Massachusetts Sets EZ-Pass Mandate

Massachusetts’ New E-ZPass Mandate Will Penalize Drivers Who Pay Cash

E-ZPass has gone from an innovation to a necessity for many commuters, but the Massachusetts Turnpike authorities are taking things to a whole new level by charging drivers extra for not having one.

According to the Boston Herald, the action is not malicious, but practical. The state is moving to get rid of toll booth operators. Cars that have E-ZPass are easy to charge as they roll by. Cars that don’t will be more difficult to deal with — so Massachusetts is passing the extra cost onto the drivers of those cars themselves.

Electronic tolling, which will eliminate toll takers and install equipment along the Turnpike that reads drivers’ E-ZPass or license plate, is set to be operational in October 2016. Michael Verseckes, spokesman for the Massachusetts Department of Transportation, said officials haven’t decided how much to charge drivers for the “Pay by Plate” service required if drivers don’t have an E-ZPass.

“Surcharges on Pay by Plate customers should be sufficient to recover the cost of toll collection,” state officials wrote in a recent report on the upcoming tolling system, adding that the fine should not be “punitive,” or “generate revenue beyond covering costs.”

It’s sort of a Luddite Tax. A similar one exists in Maryland already — a bridge crossing will cost you $.80 more if you want to pay using actual dollars — and indeed this summer the state went one step further and decided to charge out-of-state E-ZPass users more too. Teach you to want to drive through Maryland, I guess?

Or Pennsylvania, where driving on a certain E-ZPass-only highway can cost you $65:

At a new E-ZPass-only interchange on the turnpike’s Northeast Extension in Carbon County, 4,537 motorists used the ramps without an E-ZPass between June 30 and July 13, ignoring large green-and-purple-and-yellow signs proclaiming “E-ZPass Tagholders Only.”

Now, each of them can expect a bill of $64.75 in the mail.

That includes a $25 administrative fee and a $39.75 toll based on the most distant exit on the turnpike: the Ohio border, 400 miles away.

(For a driver with E-ZPass, the lowest toll at the new ramp would be $1.07.)

About a quarter of all drivers in Massachusetts could be affected by the shift, though presumably some of them will cave at this point and affix one of those transponders to their windshields. Unless of course they don’t have a credit card, do have pressing privacy concerns, or can’t deal with the fees required by those innocuous-looking little beige boxes.

Support The Billfold

The Billfold continues to exist thanks to support from our readers. Help us continue to do our work by making a monthly pledge on Patreon or a one-time-only contribution through PayPal.