In a departure from other toll authorities in the Tri-State area, the Delaware River Port Authority will not go cashless and switch to all-electronic toll collection on its bridges between Pennsylvania and New Jersey.
“We have no plans to go to all electronic tolls,” authority CEO John T. Hanson said in an interview with NJ Advance Media. “We’re not doing away with cash collection.”
The authority operates four bridges, the Ben Franklin, Walt Whitman and Betsy Ross bridges, linking New Jersey and Philadelphia; and the Commodore Barry bridge connecting Chester, Pennsylvania, with Bridgeport.
Hanson said the decision to keep accepting cash toll payments is for social equity and safety reasons. For the working poor and others with fixed income who use the bridges, they may not have the financial ability to get an E-ZPass.
“We also like that people have to slow down for the toll lanes,” Hanson said. “We’re not looking to speed up anyone going across the bridges.”
There are good reasons for that. The Ben Franklin Bridge puts traffic on city streets in Center City Philadelphia. Walt Whitman Bridge traffic encounters a busy interchange between Route 76 and Route 95 on the Philly side of the river.
While drivers have options to use “free” highways to bypass toll roads, there is no similar option to cross the river between New Jersey and Philadelphia, he said.
“When you’re a road like the Pennsylvania Turnpike or the New Jersey Turnpike, where there is a free way option, people have a choice, do they want to pay a toll or take the free way,” Hanson said. “For bridge crossings, if you want to cross the river, you’ve got to cross the bridge. There is no free way.”
The entire Pennsylvania Turnpike is now using all electronic, cashless toll collection. Those who used to pay cash now are covered by a “toll by plate” function where the vehicle license plate is read and a bill for the toll is sent to the register owner of the vehicle.
The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey completed implementing cashless tolling in December when the last of its six crossings, the Lincoln Tunnel, went all electronic.
The Atlantic City Expressway just let a contract to convert its toll plazas to all electronic toll collection, using a system that could be rolled out on the New Jersey Turnpike and Garden State Parkway in the future.
Similar to most toll agencies, the majority of authority customers pay with E-ZPass. In February, $18.16 million was collected using E-ZPass and $5.04 million was paid in cash.
Hanson cited financial reasons why some drivers may not be able to afford to use E-ZPass.
“There are people who simply can’t afford a bill that comes at the end of the month,” he said. “They may have the $5 to cross today, but if we send them a bill for $100 at the end of the month, they’d struggle with that.”
The working poor and people working minimum wage jobs may not be able get an E-ZPass because they lack bank accounts or the funds needed for automatic replenishment of an E-ZPass account, he said.
The issue of the unbanked and underbanked customers has led other agencies to provide cash options in an increasing world of electronic payment for transportation.
NJ Transit rolled out a option in March that would allow people to load cash on the mobile app and use it to buy train and bus fares instead of fumbling with bills and coins or finding a ticket vending machine.
“We believe that we have an obligation and we will always have an obligation to provide a cash way for them to cross the bridges,” Hanson said.
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Larry Higgs may be reached at [email protected].