Rampy Posted February 16, 2019 Share Posted February 16, 2019 8 days ago I applied for a Massachusetts EZ pass for all the toll roads from Maine to North Carolina, and west to Illinois, without stopping to pay a toll & even to the Orland area of Florida....Was a real pain in the ass having to stop and pay cash at the toll booths & then paying cash is more expensive.... Was easy to get from MA, no monthly feels, no yearly fees just $20 per transponder and they ship it right out to you..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Retcop Posted February 16, 2019 Share Posted February 16, 2019 I have not used a toll booth in Illinois in about 25 years. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ewallover Posted February 16, 2019 Share Posted February 16, 2019 It’s amazing how much time one of those things can trim off a trip. Makes business travel a snap and from a record keeping perspective, our bookkeeper loves it. It just makes travel a little bit more pleasant. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alpo Posted February 16, 2019 Share Posted February 16, 2019 Those are great. Use to have one in the big truck when I was working and didn't even have to stop going around Chicago. Also worked for some scales, just get the green light and drive by. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
j-dub Posted February 16, 2019 Share Posted February 16, 2019 not bad at all for 20.00. I'd tell you about our 407 toll highway, but that's another horror story Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flesh Wound Posted February 16, 2019 Share Posted February 16, 2019 When I used to drive they were the best damn thing ever. It does shave a ton of time off. Years ago, 1998 I think, I worked for a contractor to CSC. We were IT support for The Maryland DOT. I was posted to support the headquarters campus for MdTA (Maryland Transportation Authority) That's the agency that owns and maintains the toll roads in MD. They were in the process of deployment of the "M-Tag" system. That morphed into EZ-Pass. Since I Was working there I had my M-Tag before you could even use it. Of course in those days you still had to go through the regular toll lanes but only stopped for a second or so. Later they built dedicated no-stop lanes at all of the tool bridges/tunnels. Now they even have roads where you have to have EZ-Pass to use them. No live toll takers. It was fun watching them test the readers. At the Francis Scott Key Bridge they'd close one of the big truck lanes and have a police car run through at increasing speeds to test the readers. They stopped testing when they could still read with the cop car running 85 MPH through the booth. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rampy Posted February 16, 2019 Author Share Posted February 16, 2019 9 hours ago, ewallover said: It’s amazing how much time one of those things can trim off a trip. Makes business travel a snap and from a record keeping perspective, our bookkeeper loves it. It just makes travel a little bit more pleasant. We live on I80 and take it all the way to Pittsburg if not further east & had long lines at all the cash only booths & was very slow, almost got a EZ pass at a couple places, but they were quite a bit more expensive, one lady in PA even told us to look at NY or MA as they sold to out of state & had no costs associated with getting one........ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rampy Posted February 16, 2019 Author Share Posted February 16, 2019 8 hours ago, j-dub said: not bad at all for 20.00. I'd tell you about our 407 toll highway, but that's another horror story From what I understand that $20 is for tolls & once you deplete it, it automatically bumps back up to $20 & when you send the ez pass back, they refund what you have in your account.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gmountain Posted February 16, 2019 Share Posted February 16, 2019 And you get to contribute to the state coffers of Massachusetts. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gmountain Posted February 16, 2019 Share Posted February 16, 2019 I won't get one. They don't need to know where I go and when I go. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rampy Posted February 17, 2019 Author Share Posted February 17, 2019 48 minutes ago, Gmountain said: And you get to contribute to the state coffers of Massachusetts. Compared to what I'd be paying in any other state I do not live in, MA was/is the cheapest for me, no other fees and a free transponder or 2...... No matter where we drive out east somebody is going to make money off our tolls, so why not use the cheapest place, paying cash the tolls are twice as much in some states, this way they get the least out of us possible, plus we don't pay for the transponder..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rampy Posted February 17, 2019 Author Share Posted February 17, 2019 57 minutes ago, Gmountain said: I won't get one. They don't need to know where I go and when I go. SunPass is the one you would need & they are $20 to buy one and it has a short warranty, thus when it dies you have to buy a new one, EZ pass out of MA gives you one for free and will exchange it for free with a new one when it stops working.... Per federal law all toll roads/electronic toll systems were to be interoperable in 2016, but Florida thinks the sun pass is special & now are saying possible sometime in 2019 they might have a agreement worked out to take the EZ pass.... they know where you go when you pay cash, they have license plate readers and track you, you don't want the pass to always transmit, but it in the RIFF bag it comes in and your safe, want to make sure, use a few layers of aluminum foil to reinforce the bag & block the signal...... We just need to figure out if its worth getting a SunPass, when we drove from Orlando to the keys the tolls were stupid expensive and I'm reading they are going up 1 March... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pepper Posted February 17, 2019 Share Posted February 17, 2019 Toll roads. That's an alien concept here. We already pay enough in taxes to maintain the roads/highways. If they cut taxes and registration fees when they put in a toll road, fine. But once a tax or fee gets established, it never goes away or gets reduced. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gshayd Posted February 18, 2019 Share Posted February 18, 2019 I used to take the feeder roads all the way to Houston Intercontinental when they stopped taking cash. Wanted me to get one for use 2 or 3 times a year. Now I have found out that since I have a disabled tag I can use them for free and I don't have to buy a pass it will read my liscense plate. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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