Seen at Toll Roads News:
Some of the busiest toll facilities in America could go cashless if a study and design effort is positive. The Port Authority New York New Jersey (PANYNJ) has embarked on a two year $9m “study and preliminary design” for all-electronic toll collection. This would mean the elimination of existing toll plazas and their replacement by overhead gantries bearing transponder readers and license plate imaging cameras.
The Port Authority operates (among other operations) the bridges and tunnels across the Hudson into Manhattan.
If you’ve had the pleasure of driving into the City from New Jersey, you’re no doubt familiar with the bottleneck you traverse when crossing the Hudson. I’d think that the act of traffic scattering to pass through a collection of toll booths, only to re-merge back into the appropriate number of lanes for the crossing…except the congestion exists both ways even when tolls are collected in only one direction.
Given the almost ubiquitous nature of EZPass transponders on vehicles in the metro area, the New Jersey Turnpike’s and Garden State Parkway’s seemingly successful high-speed toll lanes, the shift to all-electronic tolling seems like a no-brainer to me.