If you live in Washington state and see one of these “Good to Go!” kiosks, don’t waste your time. This one was at my local library and, since tolling on Hwy. 520 is due to start later this spring, I thought it would be smart to get it over with and set up my account.
Yes, you can leave with one of the new window stickers you will need, but the process is much slower and more complicated than doing it yourself.
You see, it works like this: the nice guys at the kiosk had me fill put a paper form with all of my contact information, as well as details on my vehicles. Front and back, that took 5-7 minutes. Then, they fired up their laptop and entered the information I just wrote down into a web page on the WSDOT site. Yes, watching someone type on their computers is one of my favorite pastimes, but still… All told, it took about 20 minutes to do what is probably a 5-minute task in the comfort of your home.
The paper is eventually destroyed (they say), but since they take your credit card to top up your new account (a minimum of $30), I’d argue that this process is also less secure than just doing it yourself.
I’m not suggesting that there aren’t people who might actually find these kiosks to be a valuable service. But if you don’t call what you’re reading this on “the computer thing,” or know the definition of “tweet” that doesn’t have something to do with a bird, then you’re much better off just going here.
