Why I will never use SunPass

A month ago I blogged about how the SunPass an automated toll collection service was charging drivers tolls incorrectly. According to today's Orlando Sentinel refunds are being sent to those affected.

SunPass is scrambling to fix faulty toll-plaza violations by issuing thousands of dollars in refunds to drivers, writing far fewer tickets -- and collecting more information about customers to reduce future mistakes.

In the past three weeks, SunPass has paid a total of nearly $8,000 in refunds to 86 people, according to Florida's Turnpike Enterprise, the agency that operates the system.

It also has been working with E-Pass, the toll system run by the Orlando-Orange County Expressway Authority, to acquire license-tag data. That will help it identify when a toll violation is just an equipment glitch, not someone trying to avoid paying the toll.

An investigation last month by the Orlando Sentinel found a sharp rise in the number of citations -- 5,000 in July alone -- since SunPass began a crackdown on toll violations in May.
Many of the E-Pass users involved said a large number of the violations were caused by faulty
SunPass equipment at tollbooths or honest mistakes by drivers, such as placing the transponder in the wrong location of a vehicle.

SunPass' effort to reduce errors is little consolation to Erin Jolley of Oviedo and potentially hundreds of other drivers who are still struggling to undo tickets incorrectly issued by the agency since the crackdown began.

Mr. Jolley and others have my sympathy. For governments its easier to create a clusterfuck than it is to fix one. This Sunpass story is further proof you need to be a masochist in Florida. I will never use this service.