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| Angelika/Mike Schilli |
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Michael San Francisco is known to be located at the northern tip of a peninsula. If you want to go north, you take the Golden Gate Bridge to Marin. If you want to go east, you drive over the gray Bay Bridge to Oakland. To the west lies the Pacific Ocean, and only to the south can you leave San Francisco without using a bridge.
If you drive out of the city over a bridge, there is no charge. However, if you drive into the city, it not only costs exorbitant amounts of money ($5 on the Golden Gate, $3 on the Bay Bridge), but the traffic also backs up because everyone has to stop and pay the fee in cash at a small toll booth. The worst part: The average American doesn't hurry, of course, creeping up to the toll booth at a snail's pace, then awkwardly rummaging through their wallet for a few bills, and perhaps even stalling their SUV in the process.
That drives me crazy. That's why I recently ordered Fastrak, the American answer to "Toll Collect" and the Euro Vignette. You get a small transponder box for your car, which picks up signals from the toll station and automatically deducts the due amount from your credit card-fed account.
Typically American, the device doesn't always work, of course. For example, recently, we drove back to the city in the evening from a day trip to Napa Valley. Casually, I chose one of the two "Fastrak Only" lanes, overtaking all the slowpokes who had to line up, and we excitedly approached the toll booth. Because of a sign that read "Max 5 mph," I slowed down to 5 miles per hour. Okay, it might have been a few miles more, but in any case, the little device in the car was supposed to beep and the toll booth should display "Fastrak valid." Instead, there was no beep, and the display lit up with "Call Fastrak." Well, great.
Once I got home, I called the toll-free 1-800 number, but an automated message informed me that calls are only accepted from Monday to Friday. Seriously, where are we? On Monday, I called again, and a friendly lady told me that this happens sometimes and that I should just "try a few more times." If the transponder doesn't work, a camera captures the license plate, and the charge is processed using the license plate registered with Fastrak.
This actually happened; a few weeks later, I was able to see on the website at http://www.bayareafastrak.org that the amount of $4 (Fastrak users get a one-dollar discount on the Golden Gate Bridge compared to cash payers) was deducted. When Angelika drove over the Bay Bridge some time later, the device beeped properly, and it also worked flawlessly when returning from another trip to Marin. Things aren't always precise in America, but in the end, they manage to get it right.
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