NEW YORK (VINnews/Sandy Eller) – Driving in Florida just got easier for residents of 18 eastern states now that the 900 miles of the Sunshine State’s toll roads have become part of the E-ZPass system.
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A statement released jointly on May 28th by the Florida Department of Transportation and Florida’s Turnpike Enterprise announced the reciprocal program that would allow the more than 40 million E-ZPass holders to use their tags at all Florida toll booths, while Floridians who purchase an upgraded Sunpass Pro can use their transponders wherever E-ZPass is accepted.
The announcement comes three and a half years after E-ZPass debuted in the Orlando area on the Central Florida Expressway’s 118 mile toll road network and is particularly welcome to the many members of the Jewish community who are frequent visitors to the state’s southernmost communities.
The new initiative is part of a larger national effort of toll interoperability and benefits drivers from Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, West Virginia and Virginia. The toll compatibility program will save E-ZPass drivers from paying surcharges if they travel the Sunshine State’s toll roads without a SunPass, providing welcome relief to both Florida vacationers and winter residents who hail from participating states.
E-ZPass executive director PJ Wilkins praised the announcement for providing a seamless travel experience.
“Our customers have long sought a solution where they can utilize a single toll account for their travels up and down the coast,” said Wilkins.
By law, toll roads have been required to accept a universal transponder throughout the United States since 2012, according to NBCLX (https://bit.ly/3c5XDYr). But the 130 tolling agencies spread across 34 states had no clear consensus how to create a workable system, and with no penalties instituted for failure to abide by the law, little changed even once the 2016 compliance deadline passed. Efforts are ongoing to bring other states on board, but former Congressman John Mica, who sponsored the 2012 universal transponder legislation, noted that it is bureaucracy, not technology, that is slowing the process down.
“There is no reason in the world it shouldn’t be interoperable by now,” said Mica. “We’re looking at…almost a decade after I passed the legislation…my message to my old colleagues is just ‘get ‘er done.’”