Cashless tolls studied for Garden State Parkway

Motorists might not need change to travel the Garden State Parkway.

Officials are exploring whether to switch to a cashless toll collection system as early as next summer.

The New Jersey Turnpike Authority has a contract with the toll collectors’ unions to eliminate the jobs by July 2013. The agency could hire a private company to collect the tolls or go cashless.

 

Under the cashless systems, motorists pay with E-ZPass or a photo is taken of their license plates and they get billed in the mail.

Turnpike Authority deputy executive director John O’Hern tells The Record newspaper officials are looking at the parkway first because it has fewer commercial and out-of-state motorists than the turnpike. O’Hern says there’s concern about collecting payments from non-New Jersey residents.