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Washington State Good To Go Pass - best installation location?

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Thanks for the update Francis! My wife drove down 405 this morning around 7:15am and it's 8:20am and no charges have shown up yet on our Go To Go account with the Flex Pass set to HOV. I'll keep checking to see, but I think my hacked together license plate solution worked. But the placement that Francis has may be more convenient in the longer term, so I may end up going with the rear window.

Looking forward to the photo to see where it should go. Thanks Francis!
 
Here are the photos:

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I hate to be the jerk here and while I'm glad there is a work around I don't like the idea of taping something on my $110k car. I mean if the state is going to implement something it should work on all cars not just some.

First of all Francis Lau was simply taping to test the placement to see if it would work. Second of all how do you think it gets put on in the proper position? Finally, you do realize that the badging on the car is put on with tape.
 
I don't want to hijack the thread or anything, but this Good to Go System appears to have a lot of problems. We moved from Kent to Clark County in 2003 before the system was in place and we don't get back to Seattle much so we were unaware of it until we got a letter in the mail saying my SO owed for a 520 toll on a car that has been in storage in White Salmon for the last 6 months. The charge was recorded on a day when we had a bunch of company here and the only other person with keys to that car hasn't been in King County in years.

She called them and spent quite a bit of time getting the runaround until they finally admitted they picked her car's license from a photo taken when it crossed the bridge and admitted they couldn't be 100% sure it was her car, or even a Washington license plate. They eventually dropped the toll, but she had some words to say about the system that aren't fit for polite company.
 
First of all Francis Lau was simply taping to test the placement to see if it would work. Second of all how do you think it gets put on in the proper position? Finally, you do realize that the badging on the car is put on with tape.

@bressr I wasn't attacking Francis lau my comment was more to the point about the state making these passes that don't work on several cars. It also doesn't work on my Toyota Prius. I don't like that in order for it to work it has to be taped to a window. (Again not an attack to francis)
 
Since I was on the list for the "temporary workaround", I got email on Friday evening describing it:

1. Go down to your GTG office (there are three: Seattle, Bellevue, and Gig Harbor) and ask them to put you on the "Problem windshield pilot program". They are supposed to check your windshield
2. If the handheld scanner happens to work when they try it (sometimes it does with metalized windshields, sometimes it doesn't), they will sell you a Flex Pass and you are on your way. When the scanner fails to read it, too bad for you, you will get charged the full toll by mail with no notice and no way to have it reversed.
3. If the handheld scanner doesn't work, they will sell you a license plate pass (I asked about a motorcycle pass, and was told no way - though another employee said somebody had gotten one earlier).
4. They will also, at some unspecified point in the future, send some paperwork where you swear not to lie.
5. Every time you drive in the 405 HOT lanes, you will get tolled
6. It is on you to ask them to reverse the toll - every time you go as a carpool. You have to wait up to 5 hours for the toll to show up. You have to ask within 45 days.

I spent almost 4 hours this afternoon going down there. Fortunately the people at the counter weren't familiar with the program so they didn't test my windshield, they just sold me a license plate pass and told me they'd email me the paperwork when they get it. So, why did I have to go down there? At least I met Nick, who was there for the same thing.
 
I'm just going to put the flex pass in the back window. The only reason they want the flex pass on the windshield is for enforcement purposes. I.E. so the State Patrol can pull you over if they see the pass is in the HOV position without the required passengers in the vehicle. But that enforcement is entirely a joke, since if they can't see your pass they basically have to assume you are paying by mail. So I can't ever see getting pulled over over this. Worst case scenario seems to be getting pulled over for something else and them noticing this.

The only other factor is losing the convenience of being able to switch between toll and HOV modes since the HOV requirements change between 2 and 3 passengers. As it stands it seems like their solution would be less convenient then having to decide which mode to put it in before leaving.
 
Spent couple of hours today at Bellevue GTG office and the handheld couldn't pick my flex pass, so I had to buy the license plate pass and will be toll'd always but will have to ask for refund with in 45 days of toll. The refund can be requested over email by sending a scanned copy of their refund form. We can always ask for refund even if we qualify for HOV or not but this is a temp solution and they are working on it. The guy also suggested calling the Tesla service center if there is a spot on the windshield where it might work. Now i have to also 3M the license plate pass to my front plate .. rear plate doesn't work as they don't scan there.
 
@bressr I wasn't attacking Francis lau my comment was more to the point about the state making these passes that don't work on several cars. It also doesn't work on my Toyota Prius. I don't like that in order for it to work it has to be taped to a window. (Again not an attack to francis)

@Alysashley79: For what's its worth, I was not offended. Just like email, it is difficult to detect "tone" in forum posts. I too am pissed about this whole HOV Toll mess.

The only reason they want the flex pass on the windshield is for enforcement purposes. I.E. so the State Patrol can pull you over if they see the pass is in the HOV position without the required passengers in the vehicle.

@breser, the new flex passes transmit actively even when in HOV mode. My understanding is that when your car drives under the reader, it will read the HOV mode and will flash a light so cops can see your HOV declaration without needing to see the small half inch square red tag in your windshield. Supposedly, the cops just sit downstream from the gantry, see the light flash and then wave down cheaters
 
Since I was on the list for the "temporary workaround", I got email on Friday evening describing it:

After seeing you mention the temporary workaround list, I emailed and requested I be notified, too.

Today, I got a response. The suggestions I received looked significantly different than what you received. The response I received said there was currently no solution for Tesla owners. They offered no alternatives, made no suggestions for options, and didn't even bother to tell me that I could always try to manually contest the charge.

Maybe if I try the "problem windshield pilot program" instead of "I have a Tesla and your system can't read through my windshield" I'll get a different response.
 
Spent couple of hours today at Bellevue GTG office and the handheld couldn't pick my flex pass, so I had to buy the license plate pass and will be toll'd always but will have to ask for refund with in 45 days of toll. The refund can be requested over email by sending a scanned copy of their refund form. We can always ask for refund even if we qualify for HOV or not but this is a temp solution and they are working on it. The guy also suggested calling the Tesla service center if there is a spot on the windshield where it might work. Now i have to also 3M the license plate pass to my front plate .. rear plate doesn't work as they don't scan there.
Interesting. I don't know if there is a different scanning process for the 520 bridge vs 405 HOV lanes. On 520 they read my rear plate since I don't have a front one and don't have an actual pass - just registered my plates with GTG. I think it strange (but not surprising) that they can do it on 520 but not 405. I seem to always get charged (and at the pass rates as well).
 
Well, I checked my Good to Go account today and it seems as if they are posting photo enforcement in batches. My trips on 9/28 and 9/29 which I had set my Flexpass as HOV just showed up as photo enforced tolls. Looks like my hack with the Flexpass on the back of the front license plate isn't working. I may try to mount the Flexpass in a weather resistant enclosure on the front of my license plate and use duct tape or some other adhesive to see if that will work. The main problem with that will be someone stealing the pass from the front of the car if I leave it visible.

Or I'll go with the solution that Francis posted by putting it on the rear window.
 
I did a test last night on the 520 bridge and I stuck my pass out the driver side window while holding it in my hand and the transponder did pick it up properly and the trip posted to my Good To Go account a few hours after I went under the sensors. I think the Photo enforcement system can post a few days after the picture is taken as they probably run batch processing in the system and the License plate recognition program probably has to do some processing to analyze all the plates it has in the database over time. I think the transponder system probably logs your data instantly and then there are batch processes that push out the billing system every few hours in that case.

So if you don't see an acknowledgement of your trip (even if it's a free trip) in the Good to Go System within 24 hours then the system probably didn't pick up your transponder and is sending you through the photo enforcement system.
 
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Love the idea on rear window, nowhere else appears to work. The whole gtg process is borked. I am currently fighting fines and late fees on a photo enforcement fee for my license which was sent as separate fine months late vs charging to my registered gtg account automatically. I have checked multiple times and it's the same license plate letters and numbers on both my gtg account and the separate mailing... Sounds like I need to camp out at a physical office and see if sanity can prevail...
 
Love the idea on rear window, nowhere else appears to work. The whole gtg process is borked. I am currently fighting fines and late fees on a photo enforcement fee for my license which was sent as separate fine months late vs charging to my registered gtg account automatically. I have checked multiple times and it's the same license plate letters and numbers on both my gtg account and the separate mailing... Sounds like I need to camp out at a physical office and see if sanity can prevail...

It's so borked, it's obvious to me in Clark County, 180 miles away.