GPS and Ezpass

That sucks to have EZPass only exits. If I ever go through Pennsylvania I'll have to be extra careful since as a non-resident I'm not going to have an EZPass.

When I occasionally go down to Illinois, I may go on toll roads, but I have the option to pay cash.

has them as well.

The New York State Thruway has EZ Pass only lanes too but there is also a manned lane available as well. As I read the article, it does not appear to me that there are PA Turnpike exits with nothing but EZ Pass. Just exclusive lanes, in addition to the manned lanes, where you need to have it to use the lane. What the picture in article shows is what you find in New York too. If you do not have an EZ Pass you use the lane with a human.

I have not been out that way in a number of years. Are you saying that there are some exits that require a toll tag to exit the toll road and don't have a cash option? I've seen many toll road exits in the midwest that enable a toll tag no stop feature, but all the exits have a cash only booth which may be unmanned but accept bills or coins. There is an exit near Richmond VA that does require some attention on the driver as the cash only exit is separate from the tag lanes and can be missed and there is no recourse at that point. I called the 800#, they looked up my plate and time and accepted my credit card for the toll and there was no fine or penalty since I called in. Several near Dallas capture your plate and mail a bill to the registered owner as a routine process for those who don't have a tag. If not paid in a specified time, it it followed up with a summons and a fine.

The picture in the article is deceiving since it shows a multi lane interchange, not the exit in question. The article refers to a recently opened exit on the PA Turnpike which is Ezpass ONLY. There are NO cash or manned lanes! The exit is marked as such but many drivers get confused since, as you point out, there are usually cash lanes available.

On 589 (Veterans expressway they took down the toll booths and will bill you by mail if you don't have a Sunpass. They read your plate
But you have to check the website and the toll you are being billed for.
They read your plate and check if a sunpass is registered to that plate.
I have a Sunpass and was billed for toll I never went thru.
When I pulled up the picture for the toll I was billed for, the car and plate was not mine. the angle that the camera used read the plate wrong. (close but no cigar) I called them and had them check the picture and they had to agree.

$25 administrative fee plus $40 toll. Chicken feed compared to the Virginia Express Lanes operated by TransUrban.

http://wtop.com/news/2014/10/md-man-fights-875-toll-that-bal... (plus about a dozen more articles)

And this guy wasn't the only one, a number of others were "fined" over $10K. TransUrban now has a "first time forgiveness program" which caps the fines at $2200.
Mark
Mark

The Allentown paper provided more detail than the linked article. In the first 2 weeks the interchange was open, approximately 4500 out of 37500 cars using the interchange did so without an EZPass. The exit signs are pretty clear about "EZPass Tagholders Only".

A turnpike official indicated that for first-time offenses, they would waive the $25 fine (excuse me..., administrative fee) and adjust the toll to resemble a cash toll from the point of entry as evidenced by the ticket that offenders should have picked up on entering the turnpike. The turnpike will even consider other suitably timely receipts from businesses near offenders' turnpike entry points.

Despite this semblance of reason, it's clear that the turnpike cares nothing for logic nor data. While 12% of the interchange users lacked an EZPass, 33,000 of them had one. I seriously doubt that a single one of them entered the turnpike at the Ohio border (furthest point on the turnpike and the standard for 'charge folks the maximum possible if they don't present a ticket'). The official turnpike mileage from the Ohio entrance to the new interchange is 399 miles. It's only 300 miles if you take I80 from exactly the same place. Considering that they're both limited access routes with the maximum highway speeds, I don't think there's anyone who'd drive an extra 100 miles and pay an extra $35 (EZPass) - $49 (cash) in tolls just to drive on the turnpike or use a new interchange. I'd be willing to bet that 99.9%+ of the cars leaving the turnpike at the new interchange came from within 135 turnpike miles. Any further away than that, and there are significantly shorter and faster ways to get to the Poconos (at much lower cost than using the turnpike). And if they haven't destroyed the data to avoid long term audits (with PA politics, one never knows...), I'd bet the turnpike can't show a single toll from the western entry to Mahoning Valley (one exit south of the new interchange) since I80 opened. I know the turnpike wants to discourage ticket loss by charging a steep penalty -- but don't say it's because you don't know where a driver entered. True, but just as certainly (IMO) they know that none of those drivers at any of the Pocono interchanges entered at the Ohio border.

The PA Turnpike is expected to have electronic-only tolling by the end of 2018. Non EZPass drivers will have their license plates photographed, and a bill generated monthly (unless the pilot program next year shows the tag photo scheme doesn't work). I've been using EZPass since 2001.

In Florida if you go through a toll, you will get a bill in the mail with an administrative fee added. The fee I got was only a couple dollars but they took that off when I called them because I have a Sun Pass that wasn't working at the time.

Incorrect. The PA Turnpike DOES have a few E-ZPass only exits, as the article notes, and has for a number of years now. Besides the Route 903 exit on I-476 that the article mentions, other E-Pass only slip ramp exits include Route 29 on I-76 and Virginia Drive on I-276.

These very useful junctions could never have been built with traditional toll booths, as there simply is no room at these locations. The E-ZPass option made these exits possible. People who do not want E-ZPass did not lose any exits, they simply cannot participate in the new exits that only have enough physical real estate to support E-ZPass toll collection.

All of these exits are very well signed as E-ZPass only with large signage in multiple locations.

A navigation device should NEVER replace common sense or reading big signs along the road, whether they say "bridge out," low overpass, or E-ZPass only.

Like the MassPike, the PA Pike will be going all electronic collection for the whole system in the next few years. Folks that do not have E-ZPass accounts will be charged based on their license plate. The non E-ZPass charges will be higher than E-ZPass accounts, just as the PA Turnpike does today.

BZT! True for most Illinois tollbooths at this point but not all. A few Illinois Tollway exits including the very busy one at the exit from the Tri-State Tollway to the O'Hare airport area do not have cash lanes. There are signs ahead of such exits warning that there is no cash option there, and there is an option to go online and pay noting your license plate number within seven days of going through the exit if you don't have the transponder so you don't get a violation notice later.

The trend for toll roads is towards a very gradual elimination of cash options for toll payment, so stay tuned to your "favorite" toll roads to keep an eye on this. It may yet come to the Illinois Tollway, though I haven't heard any discussion of this in Illinois yet. Illinois spent a lot of money building cash lanes for toll payment in the last decade which may make them slower than others in the Northeastern US to eliminate cash payment, as some toll roads have already begun to do.

Florida has some toll roads that do not have a cash option around Miami. There are also a lot of exits that are either Sun-Pass or exact change with no attendant. The Sun-Pass part of the roads appears to be getting wider and the toll booths are getting fewer causing long backups. The idea is to make everyone get a Sun-Pass.

No cash option. The GPS just treats as a regular toll road.Not sure what fine/fee is if you don't have an EZ Pass

Washington State Route 520 is an E-ZPass-only road. There are no toll booths. The only exception is a plate-reader account. The road goes from I-5 to downtown Seattle with a bridge over Lake Washington.

If you enter without an account, you get a summons for each infraction for $40- plus tolls and fees.

I set the nuvi to avoid tolls. If not, it would have routed me on 520 in a rental car without my EZ-Pass.

http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/Tolling/520/

Edit! They will not take E-ZPass! It must be a Good To Go! account!

https://platepass.com/locations/

E-ZPass will not work at many locations. They have their own local account. Who thought this up!? Don't they think people would drive all over the country?

Some States are recognizing the passes from other states. Florida has agreements with Georgia and North Carolina that I know of. There might be others. I don't see an easy way to see what states have agreements.

Maryland calls it "Video Tolling" if you do not have EZ Pass. There is a 50% surcharge with a $1 minimum and a $15 dollar maximum. MD will send a bill for the toll. Video Tolling may not be the preferred payment method, but is still considered a legitimate method of payment. It's essentially just a discount for using an EZ Pass. toll Rates:
http://www.mdta.maryland.gov/Toll_Rates/documents/2015/Two%2...
Mark

From: http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/map21/summaryinfo.cfm
"MAP-21 also requires that all Federal-aid highway toll facilities implement technologies or business practices that provide for the interoperability of electronic toll collection by October 1, 2016 (four years after the enactment of MAP-21’s new tolling requirements)."
Mark

We need to know our capabilities..

EZPass and similar toll collection methods are ever growing in number. The Atlantic City Expressway (NJ) has at least one, if you don't have an EZPass they use the plate, add a surcharge (10% I believe) and send a bill. In PA the goal is to go all EZPass.

PA calls their long-term plans AET for All-Electronic Tolls. Next year's pilot will test the plate-pass capability alongside EZPass in 2 locations. I don't think they ever expect to be able to go all EZPass. If nothing else, there would be an uproar about the maintain-a-balance-in-your-account requirement for EZPass. Besides, now they'll get to charge the cash toll price for plate pass, while not having to pay a single on-site toll collector.

Curiously, several years ago (more than 10) a New Jersey toll commission employee told a coworker of mine that NJ simply ignored the transponder and billed based on plate recognition. My coworker had given his older car (along with EZPass) to his daughter when she graduated from college. The daughter moved to NJ and registered the car accordingly, but no one visited the EZPass site to change the link between the transponder and the license plate. At the time, PA required that you only have one car associated with each transponder (now you can have up to 50 license plates associated with a transponder). My coworker got lots of deficiency notices before he spent enough time on hold to get an explanation. I'm not sure I believe the explanation, but that's what they told him.

... pretty much the same idea, meaning getting away from human toll collectors. Still, by giving ezpass users a discount I still think their ultimate goal would be everyone using ezpass.

I wonder how long before they realize some plates won't be readable. I have an ezpass for my Harley Road King, the plate is tucked up under the tour pack, easily seen directly behind me but from an above angle (where it appears the cameras are on the non-stop reader areas) nearly impossible. When my transponder died I never received a charge for any toll areas I went through in PA, DE & NJ. I found out it died was when I went to update my CC info and noticed I hadn't gotten any charges in a while. During that same time period my car transponder was going bad and I'd get a violation charge, that once contested was reduced to the actual toll and the transponder was replaced.

Then there's the folks who put those dark covers over their plate, which I believe are illegal in PA but nothing is done about them. Over-all the program will work but some will slip through unpaid/uncharged.

There are so many people with covers on the plate, or the plate is obscured by something, that the chance is very low that a police officer would ever write a summons for it.

The method of choice in my area is a bike carrier mounted on a tow hitch.
99% of the time there is no bike on the carrier and they are used all winter. This is done mainly for red light cameras.

Criminals or terrorists will fit right in if they don't want their plate seen.

dobs108

Its been a long time since I lived in Pa so I don't know the laws there but in Florida the plate has to be readable at the height of an officer sitting in his car at a certain distance. Anything blocking the view from above would be legal. There are some laws written for the automated plate readers that limit the height of the plate and that it must be mounted horizontally but they haven't said anything about providing a view from above.

Incorrect as MD 200 is NOT E-ZPass only. You can drive it legally without an E-ZPass, and you will be billed in the mail. The tolls are higher if you do not have an E-ZPass account, but not too significantly higher.

MD 200, the Intercounty Connector is EZ Pass only as there is no place to pay with cash. The state will bill according to the information from your license plate, but the fact remains this variab;e fee toll road is EZ Pass only as a means of payment at time of use.

Going to NY and rent a car... Am trying to find all the road ways to places without toll roads. Not use to toll roads...

It looks very confusing looking at all your post...

If you are renting a car in New York City there are no toll roads like we have been discussing above, but there are toll bridges and tunnels. You usually can't avoid the bridge if you want to get to the other side of the river.

There are free bridges between Manhattan and Brooklyn, Manhattan and Queens, and Manhattan and the Bronx. All other bridges and all tunnels are toll.

Your car rental company can provide an E-Z Pass transponder or you can sign up with E-Z Pass before you go. Paying cash is a hassle - you will sit in traffic at the toll booth.

But you should not be renting a car if your hotel and your destinations are all in downtown or midtown Manhattan. Take the subway, which is all over, or take taxis. You might think taxis are expensive until you find out how much parking garages cost in Manhattan! (There are no spaces available on the street!)

dobs108 Lifelong New Yorker

I love threads like this one. I didn't even know that EZPass only exits like this exist. I have one in the car, but it's a good reminder to check routes ahead of time or make sure the credit card on the account is up-to-date. Thanks.

The Dulles Access Road has a similar setup with some exits ONLY taking EZ Pass.

Fred

The PA turnpike plans to eliminate toll booth operators and so at some point in the next few years, cash will not be an option. EZ Pass will be required or they'll send you a bill. This is the way of the future, the technology is here, so might as well step up and embrace it rather than resist. It is a huge time saver and well worth the $3/yr. annual fee in my opinion. I don't understand why folks have such an issue with it. Lanes are always well marked and that's how it is. Higher end navigation systems will also maximize or minimize electronic toll collection booths accordingly so that may be something to consider. You get what you pay for in a cheap GPS.

Thanks for this, we have been to Manhattan once for a week and did not have a rent car. It was great...
That said, we are flying in to Cleveland and renting a car at the airport. Then we will drive to Niagara Falls, NY. We are staying on the US side but plan on spending a lot of time on the Canada side. One tour will pick us up at our US hotel and take us to Canada. The rest of the time we will just walk over the bridge.

We are going to drive up to Fort Niagara. I think the road next to the water is not a toll road.

I found there are toll roads from Cleveland Airport to Niagara Falls. I have found that if I take road 5, 20 and 265 (if I remember corectly) I can avoid toll roads. It may take longer but these roads look like they might be close to the lake so we may have some scenery to look at.

My husband is one of these that if it cost to drive on a road and there is another way he wants to take it. The rent car charges $15 for the transponder.
I also read that the toll road going to Niagara Falls can have up to a two hour backup up at the toll booth. So if that's the case the little roads will be faster.

Either way we just hope we don't get on a toll road by mistake.

Made that trip a couple of years ago ... I love that part of NY. Be sure to visit some of the vinyards in the Finger Lakes area. We also went on the Erie Canal boat tour through the lock which was interesting but disturbing to see the detioration of the historic canal locks system.

As far as EZPass and tolls, my advice for what it's worth is to pay the $15 and tolls and not worry about which road or exit you are taking. It is a small price compared to the total cost of a vacation and will take some of the stress out of driving.

That's why I've got my GPS set for "NO TOLL" roads.

Nuvi1300WTGPS

So you will swim across the river!

dobs108

Yeah just for laughs I just asked Bing Maps and Mapquest to route me from Trenton NJ to Manhattan. No problem. Both found a route that would take 1.5 hours (yeah, right). Then I checked the box to avoid tolls and waited for the recalculate. Bing Maps twice blew a fuse trying to work that one out and only suggested I try later. Mapquest came back with a 3.3 hour route via Peekskill. At least they found a route that avoided Vermont, which was what I was expecting to get. I'm sure there are more extreme examples of long delays to avoid a toll.

Sometimes you're better off paying the toll.

LIE to the Queensboro (or Ed Koch) Bridge to Manhattan, then the FDR drive up to the Harlem River Drive, to the west end of the Cross Bronx Expressway, then up the Palisades to Route 17, and west to I-81. No money. Can't say the same for the way home. The one big bang at the George Washington Bridge. I'll pay rather than the long detour through Peekskill... Also the Triboro (or RFK) Bridge toll beats the time I would have to wait in traffic in NYC to get the free option. My time is worth more than free option including the wear and tear on my sanity...

WHAT IS EZPASS ANYWAY?

TOO MANY TOLL ROAD IN FLORIDA AND THE SAME ALL ALONG THE EAST COAST.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E-ZPass

I live in Ohio took the PA toll road to Washington DC recently. At the Ohio Gateway I mistakenly was in the EZPass ONLY lane and could not change lanes before going thru the toll zone. Construction & heavy traffic prevented me from getting in the proper lane. Better signs for those of us who have never encountered such a concept before would be helpful.
I got the letter in the mail and sent them the $6.00 toll and a letter asking to waive the admin fine. They took the 6 bucks and called it even.

My US Greenbacks still say "This note is legal tender for All Debts public and private" right on the front. How can a government agency not take US Dollar bills and go cashless when our country's money says the actual bills are good for all debts?

Brought to you by none other than American Traffic Solutions!
Mark

We need a national pass similar to the Sun
Pass in Florida.

I set my GPS to no tolls also but I think this unit has an option to ask about toll roads when calculating the route.

where EZPass is not accepted, and there is automated tolling.

Take the Golden Gate Bridge for example.

A One-Time Payment can be made 30 days before you cross the Bridge, or within 48 hours after your crossing .

Because we all know SF is one of the worst tourist traps. Failure to curb your wheels when parking is a hefty fine. A rlc is $480.

Now, combine this with a rental car. The $7.25 toll may become $27.25, for a one-time crossing. How is your GPS going to bypass it?

Funny, we spin our wheels with red light cams insisting they cause accidents, but we don't fight these scenarios which are clearly wrong.

It's coming by federal mandate by late 2016, although actually, it's not a new national pass; the existing toll transponder systems will have to take the other toll roads' transponders by fall 2016, so Florida Turnpike Sun Pass tollbooths will have to work with Mass Pike's E-Z Pass transponders and vice versa.

"There's a federal mandate requiring all states to have interoperable road tolling systems by next fall [2016]. In other words, your transponder will work anywhere in the United States."
from: http://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/advice/2015/08/07/toll-...

And here it is from the Sun Pass folks, as they wrote in 2014, just so you don't think they'll be ignoring a federal mandate:
"Meanwhile, on the larger stage, the federal initiative Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21 Century (MAP-21) mandates that all toll systems in the U.S. will be interoperable by October 2016.

That requires all of the agencies complete a lot of work in a short time. Thirty-five states have toll roads, bridges, tunnels or causeways. Our friends farther north in Ontario are also interested in interoperability.

We must make all of the different existing technologies "talk" to each other without requiring every state to change to one type of toll protocol, which would run into billions of dollars. Business rules must be established that include such things as the number of times per day active account data is exchanged and the timeframe for reconciling transactions and income for each agency. Most important, however, is ensuring that SunPass customers receive equal and fair treatment when traveling on other state's toll facilities without being charged higher tolls or service fees.

Also, we are participating in a national effort to develop universal signage that will tell you where your SunPass is accepted--whether you are traveling on the Capitol Beltway or the Golden Gate Bridge."
from: http://floridasturnpike.com/sunpassages/14.fall/steering-col...

You've got a point there about the legal tender! So true! With a cashless society now upon us, I guess they'll have to change that on the bills. ha.

But I haven't found the federal literature supporting this.

With my luck, knowing how those who write legislation in the District of Corruption, it wouldn't surprise me if hurried deep in the document, disguised as a hot potato, there's something, while mandating these systems accept each other's transponders and the like, if you use an E-Zpass on another system, that other system can charge you a differing rate than if you used the local device or a convenience fee of some kind.

I previously posted this link on 7/20/2015 in this thread. Is this what you are looking for: http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/map21/summaryinfo.cfm
Mark