Why no free rides?
Commitments vary somewhat among toll operators but it is very common for bond indentures to contain a contractual commitment on the part of the toll operator to limit free rides to police, fire and ambulance. Also employees are not liable to pay tolls, at least not when working, according to these commitments to lenders. Lenders are concerned that toll-free travel doesn’t become a political perk, steadily expanded by pandering politicians, eventually jeopardizing the toller’s ability to service the debt. Second, state law sometimes specifies who can and cannot get free rides. Third, lawyers warn that granting free rides will attract law suits citing instances in which tolls were waived as a precedent. Such suits can charge inconsistent treatment to demand broader and more expensive exemptions from a toll. Thin end of the wedge, they say. Most funeral processions are local, and don’t involve a toll, but major toll systems have ten or twenty processions a year. They normally go unremarke
