U.S. drivers in many areas have gotten used to automated tolls on highways and bridges almost everywhere—except that the transponders that make it happen only work in their own designated 'somewhere,' a situation that cries out for change.
And the change may be getting closer. The different toll systems in use in different parts of the country were supposed to move to 'interoperability' by 2016 under a Federal mandate. Although it didn't happen, the idea isn't dead, and some changes are already underway.
E-ZPass, which is big in the Northeast and MidAtlantic states is about to be accepted by tollways in Central Florida, a big boost for New Yorkers traveling to Disney World, among others. More clusters of states are working on joining up, and there is hope that the increasingly automated systems can be made to work with all transponders.
That would be especially good news for rental car customers, who are often faced with a choice of paying high daily fees to rental companies for transponders they may not need, or high tolls or fines if they do use the roads, because fewer and fewer tollways take cash. There are even situations where motorists carrying their own transponders find that they're being double-tolled, once on their own E-ZPass, and once on the rental company's.
Photo: Fletcher6/Wikimedia
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