A few weeks ago, while getting on the Pike at like 1 AM (at the Allston entrance), I ran into a situation I'd never experienced before. The only green lights to get onto the pike were at the FAST LANEs. The lights above the lanes to pay cash were red. I slowed the car, thought "what the fuck?" and slowly drove through the regular lane (one of them didn't have a traffic cone blocking the way). As I drove by the booth and peeked in there was nobody there. I thought this was odd, but figured maybe whoever was working had to go take a leak or something.
15 minutes later I'm pulling off the pike in Natick and run into the same situation. Only this time there were cones in front of all the lanes but the FAST LANE ones. This time I was really confused. What did they expect me to do? Just sit there and wait? In the end I went through a the FAST LANE and went on home.
Today I open up my mail to find a "Toll Violation - WARNING LETTER" for the night when I went through that lane in Natick (I guess going through the red light lane at the Allston exit was a good idea). Now, I don't owe anything because it is only a warning, but I'm close to thinking this is all a big scam. Since, at the bottom of the warning, is the note "If you are interested in joining FAST LANE, call the FAST LANE Service Center". This must be how they get new customers, they force them to go through the fast lane and then 'warn' them with a helpful offer of how this won't ever be an issue again.
Bastards.
