Originally Posted by
HilFly
I'll be in the Fort Worth / Dallas / Grapevine area later this month. In some hotel and restaurant reviews that I have read, posters are complaining vociferously about traffic deadlock caused by construction, and not realizing that they should have had a transponder for toll roads until the $25 penalties arrived from the rental car company.
Is this the case? Are there toll roads in the area were $$$ don't work, just transponders, and am I going to spend crazy amounts of time in traffic?
Are there any roads / areas where the traffic congestion will be so bad I should avoid them?
Thank you.
Ask for a vehicle that is equipped with a Toll Tag, the rental car company will charge the tolls back to you with a small (not $25) service fee that will show up a few days after you close out the rental ticket. Companies that are charging the $25 would happen when a car doesn't have a Toll Tag and the toll is charges to Zip Cash. None of the Dallas area toll roads have booths anymore. You can avoid the toll roads but it's a pain to do so because they do get you from here to there quickly for the most part.
Regarding where the traffic congestion would be bad, basically all roads in and out of the airport are road hell now. Being a local for me I know all of the side roads, short cuts, places to avoid and so on. Now that being said, once you are free of the cluster of roads around the airport and their crazy construction as long as you are not in rush hour the other roads shouldn't be too horrible.
Make sure you take the tip for the DFW Connector website. In fact you can sign up for email alerts right before you get here and unsubscribe when you leave. The email alerts will let you know of road closures due to wrecks or construction, road diversions and so on. One night when I flew in I arrived at DFW to an email saying the entire North entrance was down to one lane. I exited south and circled around. Another time I got an email about a road closure due to an 18 wheeler and multi-car accident on 121 S/114E. I was trying to get to the opposite side of where the wreck was so I took another route.
Have a great visit in Dallas!
http://www.dfwconnector.com/index_flash.php