A mistake I made months before ended up costing me $17.30 when I set my GPS to El Segundo, California.
If you’re travelling in Southern California in Orange County, learn from my mistake and you’ll avoid a nasty charge on your credit card or worse, a violation in the mail. Travelling from Dana Point, Calif. to El Segundo, Calif. I forget to set my GPS to avoid toll roads and inadvertently used California State Route 73 both ways, one of four Orange County Toll Roads, and got hit with a $17.30 bill days later.
Here’s a screenshot of my bill.
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My trip was from Dana Point to El Segundo, a 64 mile trip one way. Months before, I reset my Garmin Nuvi GPS to its factory settings. This also reset my preference to “avoid all toll roads.” Since the default setting for my GPS was set to “fastest route” my Garmin routed my through CA-73N, all the way to 405N until I eventually hit 105W to El Segundo.
The return trip was the same route in reverse.
Embed from Getty ImagesFocused on driving safe the entire time, my mind only concentrated on the essentials and I guess I just ignored the parts of the freeway signs that warned me I was entering a toll road. Also, I take my GPS as canon and I wasn’t going to deviate from my GPS’s planned route.
To be fair, If I was paying attention to the whole freeway sign like I should, I would’ve seen this, the part that says TOLL ROAD in bold letters above.
The only sign I made a mistake, taking a toll road, was when I passed the “Catalina View Mainline” toll point and noticed a bright flash as I passed over. I immediately knew I was on a toll road but, since I was already headed home, it was too late.
Since I was in a rental, I immediately hoped online to figure out how I’d pay this toll fee. Turns out since I was in a Hertz rental, Hertz would charge me $5.99 every day I used a Toll Road with their Plate Pass system. If I paid the toll online within five days using TheTollRoads.com, which I did, I could circumvent that Hertz fee.
I totally forgot about using that one toll road until I received confirmation in my e-mail, after I registered my license plate days before, that my toll fee came through, a whopping $17.30 using CA 73 both ways.
For some people, $17.30 is not that much but…think of all the tacos I could’ve bought.
Cross-referencing their toll chart and the times my car crossed the toll point, it checks out.
If you’re in a two-axle vehicle and take CA 73 most of the way, you’ll get charged $8.65.
It could’ve been a lot worse. If I was not in a rental and not paid within five days, I would’ve been hit with a $63 toll violation.
The most common horror stories are from people who forgot to pay one time. Here’s one of them
“What a big scam is this…$205 dollars for one trip from Irvine to corona. $5 toll and $200 violation fee for not remembering to pay within 5 days of trip.”
Toll roads serve their purpose, if you don’t want to sit on CA 5 in traffic, for a fee, you can use CA 73 and possibly avoid a long wait on your way to Los Angeles.
But, if you’re like me and want to avoid toll roads altogether while you drive around sunny Orange County, don’t make the mistake I made and set your GPS to avoid all toll roads.
Or, just watch out for the signs that say in more or less words, “You’re about to enter a toll road.”
