How to have tolls without tollbooths

All electronic tolling would be a first for the region on a major roadway such as I-95

The Scudder’s Falls Bridge that carries I-95 from New Jersey into Pennsylvania near Trenton will include tolls once a major reconstruction project is done. Paying the toll will mostly be invisible–that is until the bill comes.

For those who don’t have an EZPass account, the Scudder’s Falls Bridge will take pictures of license plates and mail a bill to the car’s owner. It’s a common practice for catching people trying to cheat the system, but usually there is a tollbooth where drivers can pay cash. There won’t be at Scudder’s Falls.

Patrick Jones is CEO of the International Bridge Tunnel and Turnpike Commission. He says the system has worked in Texas.

“In the North Texas Tollway authority in the Dallas area they have a program that is essentially image based tolling where you can sign up in advance to paying your tolls by having the equipment take a picture of your license plate and send you a bill.”

The Delaware River Port Authority that runs bridges around Philadelphia has also received a consultants report calling for eliminating human toll collectors by 2014. The authority is working on how to implement the idea.