Question: What if you miss the Tacoma Narrows Bridge toll booths and don’t have a transponder that automatically debits a toll account? Are you stuck with a $52 fine, or is there a way out of the violation?
Answer: Turns out, there is sort of a financial escape route. But you have to act double-quick, and it’ll cost you $42. The good news: You wind up with a transponder and nearly $30 in a tolling account so you can cross the bridge for $2.75 and not get tickets. The first toll to come off your $30 payment is that one you just missed.
Altogether, that’s still $10 less than the fine you could pay.
Here’s what you do: Call Good To Go! customer service at 1-866-936-8246 and set up a Good To Go! account. You’ll need to give a credit card or debit card number. You can also do this in person at a Good to Go! office and pay by cash, check, money order, credit or debit card.
If the phone lines or offices are closed, do this as soon as they reopen the next business day.
You’ll immediately pay $12 for a transponder – the windshield sticker that automatically debits your account when you cross the bridge. Good To Go! also will charge you a minimum $30 to put into your new account. That’s a prepayment against future tolls.
And you’ll pay the $2.75 cut-rate toll for having a transponder account (as opposed to the $4 you’d fork over at the toll booth). The $2.75 will be deducted from that $30 you just paid.
Bottom line: You’ll have the electronic doohickey that allows you to bypass the toll booths and cross the bridge for $2.75 – and you’ll have $27.25 still in your account. As long as you have Good To Go! you must keep at least $8 in your account and replenish it either by an automatic bank account deduction or in person
One final caveat: To get around the fine, you can’t waste any time.
“This option is only available for the hours immediately following the missed toll,” the Good To Go! Web site warns. “Once the missed toll transaction enters into the violations system, customer service will not be able to post the missed toll to an account.”
There’s no specific turn-into-a-pumpkin time on this, but it happens when the next batch of toll violations is processed, Department of Transportation spokeswoman Janet Matkin said. And that’s generally within a day.
If you think you were fined in error, or you want to plead your case, you can contest the violation in Pierce County District Court. But there’s no guarantee you’ll escape the fine.
For more information and a Q&A on the Narrows Bridge tolling system, go to www.wsdot.wa.gov/GoodToGo! and click on the “Find answers” link on the left side of the page.
For information about fines for toll infractions, go to the Pierce County District Court Web site at www.co.pierce.wa.us/pc/abtus/ourorg/distct/abtusdst.htm and click on the “Toll Violations FAQ” link on the left-hand side of the page.
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