Justice
You May Never Need to Pay Cash at a Tollbooth Again
Since the emergence of E-Z Pass twenty years ago, toll passes have remained largely a regional game. Not for long.
North Carolina and Florida recently announced that their toll transponders — those little dashboard or windshield devices that pay your tolls electronically — are now interchangeable. The agreement may not seem like much to drivers who don't live in Florida SunPass or Carolina Quick Pass territory. But it's actually the latest step toward a fully interoperable tolling system that will accept every local pass, whatever it may be, anywhere across the country.
"Now with people going cashless, it's more important that all this stuff work together," says J.J. Eden, president of the Alliance for Toll Interoperability, a non-profit group leading the march toward a national transponder network.