Electronic tolling may no longer be “cutting edge” and perhaps should instead be considered state of the art, conventional technology. Viritually all new tollroads are using electronic tolling technology, and most existing tollroads are converting to completely cashless system. The new frontier is really about using tolls to manage traffic effectively using variable pricing.
Progress can be seen around the nation. TollroadsNews.com, for example, reports that the North Texas Tollway system went completely cashless as of December 10, 2010. The last toll plaza infrastructure is now being removed. Eighty percent of the transactions on the tollway use transponders; the remaining 20 percent are video license plate transactions (that include a 50 percent surcharge to cover processing costs).
Separately, the New Jersey-Pennsylvania I-80 bridge spanning the Delaware Water Gap opened its highway speed electronic toll lane on November 22, 2010. Even though the toll point still has five cash only toll booths, the E-ZPass lane attracts 42 percent of the bridge traffic.
E-ZPass technology is in use throughout the northern half of the US, allowing for vehicle operators to travel from Chicago to Boston without having to stop at a manual toll booth.