks at the height of the snowbird and tourist-fleecing season?

THIRD PHASE

The third phase of the project, which will create the express lanes in both directions from the Golden Glades up to I-595 in Broward, was set for 2010.

But that is now up in the air, thanks to politics.

Gov. Charlie Crist vetoed the Legislature’s omnibus transportation bill earlier this month because it contained a tiny provision aimed at helping a constituent of House Speaker Rubio’s who wants a shot at a lucrative turnpike service area contract.

Unfortunately for the hundreds of thousands of us who actually use I-95 every day, the bill also gave the FDOT permission to sell bonds to pay for the Broward portion of 95 Express.

John Olson, who is managing the Broward segment of the project for FDOT, said the state is looking at several options.

”We’re still trying to figure out what we’re going to do,” Olson said. “The project isn’t dead. We just need to look at all the different ways we might be able to create a funding source for it.”

RAMP METERS

The other bit of ”Life as You Know It Is About to Change” news involves the ramp meters at the end of the I-95 entrance ramps.

Most of them have been sitting, with plastic bag coverings, since 2004 as FDOT dithered about rolling them out to a skeptical public.

FDOT will be putting a handful of these traffic signals into effect, only on the northbound ramps to I-95 from Northwest 62nd Street up to Northwest Second Avenue at the Golden Glades.

The signals are supposed to regulate the flow of traffic entering the expressway, making it safer to merge and reducing the number of accidents. Similar programs have proven effective on high-volume, congested expressways in places as varied as Chicago, Los Angeles, Phoenix, Seattle and Minneapolis.

Still, most South Floridians — who’ve grown used to a community where red lights are treated as optional annoyances — don’t believe they will ever work.

But driver beware. The highway patrol will be watching. Run a red light, and pay the price. Traffic cameras will NOT be used to enforce the ramp meters for now.

Great article on how motorist that use sunpass are abused and ticketed

Let’s get real – and fair – when it comes to SunPass cheats — South Florida Sun-Sentinel.com

Article below tries to make a case for the millions of citations being handed out, probably they havn’t opened their mailbox to several thousand dollars worth of fines, due to a sunpass error.

Ease the toll on the state

In a 2006 Post photo, a passenger’s hand hung out of a car hatchback in order to shield the vehicle’s license plate from being identified - and thus avoid paying the electronically collected SunPass tolls on Florida’s Turnpike. Another driver placed an envelope over the license tag.

Such violators of the unstaffed and ungated SunPass lanes helped cost the state agency that operates the turnpike $25.6 million in lost tolls last year. That’s almost 4”percent of all tolls collected, and up from the $17 million in 2005. It’s why turnpike officials should continue targeting both innocent mistakes and hard-core offenders.

As The Post reported last week, the agency sends an average of 51,000 missed-toll notices each month. A follow-up phone call encourages violators to pay the toll and $25 fine before a citation is filed with the court and the penalty increases. Yet drivers may never get a notice if they haven’t updated their SunPass account. Some travel without the transponder by which SunPass deducts the tolls. Some have credit cards that have expired or repeatedly get denied. People update their driver license but not their vehicle registration. Some couples forget to add a second car, new car or new vanity plate, or have the account in one spouse’s name and the registration in the other’s.

The result is a lot of time spent finding people who don’t pay tolls, and “$2 million over the last couple of years on ways to find customers,” said Christa Deason, the turnpike’s public information officer. State agencies normally don’t forward mail. The turnpike now can ask the postal service for forwarding addresses. “If we don’t know how to find you, we don’t know how to tell you to change the transponder battery or update your credit card.”

The agency also should continue to target habitual violators. The lost $26 million “could finance an interchange or widening project … in Palm Beach or Martin counties,” said Ms. Deason. The missed revenue has been going up consistently with the increase in electronic tolling, which doesn’t require drivers to stop at a gate. Cash customers have to pay every time. Violators are defeating the point of electronic tolls: to make turnpike travel cheaper.

The article below makes the new mini sunpass transponders sound so great, just wait till the sunpass citations start knocking at your door, we’ll see how great you think they are.  With the millions of citations being given presently, many due to transponder issues, the smarties make a transponder that doesn’t even have a light or tone to let you know it’s working.

Sticker tags popular in Florida - 12k/week | Toll Roads News

July 1 they started selling sticker tags in Florida and collecting tolls with the tiny paper thin wonders - the IBM-developed eGo product supplied by TransCore and being marketed by Florida tollers as SunPass Mini. As of last Thursday we’re told 15,500 have been sold, which by our calculation works out to 12,000/week. That matches almost exactly Florida Turnpike Enterprise’ target of selling 600k in the first year (though any extrapolation from ten days data is a stretch.)

“They are going gangbusters,” said Christa Deason a Turnpike spokesman.

New multi-protocol readers - Encompass-6s - were needed for reading the sticker tags alongside the Turnpike’s existing stock of about 3.3m hardcased transponders. Deason says that about 700 lanes are now equipped with the new readers and close to 1,000 will eventually get them.

A number of toll lanes are not yet equipped with the dual mode readers. In those lanes motorists with the sticker tags are being image tolled (or I-tolled as they say in Florida).

Deason says this isn’t creating any problems - an interesting commentary on the E-ZPass RFP which requires all lanes on all facilities be dual-mode reader equipped before any authority may begin transactions with the new transponder.

Turnpike focus group and other marketing show a continued demand for the hardcased transponders because of:

- their portability between vehicles

- the customer feedback by means of a green light and a tone (single indication for ‘toll paid’ and multiple for failure to pay)

But they expect the Mini sticker tag to be the big seller because it’s so cheap and doesn’t need a battery. Buying a Mini costs $4.99 but immediately a SunPass electronic toll account with a $10 balance is established to have the transponder activated the customer gets $4.99 of toll credits added to the account, making it in effect free.

The credits are non-refundable.

This complex financial dance is intended to push the sticker tags out to customers but to avoid people getting the stickers, then not using them (they cost the toller $8.50 each).

Another effort to push electronic tolling was the reduction July 1 of the minimum account balance to $10 of prepaid tolls. That applies to both Mini sticker tags and hardcased transponders.

Electronic tolls in Florida get an approximate 25% discount over cash - an incentive in effect since the last major toll increases in 2004. SunPass now does “close to 70% of total transactions,” they say.

Florida is the first toll system to operate sticker tags and hardcased transponder systems side by side on a permanent basis. Elsewhere sticker tags have been used - in Georgia, Houston - the dual mode operations have been conceived as a way of transitioning to sticker tags. In Puerto Rico and Washington state sticker tags were the first electronic toll system.

Here’s a great story about turnng an HOV to  HOT and winding up with massive confusion.  Thanks sunpass and MDX, way to go, and all of this will come with a nice dose of MDX citations courtesy of sunpass and and the State of Florida

How to navigate the HOT new approach to driving I-95 - 07/16/2008 - MiamiHerald.com

By LARRY LEBOWITZ

llebowitz@MiamiHerald.com

• Video | How to navigate the I-95 express lanes
• The new I-95 express lanes

So the government gurus of transportation are converting Interstate 95’s underused and unpopular High Occupancy Vehicle, or HOV, lanes into High Occupancy Toll or HOT lanes.

Drivers are plenty HOT.

Massive confusion and serious accidents have met the first phase of the $260 million project, northbound between downtown Miami and the Golden Glades interchange.

Here is a guide to navigating the HOT spots on the 95 Express.

Q. Why is the state doing this?

A.Because it can’t widen I-95 without taking a lot of homes or building a wildly expensive elevated tier of new lanes above the current roadway. Because growth outstripped road capacity decades ago. Because the HOV lanes didn’t work well. Because the U.S. Department of Transportation is ponying up $63 million in ‘’seed money” for new approaches to a nationwide urban congestion problem and to enhance more public transportation options.

Q. So, how will it work?

A. It’s an electronic tollway. Solo drivers must have a SunPass to use the express lanes on the left-hand side. It is a straight seven-mile shot, with no exits, from downtown to the Golden Glades. Car poolers and others don’t need the SunPass (more on this later.)

Q. What if I want to exit before the Golden Glades interchange?

A.No can do. You must stay to the right in the four ”free” local lanes.

Q. Aw, c’mon. Really?

A. Really. Dodging between the white candlestick lane markers is incredibly dangerous to all of the vehicles behind you in the express lanes and especially for the drivers you’re about to cut off in the ”free” lanes. Besides the obvious safety issues, drivers could face reckless driving violations starting at $100.

Q. Can’t they make another entry/exit point — say, somewhere between the 95th and 103rd street exits?

A.Good question.

Original plans called for an entry/exit merging point between the 95th and 103rd Street exits in Miami Shores. But all of the computer models and engineering studies found that it would have only made congestion worse. The area was too tight to support all of the weaving, so it was eliminated.

Q.OK. So when do I need to get over to the right to avoid getting stuck in the toll lanes?

A.If you’re approaching from the south, stay to the right near the exit for State Road 112, also known as the Airport Expressway, and Interstate 195, a k a the Julia Tuttle Causeway.

If you’re coming from the west on State Road 112, watch the signs right after the tollbooth. Local traffic that needs to exit before the Golden Glades must stay to the right. The express lane begins on the old HOV ramp to northbound I-95 on the left.

Q.Can I get in the express lanes from the Julia Tuttle Causeway?

A.No. If you live in Miami Beach and want to use the express lanes to get to the turnpike or the Palmetto Expressway (State Road 826) or points north, you maneuver south from the beach side and enter I-95 North via I-395, a k a the MacArthur Causeway. Translation: The Express won’t be worth it to most people whose journey starts north of 23rd Street.

Q.How much are these toll lanes going to cost?

A.Once they’re in effect, the tolls will vary.

It’s basic supply and demand. The state is trying to guarantee a 50 mph trip in the express lanes. When traffic is light, the toll might be 25 cents to get from downtown to the Golden Glades. When the lanes are full, the price will rise. It could cost $2.50 — and possibly a lot more — when traffic in the ”free” lanes is at a standstill.

Q.How often will the price change? And how will I know when it does?

A.Prices could change every five to six minutes depending on traffic. The price will be posted on electronic signs as you approach the express lanes.

Q.What happens if the price changes after I enter the toll lanes, but before I exit?

A.Your price is locked in as your vehicle passes under the SunPass readers hanging over the lanes. If the toll rises $1 two minutes after you enter the lane, it’s not going to affect you.

Q.How will I know I haven’t been charged the wrong amount?

A.SunPass customers should frequently check their accounts online to make sure they are being charged appropriately.

Q.When will they start charging tolls?

A.

Later this summer.

Q.That the best you can do?

A.Yes, for now. The DOT isn’t committing to a specific start date yet because so much work is being crammed into such a tight schedule. Watch the highway message signs and The Miami Herald for updates.

Q.What happens if I get stuck in the toll lanes and don’t have a SunPass?

A.Once tolls are in effect, cameras will snap photos of vehicle license plates that enter the lanes without a SunPass. Violation notices starting at $100 will be mailed to vehicles’ registered owners.

If you get in the lane and don’t have a SunPass, don’t try to exit before the Golden Glades.

When you get home, call SunPass toll free at 888-865-5352, explain what happened and offer to pay the toll. They’ll probably let you slide for a one-time violation and urge you to buy a SunPass.

Don’t try it twice.

Q.How do I get a SunPass?

A.The new $5 mini SunPass just went on sale at local Publix supermarkets and CVS, Navarro and Sedano’s stores.

You can still buy the old, chunky white plastic transponders — which cost $25, plus another $25 to open a prepaid toll account — from the state. Both will work on I-95, the Miami-Dade expressways and the turnpike. For more information check out www.sunpass.com or call 888-865-5352.

Q.Is there any way to use the toll lanes for free?

A.Yes. Take a bus. Or participate in a registered car pool that has at least three people. Or ride a motorcycle. Or buy a hybrid and register it with the state. Or get a job as a firefighter, paramedic or police officer. (Emergency vehicles can use the toll lanes without paying as well.)

Q.If I own a hybrid, what must I do to get toll-free access?

A.First, register the hybrid with the state of Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles. Download the application at www.flhsmv.gov/dmv/HOV.html for a special decal. Fee: $5 a year.

Then, visit the South Florida Commuter Services website at www.1800234ride.com or call 800-234-RIDE for an application to register for the express lanes exemption.

Q.What must I do to register my car pool for free access?

A.Visit the South Florida Commuter Services website at www.1800234ride.com or call 800-234-RIDE to register. Provide name, home and work addresses and phone numbers, work schedule, driver’s license number and license plate number. All car pool participants must sign the form. Riders only need to provide home and work information.

You’ll have to renew the special ”3+” decal every six months, or your car pool will be considered inactive and your license plate removed from the eligible list.

Q.What if I have a SunPass but am registered to use the express lanes for free?

A. If you have an old SunPass, remove the transponder from the windshield and place it in the silver shield bag. If you have a new “mini” tag you will need to get a disabler shield. They will be available from the commuter services people when you register for the carpool or hybrid exemption.

Q.What are the orange cones on the other side of the northbound lanes for?

A.You’ll see orange cones as long as the construction work continues. Crews are working on wireless technology for the toll collection machinery, hanging more signs and restriping the new right-hand lanes and shoulder in that area.

Q.Why are the express lanes only on northbound I-95 in Miami-Dade? Traffic’s awful on the southbound side, especially in the morning rush hour.

A.This is just the first phase. Crews will start converting the southbound side later this year. It will require a lot more construction work and extensive road closings and delays next spring to raise two bridges at the State Road 112/I-195 interchange.

The last phase, in both directions between the Golden Glades and I-595 in Broward County, won’t be finished until late 2010 or 2011, depending on funding.

Q.What about those traffic signals that have been sitting at the end of the on-ramps, unused since 2004?

A.A. They are going to start working northbound when the tolls start, but only on the ramps between Northwest 62nd Street and the Golden Glades, and will surely prove to be as wildly unpopular as the express lanes are now.

The idea is to create a steady flow of vehicles entering I-95 that will improve not only the merging onto but the exiting from the interstate. The signal will pretty much remain green when the interstate is flowing freely and pulse red every few seconds when it’s heavier. The DOT insists that traffic will not be backing up on the ramps and into the arterial feeder roads.

Q.That’s crazy. Don’t they realize too many South Florida drivers treat red lights as optional nuisances?

A.A lot of people think the ramp meters won’t work — largely because there won’t be enough police officers and traffic court judges to enforce all the tickets. After an initial shakeout period, ramp metering programs have proven effective in a lot of North American cities with even worse traffic congestion than South Florida.

Take a look at the people behind all those sunpass citations

MDX Announces 2008-2009 Board Election Results

MIAMI, July 14 FL-MDX-Board-Results

MIAMI, July 14 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — The Miami Dade Expressway
Authority (MDX) announced the results of the 2008-2009 board of directors’
election.  For the first time in MDX history, all candidates in this year’s
election ran unopposed and also won unanimously.

Maritza Gutierrez, president, Creative Ideas Advertising, Inc., will
continue to serve as chair of the board of directors.  Robert Holland, Esq.,
Law Office of Robert W. Holland, will continue to serve as vice chair of the
board; and Carlos A. Lacasa, Esq., vice president and general counsel,
MDMedicare Choice, Inc., will continue to serve as treasurer of the board.
Maria Luisa Navia Lobo will continue to serve as board secretary and Ivette
Medina-Fernandez will serve, for the first time, as assistant board secretary.

“MDX is operated with a staff of professionals who are committed to
improving the transportation needs of drivers in Miami-Dade County,” said MDX
Executive Director Javier Rodriguez, P.E.  “This year’s historic election
results are indicative of the positive steps MDX is making to enhance
transportation in our county in innovative ways.  We look forward to another
year of ground-breaking progress.”

The Miami-Dade Expressway Authority’s board of directors brings a broad
cross-section of transportation, business and professional expertise, as well
as civic, environmental, county and state interest and commitment.  Of the 13,
12 are volunteer, non-paid local business and civic leaders.  The 13th member
is the Florida Department of Transportation District Six Secretary, who serves
as an ex-officio MDX board member. Of the 12 volunteers, Florida’s Governor
appoints five of them and the Miami-Dade board of County Commissioners
appoints the remaining seven members.

About MDX

MDX is a state sanctioned, locally administered, public agency created in
1994 by the State of Florida and the Board of County Commissioners of
Miami-Dade County. MDX is governed by its Board, comprised of 13 volunteer
members appointed by the Board of County Commissioners and the Governor of the
State of Florida. MDX oversees, operates and maintains five expressways: State
Road 836 (the Dolphin Expressway), State Road 112 (the Airport Expressway),
State Road 874 (Don Shula Expressway), State Road 878 (Snapper Creek
Expressway), and State Road 924 (Gratigny Parkway). MDX is funded almost
entirely by toll revenues and is dedicated to the enhancement of mobility in
Miami-Dade County. MDX is also committed to bringing more efficient,
market-driven, user-friendly management to its expressways. For more
information on MDX or SunPass(R), contact MDX at 305.637.3277 or visit the
website at www.mdxway.com. For information on SunPass(R), please contact
1-888-TOLL-FLA (865-5352).

SOURCE  The Miami Dade Expressway Authority