If you have a FasTrak transponder on your dashboard, the little square device that allows you to blow through the toll plaza without fumbling for cash, you know that it really is a cool idea. If you’ve had one for any length of time, you also know the system is, as they say in the military, FUBAR. A recent Contra Costa Times story and editorial point out that rental cars can use FasTrak lanes without paying.

A reader just alerted us to another FasTrak scam: He has a hybrid car with stickers for the car pool lane. And he has a FasTrak tag. But he keeps it in the metalized bag so no toll gets registered, and since car pool lanes have no cameras to take license plate pictures, he’ll never get caught.

Are all FasTrak systems this hinky? What can be done to fix the system?

(Photo: mightyohm on flickr.)