This quick tutorial will help you understand how our toll tag gate system works, and how to avoid damage to your car and/or the barrier arm.

How It Works

For decades, our resident gate was manually opened by a guard in the gate house. In 2016, we switched to a toll tag system that reads the toll tag attached to a vehicle.

Residents toll tags are registered in our system and when a vehicle approaches the gate, a sensor reads the toll tag and sends that info to the system.

If the resident is in good standing (No outstanding assessments, violations, etc) the system then opens the gate. No guard is involved in the process. 

The system is designed to read one toll tag at a time, and can be a very different experience on the speed it opens for each individual vehicle. Some vehicles such as certain models of Mercedes, Tesla, Range Rovers and others have metal in their windshield and can make it more difficult or impossible for the sensor to read the toll tag. Other vehicles are very respondent.

The sensor only detects one vehicle at a time and will start to close after each car passes through. There is no sensor on the actual barrier arm that tells it there is another car coming through to stop it from closing, so if the system didn't read your tag, it will come down on your car. This is why it is so important for you to not tailgate cars ahead of you, as you could hit the barrier arm, causing damage to it and/or your vehicle (of which resident is responsible for any and all damage).

Instructions for worry free entry

• If a car is ahead of you, do not automatically follow it through. Allow the car in front to pass through and assume you must stop, and do so as the barrier arm comes down after the car ahead passes through. The sensor can read your tag quickly and keep the arm up, or it could not read your sensor and the arm comes down. By stopping and making sure the sensor has read your tag, you won't hit the barrier arm.
• If no car is in front of you, approach barrier arm slowly and assume you must stop, and do so before the sensor reads the tag. If the barrier arm goes up, you are free to pass through.
• Do not look / wave at guard as you go through. Keep your eyes on the barrier arm.

From the TXTAG.ORG Website on known windshield issues and their (and ours) suggested alternatives.

As a reminder that there are 14 different makes and models of vehicles that the toll tag does not read through your windshield (heaters, antennas and additives). Please understand that this is out of our control. We have learned that the tollway authority is aware of this issue and has recently begun issuing toll tags that will read through your windshields as well as issue alternative tag transponders. 

• Some vehicles, including motorcycles, need special kinds of tags.
• Motorcycle Tags - Because the TxTag sticker relies on windshield glass to work, motorcycles require a special tag. The motorcycle tag uses different technology to provide the same benefits of a standard TxTag. To order a motorcycle tag, call 1-888-468-9824. A refundable deposit is required.
• Bumper Tags - Bumper-mounted tags are required for vehicles with certain windshields.