Toll roads take cashless route

[flashl]

By Larry Copeland, USA TODAY

The American tollbooth is sliding toward oblivion as the nation moves toward pay-to-drive highways that don't accept cash.

Highway agencies increasingly are embracing high-speed "open-road tolling" in which drivers don't have to slow down or stop at a tollbooth or gates, and often no cash is involved. Instead, overhead antennae "read" windshield-mounted transponders in the cars beneath and charge drivers' pre-paid accounts. Overhead cameras capture license plates, and drivers without transponders get a bill in the mail.

Proponents say the benefits are numerous: Fewer delays and less congestion; lower payroll costs; reduced pollution from cars waiting in line. Also, no large tracts of land are needed for toll plazas, so toll roads can be added in tight urban corridors to relieve congestion.

"The toll agencies are saying, 'Let's eliminate cash entirely on the roadway. Let's make it so nobody ever has to fish in their pocket for a dollar or a coin,' " says Patrick Jones, executive director and CEO of the International Bridge, Tunnel and Turnpike Association, an alliance of toll operators and related groups.

The proponents are Boosh's Transportation Dept. Read as: Prepare for acceleration of roads and highways privitalization. Also, expect a high tech toll booth nearly on every corner. Boosh's TD plan is to transform roads and highways into commodities under a congestion 'management' model.

[CrispyQ]

1. And a way to track where your car has been.

I'm doubt that's the transpo department's motivation, but law enforcement's gotta love it.

[sakabatou]

2. We have them in SF

"Fast Pass" is what they're called.

[BlooInBloo]

4. SFO has the best of everything. :P

[BlooInBloo]

3. Makes sense.

[A HERETIC I AM]

5. They've been using a similar system in Chicago for years. Same with many toll bridges and roads....

nationwide. This is not new, by any stretch.

[TreasonousBastard]

6. For years I had a NJ "EZPass" which was good on...

every bridge, tunnel and toll road from Boston to Washington and Buffalo. More places, too, I assume, but I that's as far as I went. Every toll was paid just zipping through the booth, and many places were installing the high-speed lanes.

Sure, I hate paying tolls, but a lot of them were discounted and I hate waiting in line or running out of cash even more.

FWIW, Europeans have had these systems for longer than we have, as some people found out when they got tolls on their rental car bill.

[mloutre]

7. I love my EZ Pass device. But I have no illusions about it.

When I drove a rented truck from Washington to Boston a coupla months back, I had to wait in line to pay the highway tolls in cash. In NJ, just the other side of NYC, I sat in line for well over an hour just waiting to clear a cash-pay toll booth, while the EZ Pass peeps breezed by me in real time just one lane to my left. Chapped my furry otter asterisk, it did.

Yeah, I know that when I drive my own EZ Pass-device-equipped vehicle back and forth across I-90 between Boston and the far western edge of Pennsylvania to visit my terminal-illness dad, the feddies could track my movements by computer records if they wanted to thanks to the transponder. But so what? I save money on the tolls, I save a *whole* lot of time in the toll lanes, and it ain't like I'm ashamed of why I'm going there.

If I wanted to travel by stealth for some reason, I already know how to do it. The EZ Pass thingie clipped to my dashboard makes my life a lot easier when I'm traveling on legitimate business, though. So I think that in the overall analysis, the multi-state EZ Pass system is a Good Thing for people that need to travel toll roads frequently. As far as Big Brother stuff goes, I don't have a problem with this.

[JFreitas]

9. In Portugal we have probably the most advanced system for cash less toll booths

In Portugal we have probably the most advanced system for cash less toll booths in the world. Essentially, since this is a small country, and there were no competing systems or expensive setups to begin with, one of the highway operators created a radio system (called "Via Verde", or Green Way) and setup a company to explore this. All highway operators are partners in this company which operates not-for-profit (all profits are invested in increased technology, whatever). The original operator makes money on a system of royalties that Via Verde pays them, and on selling the system to other countries.

Fully 50% of highway traffic in Portugal uses the system. You buy a small radio transponder, fill up a questionnaire and activate your account on any ATM machine. After a month, you get a bill by mail telling you Via Verde is going to charge you x€ on this date (generally one week from now) to your bank account. And that's that. It's so popular that up to 50% of all of Lisbon's parking lots now use this system. You don't pay for the parking at the booth, you just press the button that says ViaVerde, and when you leave the parking the gates will open for you as they sense your transponder. Saves a lot of time and hassles. You can also pay for gas at a lot of service stations using the same system.

The system is fairly protective of privacy. First of all, you always have the option of paying at the booth rather than going through Via Verde, should you wish to have your trip private (there were horror stories of husbands being caught by their wives in the beginning and the company changed the system!). Secondly, the company is not supposed to release the records of your trips unless they get a judge's order or you allow them to. In fact, there have been fairly important trials where the system has helped an innocent guy show that his car was somewhere else when the alleged crime occurred.

Of course, a lot of these guarantees can be easily circumvented by secret service, cops, whatever. But still, it seems to work pretty well and be fairly safe. It has helped traffic quite a lot in Portugal's highways, especially during the summer holidays when thousands take off to the beach.

[CrispyQ]

10. Wow. You don't have a problem with the Big Brother stuff?

I wouldn't have an issue with this as long as the cash lanes are still an option, but it sounds like that isn't the plan.

"The toll agencies are saying, 'Let's eliminate cash entirely on the roadway. Let's make it so nobody ever has to fish in their pocket for a dollar or a coin,'"

[flashl]

8. How is selling off American infrastructure (roads and highways) beneficial to the public? Anyone?