Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

No more cash: Maryland explores changing tolls to electronic only
The Capital Gazette ^ | April 13, 2018 | Katherine Brzozowski

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 ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Extended News; Government; News/Current Events; US: Maryland
KEYWORDS: accidents; aet; cash; construction; conversion; electronic; ezpass; funding; infrastructure; jobs; maryland; mdta; tollbooths; tollbyplate; tolls; transportation; videotolling
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-62 next last
To: lgjhn23; Mears
Just like speed cameras. MD allows them in school zones (local option). I was nabbed by one three years ago.

ff

21 posted on 04/14/2018 8:47:31 PM PDT by foreverfree
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 16 | View Replies]

To: steve86

License plate cams are very good, but it won’t be long before all new cars will be required to have RFID tags just like the VIN is now.


22 posted on 04/14/2018 8:53:10 PM PDT by bigbob
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 20 | View Replies]

To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks; All
Not that there are any quick remedies for this now common method of payment, but patriots are reminded that the Founding States had clarified in the Constitution that the states will use only gold and silver for payment of debt.
"Article I, Section 10, Clause 1: No State shall enter into any Treaty, Alliance, or Confederation; grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal; coin Money; emit Bills of Credit; make any Thing but gold and silver Coin a Tender in Payment of Debts [emphases added]; pass any Bill of Attainder, ex post facto Law, or Law impairing the Obligation of Contracts, or grant any Title of Nobility."

Note that Constitution-ignoring FDR made the unconstitutional (imo) executive order to confiscate gold.

Executive Order 6102

23 posted on 04/14/2018 8:55:02 PM PDT by Amendment10
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks

Drivers from other states who don’t have EZpass will pay 1.5 times the regular rate for video toll.

Consider - Congress passed a law in 2012 requiring toll collection transponder interoperability nationwide meaning a driver with a Florida Sunpass toll transponder could be used for EZpass and a New Jersey resident with an EZpass could use it in Florida. The law required the different systems to be compatible and collect tolls for each other by October 2016. It is national transponder interoperability does not exist. Sunpass, for example has installed the technology to read EZpass but EZ pass has not adapted its system to be interoperable with other readers. If Maryland proceeds with its plan for cashless toll payments, by generating more revenue through video toll collection it has an incentive not to make its EZPass readers compatible with transponders from other systems.

The construction of the interstate highway system was funded 90% by the federal government and 10% by the states. To force out of state drivers without EZ passes to pay a toll 50% higher than Maryland residents with EZ passes seems grossly unfair for a highway constructed primarily with funds collected nationally by the federal government.

In the early days of the interstate highway system some states included their existing toll roads in the system with the agreement the tolls would be removed when the revenue bonds sold by the state to fund the road were paid off. This was done for example on the Petersburg Turnpike, I95 south of Richmond, where tolls were lifted in 1992 when the last bonds were paid off. Unfortunately the federal government has given exceptions to some states who like Maryland continue to collect tolls. Perhaps the answer is to simply mandate the tolls be lifted from all interstate highways.


24 posted on 04/14/2018 9:02:49 PM PDT by Soul of the South (The past is gone and cannot be changed. Tomorrow can be a better day if we work on it.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Amendment10

You could still have electronic transactions, IMO, but they would simply all have to be backed by silver and/or gold.


25 posted on 04/14/2018 9:05:20 PM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks (The US Constitution ....... Invented by geniuses and God .... Administered by morons ......)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 23 | View Replies]

To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks; All
"You could still have electronic transactions, IMO, but they would simply all have to be backed by silver and/or gold."

Good practical insight.

And we can also appropriately amend the Constitution for electronic transactions backed by silver and/or gold.

26 posted on 04/14/2018 9:19:59 PM PDT by Amendment10
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 25 | View Replies]

To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks; All

Also, the Constitution should require the states, not the feds, to back electronic transactions with gold and silver.


27 posted on 04/14/2018 9:27:53 PM PDT by Amendment10
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 25 | View Replies]

To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks
Maryland is a freak state. Your car needs to be chipped... One step closer to people being chipped... Bible says one day you wont be able to buy or sell without the mark of the beast..
28 posted on 04/14/2018 9:29:55 PM PDT by Ikeon (Jesus said "love thy neighbor". I'm sure he meant you should act like it too.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: napscoordinator

Down in New Zealand, there are three toll situations. No Booths. They have a scanner that reads your tag, and you are supposed to have an account with them, with a bank or credit card situation. Me being a visitor? Well...you have 72 hours to log in, put your rental car tag number in and charge to your credit card. After that, there’s a bill sent to the rental car company with a fee attached and they will take the money from you.


29 posted on 04/14/2018 9:42:58 PM PDT by pepsionice
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 8 | View Replies]

To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks
"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."

Unless they can prove illegal status with a criminal record while having been deported multiple time. They the can ride for free.

30 posted on 04/14/2018 9:51:10 PM PDT by wmileo
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: pepsionice

Wow. That is interesting. I wonder if we will go that route eventually. The problem is getting money out of people out of state. I wonder if they don’t pay, they send it to a credit reporting company so it screws up a person’s credit score. I can see them doing that. Otherwise people won’t pay outside of Maryland.


31 posted on 04/14/2018 9:51:49 PM PDT by napscoordinator (Trump/Hunter, jr for President/Vice President 2016)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 29 | View Replies]

To: butlerweave

Globalists who push for a cashless society on an American conservative site should be pilloried and flogged with a bullwhip.


32 posted on 04/14/2018 10:04:20 PM PDT by MrEdd (Caveat Emptor)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks
...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...

Does the constitution have anything to say on this issue?

I know when my daughter drove my car across the country a couple of years ago I got bills from a few states I though were unjust because they included a fine for not paying the toll. I just chalked the few dollars up to her belief that dad is the source of all wealth, but now it looks like she may not have even had the choice to pay in cash.

33 posted on 04/14/2018 10:34:51 PM PDT by CurlyDave
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks

First they convert the cash toll roads to electronic pay, then they convert ALL THE ROADS to electronic pay. It will be so easy to create toll roads, every community will insist their roads are turned into money mills.

This is going to get bad. Question is, is it going to get bad as fast as everything else is getting bad?

Glad I’m going to be senile or dead soon.


34 posted on 04/14/2018 10:46:41 PM PDT by Born to Conserve
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks
I see nothing wrong with this. If Marylanders don't like it, they can vote the bastards out.

Except for this:

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.

Seems to me this is a violation of the interstate commerce clause. Having outstate travelers paying the same rate as instate is defensible. Paying higher rates is not.

I'm sure we'll see a lawsuit.

35 posted on 04/14/2018 10:51:28 PM PDT by jdege
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: lgjhn23

You reminded me that I crossed that bridge last month and could not see any toll booths, I just got an additional $7.95 charge from my Rental Car company, I bet it’s that bridge toll.


36 posted on 04/14/2018 11:08:42 PM PDT by where's_the_Outrage? (Drain the Swamp. Build the Wall.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 16 | View Replies]

To: jdege

Marylanders who don’t have EZ-Pass will also pay the higher rates.


37 posted on 04/14/2018 11:54:16 PM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks (The US Constitution ....... Invented by geniuses and God .... Administered by morons ......)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 35 | View Replies]

To: Jonty30

“And if you don’t have a credit card and you only operate in cash?”

It all sounds far more invasive than requiring picture ID to vote, which as they have told us, is racist.


38 posted on 04/15/2018 1:32:02 AM PDT by Zack Attack
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: Jonty30

When you get the toll bill in the mail, you can send a check.


39 posted on 04/15/2018 3:46:21 AM PDT by exDemMom (Current visual of the hole the US continues to dig itself into: http://www.usdebtclock.org/)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: vooch

Maybe. But the tolls would be higher.


40 posted on 04/15/2018 5:08:41 AM PDT by Alter Kaker (Gravitation is a theory, not a fact. It should be approached with an open mind...)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 19 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-62 next last

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.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson