A week ago I visited Sherry in the Washington State GTG van at the Library to find out if its worthwhile for infrequent commuters (1-2 trips/month) to buy a toll pass. Yes, it is! Not only are the tolls cheaper, but paying for them with a pass is more convenient than by mail. For example: With a GTG pass, a 1-way toll during the morning rush hour (7-9) is $3.50; this is a $1.50 savings vs. paying by mail. (Cameras start reading license plates for tolling sometime after April 15. The exact date is yet to be decided.)
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In the late '70's we stopped at a booth before the bridge to pay a 20 cent toll. Today, everything is electronic. No toll booths! No tolling congestion! Cameras read our licence plates or the bar code on our GTG passes and the toll is automatically deducted from our online account! Payment is less convenient if you don't buy a pass. Without a pass, you either pay by phone within 72 hours of the toll or they mail a bill and you have 80 days to pay it.
The minimum balance for an account is $30.00, but if you're an infrequent traveler you get your money back if you don't use it all. That sealed the deal for me. For a daily commuter, it's a no-brainer to have a pass.
As of today, the Washington Department of Transportation (WSDOT) is still struggling with their website to process my order. Yesterday, their registration site page crashed after I spent 20 minutes on it. (You have five passes and three payment methods to choose from.) My form data and user-name were lost. An email for help wasn't returned. Today, their phone line doesn't work. On day one, the WSDOT vans couldn't process orders. I hope it's all just a fluke, but I'm holding off for a few weeks before trying again.
Please don't let me deter you from registering. Take comfort in the $10 discount for registering by April 15.
How did your registration go? Registration at a Safeway store may be the ticket. Do you have any tips?
Opinion by Bob Yoder
I used the website and found it a bit confusing, but it worked. And I have gone back since then to review my account history and it was working fine that day too.
ReplyDeleteWhen I loaded $30 onto my account, I expected it was also going to charge me $10 for the two passes that I ordered, but the pass fees are deducted from the $30 balance, along with taxes. That wasn't clear to me at the time that I was setting up the account.
You were probably a victim of heavy traffic to the website.
Thanks, Janet. Good news the site worked for you and nice to know how they charged you for the passes. I think I'll go to Safeway and register there...with a person, I hope.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad I'm not the only one who couldn't get this accomplished! The ordering process was far too confusing and the site kept freezing and crashing on me. Hopefully they get it figured out before the $10 bonus expires.
ReplyDeleteI picked mine up @ Safeway & created my account in minutes.
ReplyDeleteI just purchased a GTG pass. The online purchase went well but I am using Google Chrome on my Mac as my internet browser and many of the fields were not displayed as normal. Worked fine under Safari and Firefox.
ReplyDeleteAlso is the $10 discount automatic? There were "promotion" fields to enter codes but I could not find any discount codes?
I haven't gotten word back from WSDOT about about their $10 discount w/ purchase by April 15. I applied by hard copy at the Rose Hill Safeway. No directions on the application explaining how or if the discount would be sent.
ReplyDeleteI'm confused about another detail. The official site says you can set up an acct. and either use the pass/transponder, or have the photo of license track your usage, and deduct from acct. Why bother to carry the passes if the photo would work, and the charge would be the same???
ReplyDeletePersonally I think they should be tolling both bridges, at a lower rate. (The forthcoming tolls are high by national comparison). This would be less disruptive to traffic, avoid more miles being driven to avoid the steep toll, (less air pollution) and be more fair to those using the bridges.