Politics & Government

Cash Toll Collection to End Next Year on the Tobin

Tolls on the Tobin Bridge will be collected electronically - without any cash payments to toll collectors - starting next year.

Salem commuters headed to Boston across the Tobin Bridge won't have to stop to pay the toll starting next year, the state Department of Transportation announced on Monday.

MassDOT said it is making plans for “All Electronic Tolling” on the Tobin Bridge, a form of toll collection that means drivers don’t have to stop or slow down to pay the toll. There will be several informational meetings to explain the program to North Shore commuters and answer questions about it. The closest meeting will be held in Salem on Tuesday, June 18 at 6 p.m.

The new program is about six month away. Starting in early 2014, drivers will not have the option to stop at a tollbooth and pay the toll with cash on the Tobin Bridge. Instead, tolls will be collected electronically - either by an E-ZPass transponder or by a camera that takes a picture of the license plate and the vehicle’s registered owner is billed by mail.

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Currently, drivers pay a $3 toll if using cash and $2.50 if they use an EZ-Pass.

A contractor has been selected – MassDOT didn’t say the name of the company in Monday’s announcement - to install the system.

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“With the implementation of this innovative form of toll collection we are saying to our customers that their time is valuable,” said MassDOT Secretary and CEO Richard A. Davey in the announcement. “We are also increasing safety and reducing greenhouse gas emissions by cutting congestion and the time spent idling at the cash booth.”

The benefits of the new program include reduced congestion, increased safety and cutting greenhouse gas emissions, according to MassDOT.

Before the new collection system goes into place, MassDOT is pushing for drivers to join E-ZPass.

EZ-Pass has been used on the Tobin Bridge since the late 1990s, but MassDOT says that 4.1 million drivers paid using cash last year – an average of more than 11,000 vehicles per day. MassDOT didn’t say what percentage of the total number of vehicles that pass through the tolls still use cash, but called it a “significant portion.”

Because of that, MassDOT is planning a new North Shore Customer Walk-In Center – they did not yet say where – and also will put a new mobile E-ZPass registration vehicle on the road this summer.

E-ZPass transponders are also available at 17 AAA branches and 20 Registry of Motor Vehicles branches or can be ordered online: www.Mass.gov/EZPassMA.


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