EZ Pass/I-Pass in Illinois

[Glen Brannon]

You can now use you EZ Pass on the Illinois tollway system. I have a
PrePass Plus with comes with EZ Pass. I did not have an I-Pass with me. I
used to manual lane to pay my $1.25 for trucks. The blue light lit up and
the cashier motioned me to go on. I guess I looked puzzelled to him and he
pointed the Ez Pass. I went to the next toll plaza, and got the blue light
to go thru.

Have fun

[michael d]

Post by Glen Brannon
You can now use you EZ Pass on the Illinois tollway system. I have a
PrePass Plus with comes with EZ Pass. I did not have an I-Pass with me. I
used to manual lane to pay my $1.25 for trucks. The blue light lit up and
the cashier motioned me to go on. I guess I looked puzzelled to him and he
pointed the Ez Pass. I went to the next toll plaza, and got the blue light
to go thru.
Have fun

Well yes Trucks can but automobiles can't yet. Though they have set
aside the $250,000 fee needed to join the ez-pass consortium as part of
their 2004 budget in case they do decide after the first of the year to
join ez-pass.

[Rush Wickes]

Post by Glen Brannon
You can now use you EZ Pass on the Illinois tollway system. I have a
PrePass Plus with comes with EZ Pass. I did not have an I-Pass with me.

I

Post by Glen Brannon
used to manual lane to pay my $1.25 for trucks. The blue light lit up and
the cashier motioned me to go on. I guess I looked puzzelled to him and he
pointed the Ez Pass. I went to the next toll plaza, and got the blue light
to go thru.

PrePass is built on a 'fusion' tag system which has the ability to store
toll transponder account information from various entities on a single tag.
It is currently available for truckers only, who would need that reciprocity
capability more than most automobile traffic would. Eventually, the ISTHA
will merge their I-Pass operation into the Interagency Group E-ZPass for
automobiles, which would mean dropping the IPass brand and sharing account
information. I believe they are waiting until Indiana gets a little closer
to implementing E-ZPass on the East-West Toll Road before taking the plunge
themselves.

--
Rush Wickes -- remove the '=' to reply via e-mail
Blacksburg, VA

[Christopher Blaney]

Post by Rush Wickes
PrePass is built on a 'fusion' tag system which has the ability to store
toll transponder account information from various entities on a single tag.
It is currently available for truckers only, who would need that reciprocity
capability more than most automobile traffic would. Eventually, the ISTHA
will merge their I-Pass operation into the Interagency Group E-ZPass for
automobiles, which would mean dropping the IPass brand and sharing account
information. I believe they are waiting until Indiana gets a little closer
to implementing E-ZPass on the East-West Toll Road before taking the plunge
themselves.

I'm going to go "out on a limb" and make the prediction that by 2008, the
entire Turnpike Complex of states, from Maine to Illinois, will be on
E-ZPass or E-ZPass compatible systems. They are:

Maine
New Hampshire
Massachusetts (FastLane/E-ZPass)
New York
New Jersey
Pennsylvania
Delaware
Maryland (M-Tag/E-ZPass)
Virginia (Smart Tag/E-ZPass)
West Virginia
Ohio
Indiana (E-ZPass/I-Pass)
Illinois (E-ZPass/I-Pass)

I suspect Ind. and Ill. will dual-brand their systems just like
Massachusetts and Maryland has, and Virginia will.

With North Carolina possibly getting some toll roads, and S.C. having
"isolated" sections of toll roads, and many snowbirds living in Florida, I
suspect that Florida, for starters, will eventually join their
SunPass/E-Pass to E-ZPass. S.C. may very well join later, or perhaps not. If
N.C. gets toll roads then I suspect they'll use Smart Tag/E-ZPass as well.

The other ETC states that won't join E-ZPass for many years will be Kansas,
Oklahoma, Texas, Colorado, and California. They're widespread enough and
their toll roads are localized enough so that their systems will not need to
interconnect.

If we ever get a "national" toll road network of what I would call
"Interstate Plus" roads, transcontinental highways built to even more
aggressive standards than the current Interstates, then I would see a
national standard forming using Mark IV or successor technology and
E-ZPass's backbone.

Chris Blaney

[Rush Wickes]

Post by Christopher Blaney
I suspect Ind. and Ill. will dual-brand their systems just like
Massachusetts and Maryland has, and Virginia will.

Actually, Maryland has completely dropped the 'M-TAG' brand name from their
electronic toll system. It is now entirely 'E-ZPass Maryland'. The
reason the M-TAG name was initially used was to establish the basic
operations of the system for the benefit of Baltimore-area crossing regular
commuters before launching the full-fledged system that was connected to the
Interagency Group and E-ZPass.

I would guess that Virginia will drop the Smart Tag name for their system a
little while after joining E-ZPass. I recently transferred the ownership
rights for the domain of www.ezpassva.com to the agency that operates the
service center and operations for Smart Tag.

--
Rush Wickes -- remove the '=' to reply via e-mail
Blacksburg, VA

[Wesley McGee]

Post by Rush Wickes

Post by Christopher Blaney
I suspect Ind. and Ill. will dual-brand their systems just like
Massachusetts and Maryland has, and Virginia will.

Actually, Maryland has completely dropped the 'M-TAG' brand name from their
electronic toll system. It is now entirely 'E-ZPass Maryland'. . . .
I would guess that Virginia will drop the Smart Tag name for their system a
little while after joining E-ZPass. I recently transferred the ownership
rights for the domain of www.ezpassva.com to the agency that operates the
service center and operations for Smart Tag.

Too bad the consortium or whomever didn't snatch up www.e-zpass.com.
Though whomever does own the site was magnanimous to simply turn it
into portal for three of the agencies in the club. Unfortunately, it
looks unprofessional.

However, the official punctuation will always grate on me. Who
puncuates that way? E -dash- ZPass ?!!

[Jeff Kitsko]

Post by Rush Wickes
I would guess that Virginia will drop the Smart Tag name for their system a
little while after joining E-ZPass. I recently transferred the ownership
rights for the domain of www.ezpassva.com to the agency that operates the
service center and operations for Smart Tag.

So how much of a profit did you make? :-)

[Rush Wickes]

Post by Jeff Kitsko

Post by Rush Wickes
I would guess that Virginia will drop the Smart Tag name for their

system

Post by Jeff Kitsko
a

Post by Rush Wickes
little while after joining E-ZPass. I recently transferred the ownership
rights for the domain of www.ezpassva.com to the agency that operates the
service center and operations for Smart Tag.

So how much of a profit did you make? :-)

None. The very fact that Virginia's Smart Tag will be compatible with
E-ZPass at last is satisfaction enough.

--
Rush Wickes -- remove the '=' to reply via e-mail
Blacksburg, VA

[Scott M. Kozel]

Post by Rush Wickes

Post by Christopher Blaney
I suspect Ind. and Ill. will dual-brand their systems just like
Massachusetts and Maryland has, and Virginia will.

Actually, Maryland has completely dropped the 'M-TAG' brand name from their
electronic toll system. It is now entirely 'E-ZPass Maryland'. The
reason the M-TAG name was initially used was to establish the basic
operations of the system for the benefit of Baltimore-area crossing regular
commuters before launching the full-fledged system that was connected to the
Interagency Group and E-ZPass.
I would guess that Virginia will drop the Smart Tag name for their system a
little while after joining E-ZPass. I recently transferred the ownership
rights for the domain of www.ezpassva.com to the agency that operates the
service center and operations for Smart Tag.

"M-Tag" was IMO kind of a dinky sounding name... I'm glad that they
changed it to E-ZPass. "Smart Tag" is a more substantial sounding name,
but I would also surmise that they will eventually adopt the E-ZPass
name.

--
Scott M. Kozel Highway and Transportation History Websites
Virginia/Maryland/Washington, D.C. http://www.roadstothefuture.com
Philadelphia and Delaware Valley http://www.pennways.com