They rigged up a ramp where anyone can get on the thing and only once you're committed do you realize that there's no toll-taker option. You either have the EZ-Pass radio transponder or you don't. The sign informing you "EZ-Pass Required" is little more than the sign you might have in your neighborhood reading, "Cloaca Lane" or "Mutton Road".

And once you're in, there's no way out NOR do you have any idea what fate awaits you if you don't pay the toll. Could be the Drone comes out of the Pentagon and Hellfire's your illicit motoring ass. Could be the whole thing locks up like those giant steel plates that come up out of the ground around the Capitol Building and other super-secure locations around here. Rather than risk such a fate, the only alternative is to back your shiat on up the ramp to freedom and hope your friendly fellow motorists will take sympathy on you.

Turns out it's a minor fine if you don't have the EZ-Pass, something like $12.50 plus a $1.50 handling fee. They should make the EZ-Pass Required sign a GIANT farking billboard, screaming at you, some radio message broadcasting at 10 Million Megawatts across the entire radio spectrum so that no matter what you're tuned to it'll scream "YOU MUST HAVE AN EZ-PASS OR THE VIRGINIA DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION WILL HOLD YOU DOWN AND ADMINISTER AN ANGRY JAILHOUSE FISTFARK!" or some such warning.

- There have been "www.495expresslanes.com" signs up along this corridor for 6 months.

It's illegal to display a web site address on a sign along a major highway. MUTCD 2A.06 paragraph 14. This is federal law. It may be illegal to access an illegally-displayed web site name while driving. That's a matter of state law.

Hack Patooey: The cause of the crash has not been determined but Virginia State Police are urging drivers to be careful and not back up if they mistakenly enter the Express Lanes.

I see it all the time, but who the fark thinks its OK to back up on the highway because you screwed up an exit?

I'm pretty sure common sense isn't necessary to get a license anymore. I actually know people that will get on an expressway, even if there is a more direct route, simply because it is the only way they know how to get anywhere.
I can't believe it still happens in an age where GPS is so common.

I wonder what the chances are that some halfwit found himself accidentally entering the lanes and tried to back up to get out of it.

living in Loudoun county (Leesburg) and working about 35 Mi away in downtown DC, I'd say the best thing about living in my country is the huge, coach-like commuter buses that pick up at a parking lot about 3 mi from my house and get me to a block from my work in about 45 min. 45 min that I can sleep, read, whatever else the fark I want to do. Sure its $7 each way, but the farking tolls would cost me that much to drive, to say nothing of gas or parking.

ImpendingCynic: WTH is an "HOV-capable" EZ-pass?? Why doesn't a standard EZ-pass work as-is? C'mon Virginia, this doesn't need to be complicated.

No, this is Metro DC and it needs to be as complex and incomprehensible as possible. I came here from California. When I was a kid they had a toll-free lane crossing the Oakland-San Francisco Bay Bridge. It was called a "Carpool Lane". People know what carpool means. It means more than one person in the car. So I move to The Northern Virginia and discover some peculiar thing called an "HOV" lane. Why, whatever could that be? Is it short for "Hovercraft"? Then I see another sign with much smaller print, nearly unreadable at freeway speeds which says that HOV stands for High Occupancy Vehicle. OK. Well, the sedan holds five. The ex-wife's minivan held seven. I'd say those are high occupancy for a motor vehicle. Does that mean they must be filled to capacity? Not so sure. Oh, here it is, a number 2 or a number 3, that must indicate how many people must be in the car, empty seats are OK.

This is Metro DC. It is a place of cults and cults of cults. A place of secret access, of passwords and back rooms. It is a culture of exclusion and rigid hierarchy, where systems and structures that would be simple and commonplace anywhere else are bound up in jargon and codes and hoops through which one must jump in order to prove worthy to be in The Club.

maxximillian: It's also been on the radio and in the news. If people somehow managed to miss this it's thier fault not VDOT.

We don't know if the backers were regular commuters.

I know somebody who got a toll ticket in Massachusetts where we've had cameras for years. She didn't like highways, had never been on the toll road before, and had no clue how to properly navigate the lines of cars at a toll plaza. I'm sure there are people in Virginia who don't regularly take the highway and pay no attention to highway-related news. Some of those pick the wrong day to take a special trip and end up confused.

Some FAQs for the road:

How do I know how many axles my vehicle has?

If you are driving a private passenger vehicle and not towing a trailer, chances are your vehicle has two axles. However, you should contact the E-ZPass agency which manages your account to verify the number of axles on your vehicle. Please make sure that your vehicle has only two axles before your first trip in the 495 Express Lanes.

There was an accident and I did not receive a faster trip. Will I be charged?

We are sorry to hear that your trip in the 495 Express Lanes did not meet you expectations. Refunds will be evaluated on a case-by-case basis.

What are the administrative fees for toll violations?

If you do not pay your toll, the best thing to do is to immediately go to the ?Missed Toll??page to pay your toll. There will be a $1.50 administrative fee to cover the cost of collecting the toll. If the 495 Express Lanes has to send you a letter with an unpaid invoice, that administrative fee goes up to $12.50 per trip. If you do not pay your first invoice then that fee escalates to $25.00 per trip.

The first two are for entertainment value only. The last says they're a bunch of greedy bastards who should be dumped into the Potomac wearing cement overshoes. The per-trip, rather than per-month, "fee" is unrelated to expenses, it's just a way to gouge revenue. This is how people in Texas end up owing hundreds of thousands of dollars.  Some toll roads bundle up your no-account charges for a month and send you a combined bill, plus a monthly processing charge which is related to the actual processing cost.

Hack Patooey: The cause of the crash has not been determined but Virginia State Police are urging drivers to be careful and not back up if they mistakenly enter the Express Lanes.

I see it all the time, but who the fark thinks its OK to back up on the highway because you screwed up an exit?

Not only do I see this all the time, some farkwit BACKED INTO ME once! Going onto an entrance ramp and the car started giving me issues--wouldn't accelerate right, almost every idiot light on the dash starts flashing. Didn't want to pull onto a busy highway when she's acting up, so I pulled onto the shoulder & called AAA. As I'm waiting, a white commercial pickup truck passes me, goes onto the shoulder, and starts backing up. I figure he's being a good Samaritan and wants to see if he can help. Except that he's not slowing down. Hit the horn but the car's turned off--no horn. By the time I turn on the ignition to try the horn again or maybe try to get the hell out of the way, the asshole slams right into me. Bumper crumples, trailer hitch on the back of the truck punctures the radiator. When he tries to pull forward, he nearly rips the radiator out of the engine. No injuries, thankfully, just utter incredulity.

Luckily, the 2 guys he was with told the cops the truth. I don't think anyone, myself included, would EVER believe that somebody got backed into on the shoulder of a busy highway ramp. But it happened.

/CSB
//VW's apparently have a "limp-home" mode (Emergency Running Mode). That's what kicked in that day. Never experienced it before.

The cause of the crash has not been determined but Virginia State Police are urging drivers to be careful and not back up if they mistakenly enter the Express Lanes.

I see it all the time, but who the fark thinks its OK to back up on the highway because you screwed up an exit?