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PA Turnpike kissing cash good-bye in trial run, report says
Alex Young | For NJ.com By Alex Young | For NJ.com
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on July 09, 2015 at 9:15 AM, updated July 09, 2015 at 9:22 AM

File Photo Robert Sciarrino/The Star-Ledger

The opening of the Pennsylvania Turnpike's first all-electronic toll facility in Bucks County early next year could be the first step in eliminating all toll collectors along the route, according to a report by The Philadelphia Inquirer.
When turnpike tolls are increased by 6-percent in January, the new electronic toll facility at the Delaware River Bridge will charge $5 for vehicles with E-ZPass and $6.75 for those without.
However, those drivers won't be handing over any cash. Instead, they will be billed by mail based on their license plates. If people don't pay their toll notices, they will be handed over to a collection agency, according to the report.
The Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission will study the facility — as well as a facility planned to open next year outside of Pittsburgh — before all-electronic tolling is put in place along the entire turnpike, according to the report.

It won't work. They will have to maintain at least 1 cash tollbooth for people who only use the Pike on one or two occasions throughout the year. What if you're driving a rental??? And if you throw a little mud on your plates you got them beat. We have easy pass here in Ohio but you buy it in advance and the machine reads a paid RFID card you attach to your windshield, I think. But we have automated cash toll machines now too for those without EZ Pass.

Hmmmm??? Something smells fishy...

By eliminating the toll booth collectors (more middle class jobs zapped - SWOOSH!), they would be saving tens of millions, maybe even hundreds of millions of dollars...especially if we factored in the pensions. So...

Shouldn't the toll prices go DOWN, instead of RISING?! Further...

While the no cash option is certainly convenient, I don't like the whole idea of being linked & monitored via my license plate. Just another tracking device, IMO. At this point it doesn't matter either way, as with the advent of cell phones, credit cards and all of the other stuff, being under constant surveillance is old news, but why make it easier for them?!

The ONLY good part of that is, no room for error...

I once accidentally threw a merc & barber I found, into the damn bin while scrounging for change in my car!

Joe

Wow, a merc and a barbar? That hurts big time -

I thought the 1950 D nickel was a horrible thing to give up, I never got another one in my change.....

We are headed towards a cashless society. In theory it makes total sense. In detecting it blows because there will be less clad to collect.

Yeah, I was really hoping that the presidential coins would take off. They are fun to find.