Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, May 30, 1995 TAG: 9505300119
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: Medium
Collecting tolls isn't easy, but Charlotte Rivas says she'd go back anytime.
For three years, Rivas, 49, wore a light-blue smock and rolled coins, made change and tried not to let the driving public on the Virginia Beach-Norfolk Expressway get her down.``But,'' she said, ``I would give anything to go back.''
She and several other full-time collectors left the toll plaza for good May 1 and were replaced by temporary collectors. Most of the former collectors were transferred to other state transportation facilities.
After Thursday, Hampton Roads will have no use for toll collectors on the expressway to Virginia Beach. The 25-cent toll bites the dust.
Rivas now patrols the walkways of a highway tunnel, dressed in Day-Glo-orange coveralls and a belt weighted down with keys, radio and flashlight.
While working at the toll plaza, her hands were filthy after an hour on the job. There was blood on some dollar bills, and collectors often had to ask commuters to drop their quarters on the ground if they had been held in the mouth.Most of all, toll collectors avoided Lane 8 like the plague.
Except Christmas.
Lane 8 was Christmas' lane - the most profitable at the plaza because it was the cash lane - a nonstop day of breaking bills.
Judy Christmas, 41, who now inspects trucks at a highway tunnel, has the usual horror stories - people heating their quarters before placing them in her hand, being spat at, being yelled at for giving directions to other drivers.
``There were some rude ones,'' she said. ``But if you treat the people nice, they'll treat you nice. ... It bothered me if I was in a bad mood. But the majority of people weren't like that.''
Asked if she'd return, Christmas cut the questioner off. ``Yes, without a doubt. Without a doubt.''
Rivas said she didn't come away jaded from her old job - just a little more insightful about both the ugly and the beautiful sides of human nature.
``This is a crazy world,'' she said. ``But it's also the world that you live in. People are just like that. They feel that this is money they have to pay to you and they take it out on you.
As Wednesday rolls into the wee hours of Thursday, Rivas will drive home to Virginia Beach after her shift. She could be one of the first commuters to drive the road free. But she won't. She plans to get off the Expressway at an earlier exit to avoid the demise of her beloved plaza.
``It's kinda sad,'' she said. ``I just don't want to see it.''
by CNB