If you think you might use one of the 'basket' toll roads at some indeterminate time, keep a roll of quarters in your ashtray (or glovebox or under the seat or similar hidden nook or cranny). Also useful for random parking emergencies.
If you don't think you will use the 'toll tag' roads, don't bother with the toll tag. 99% of the time you can get where you need to go without actually using the toll road, albeit at a slower pace. (They were originally considering making basically every road to the airport toll-only, but they thought better of it after the uprising that followed this decision.) My impression is that you guys use R's truck most of the time when going long distances, so if you feel a need for a toll tag, put it there, not on your car. Really, if you don't need it, all you are doing by getting one is giving a long-term zero interest loan, (and possibly gift if you don't use the money before you change cars/move/it expires/the apocalypse) to the company running the toll roads. I'm sure they would appreciate it, but I'm also sure you have better ways to invest your money.
The big advantage of tolls is it allows charging the actual 'cost' of the road. A gasoline tax treats a 100 mile road through West Texas the same as 100 trips on a 1 mile road through Round Rock, when the 1 mile road in Round Rock costs more because it is taking up more valuable land. The obvious example of this is big bridges, which we in Austin don't need but which are common in other places. In San Francisco, there are several tolled bridges where the amount of the toll varies over the day, to encourage shifting of usage to 'off-peak' times, or where high-occupancy vehicles get a waver on tolls, to encourage carpooling. (I think the Golden Gate is one.)
Oklahoma is crawling with toll roads, but theirs are rural long-distance things, not alternate routes for commuters. It really is a way of having decent highways without having any actual taxes - Oklahoma has lower state taxes than even we do, when you add them all up, and ours are extremely low. (The zero income tax more than offsets our relatively high property and sales taxes.) The alternate route for commuters approach is, to me, a way of instituting a higher-priced 'high-speed' road for those willing to pay. Whether that is good or bad is up to you. (I don't mind it, but can see why others would.)
I suspect they have some kind of anti-theft protection on the things. If you call it in stolen, they should be able to watch for it to show up on one of the toll-booths. Sometimes a cop will be sitting on the booth looking for people who don't have toll tags who go through the tag lanes to try to duck the toll, so if they also have access to the 'stolen tag' flag, instant bust. (They do use the things in similar ways - some places, if you 'clock in' and one booth, and 'clock out' at another, they calculate how long it took you to pass, figure out your average speed, and mail you a ticket if that speed is too high. It is worth the 10% extra and the brief stop to use cash if you speed.)
My spin on the borrowed car issue would be to make sure I return the car with more gasoline than I started. That way, even if I used a toll tag once or twice, the owner still comes out ahead or even.
no subject
If you think you might use one of the 'basket' toll roads at some indeterminate time, keep a roll of quarters in your ashtray (or glovebox or under the seat or similar hidden nook or cranny). Also useful for random parking emergencies.
If you don't think you will use the 'toll tag' roads, don't bother with the toll tag. 99% of the time you can get where you need to go without actually using the toll road, albeit at a slower pace. (They were originally considering making basically every road to the airport toll-only, but they thought better of it after the uprising that followed this decision.) My impression is that you guys use R's truck most of the time when going long distances, so if you feel a need for a toll tag, put it there, not on your car. Really, if you don't need it, all you are doing by getting one is giving a long-term zero interest loan, (and possibly gift if you don't use the money before you change cars/move/it expires/the apocalypse) to the company running the toll roads. I'm sure they would appreciate it, but I'm also sure you have better ways to invest your money.
The big advantage of tolls is it allows charging the actual 'cost' of the road. A gasoline tax treats a 100 mile road through West Texas the same as 100 trips on a 1 mile road through Round Rock, when the 1 mile road in Round Rock costs more because it is taking up more valuable land. The obvious example of this is big bridges, which we in Austin don't need but which are common in other places. In San Francisco, there are several tolled bridges where the amount of the toll varies over the day, to encourage shifting of usage to 'off-peak' times, or where high-occupancy vehicles get a waver on tolls, to encourage carpooling. (I think the Golden Gate is one.)
Oklahoma is crawling with toll roads, but theirs are rural long-distance things, not alternate routes for commuters. It really is a way of having decent highways without having any actual taxes - Oklahoma has lower state taxes than even we do, when you add them all up, and ours are extremely low. (The zero income tax more than offsets our relatively high property and sales taxes.) The alternate route for commuters approach is, to me, a way of instituting a higher-priced 'high-speed' road for those willing to pay. Whether that is good or bad is up to you. (I don't mind it, but can see why others would.)
I suspect they have some kind of anti-theft protection on the things. If you call it in stolen, they should be able to watch for it to show up on one of the toll-booths. Sometimes a cop will be sitting on the booth looking for people who don't have toll tags who go through the tag lanes to try to duck the toll, so if they also have access to the 'stolen tag' flag, instant bust. (They do use the things in similar ways - some places, if you 'clock in' and one booth, and 'clock out' at another, they calculate how long it took you to pass, figure out your average speed, and mail you a ticket if that speed is too high. It is worth the 10% extra and the brief stop to use cash if you speed.)
My spin on the borrowed car issue would be to make sure I return the car with more gasoline than I started. That way, even if I used a toll tag once or twice, the owner still comes out ahead or even.