Posted on 04/14/2018 8:17:56 PM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
The Maryland Transportation Authority is exploring phasing out all cash toll booths across the state.
Today, tolls are collected three ways: by cash, or electronically, by either an E-ZPass transponder or by video tolling — when the state uses a license-plate photo and mails drivers their bill.
Transportation officials say that the transition to all-electronic, high-speed toll collection will: save drivers time on their commute, save the state money, reduce accidents at toll plazas, and reduce CO2 emissions as less fuel is being burned, according to a national study by the University of Central Florida.
Drivers in Maryland could start seeing new plazas that only collect tolls electronically at highway speeds by the summer of 2019, said Kevin Reigrut, executive director of the Maryland Transportation Authority.
However the state has no specific timetable or budget for all-electronic tolling at this time, Maryland Transportation Authority Communications Director Cheryl M. Sparks told Capital News Service.
The transition would also mean that anyone driving on Maryland toll roads could soon need an E-ZPass to avoid paying higher fees, and 218 toll operator positions will be phased out across the state.
If you pay using video tolling, Reigrut said, you pay 1.5 times the base rate for that road — and if drivers don’t have an E-ZPass by the time Maryland’s electronic tolls are phased in, that’s the price they’d pay across the state.
This means that drivers from other states who use Maryland roads will be forced to pay more if they don’t have an E-ZPass by the time of the transition.
(Excerpt) Read more at capitalgazette.com ...
Maryland “Freak State” PING!
Toll booths should be outlawed
All the better to track you with, my dear.
I’ll pay at a toll booth if they turn the freeway into the Autobahn but not this nonsense.
And if you don’t have a credit card and you only operate in cash?
And if I don’t live in Maryland but am just passing through?
Then you get billed and send a money order.
As the article said——takes a pic and sends a bill.
.
Welcome to The Matrix.
Illinois is almost there.
Where are the cameras placed to take a shot of the plate ? Most likely it is to the front of the car as it passes through the toll lane. If you are from a state such as SC, you only have a plate on the back of your car. So all these cams would get is a picture of a vanity plate or nothing at all.
Just wear your Bill Clintoon mask...
How do they collect the out-of-state license pic tolls? Send them to collection agencies if not paid? What’s to stop me from completely ignoring them? Have no concerns about my “credit score” - don’t use credit and haven’t for years. I imagine with in-state they can block the vehicle registration or suspend the DL - I wonder if that can be done inter-state?
“...As the article said——takes a pic and sends a bill....”
Yep....same as the I-65 bridge in Louisville, KY
Went thru there last summer and saw the sign for the “toll bridge” and kept looking for a toll booth.....nothing. Oh well. Then, about 2 weeks later, I get a bill in the mail with a pic of my truck & license plate.
Go to youtube: ez pass tracking
>>save the state money, reduce accidents at toll plazas, and reduce CO2 emissions as less fuel is being burned
Or just use the gas tax to build highways and stop using drivers as a cashbox to fund other spending in the state.
Save money (on staff at booths)
Reduce accidents
Reduce pollution/congestion
Win
Win
Win
Reduce the size of government
WIN!!!
If interstates were privatized, they’d be smooth as silk
The snapshot cams at a toll bridge near here take both: front (with an effort to capture an image of the driver) and rear also (with optimizations so the typical plate obscuration tricks don’t usually work).
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.