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Maine Turnpike Removing Exact-Change Machines

January 14, 2009 - PORTLAND -- Motorists who pay tolls with cash on the Maine Turnpike soon will be forced to have human interaction to do so.

This week, all the automated exact-change machines along the highway are being removed – in most cases replaced with dedicated E-ZPass lanes for motorists who pay tolls electronically.

Drivers who had been able to toss exact change into a basket now will have to wait in line with other cash customers at the manned booths.

The move is being cheered by some E-ZPass users and toll collectors, but causing confusion for some motorists without electronic transponders who wind up in E-ZPass lanes out of habit.

Turnpike officials gave no warning of the change, but put out a news release after being contacted by the Portland Press Herald.

"We should have provided more advance notice. The conversion crews worked very fast and got ahead of our communications effort," said Dan Paradee, turnpike spokesman.

The machines are being removed in response to the growing number of E-ZPass customers, who now will have 32 dedicated lanes, double the number available before the change. The measure will allow E-ZPass lanes to be added for the first time at some toll booths, such as in Biddeford.

About 50 percent of turnpike motorists pay tolls electronically.

"Generally speaking, this is overwhelmingly what our customers want," said Paradee.

The machines also are being removed in anticipation of the toll hikes that go into effect Feb. 1, when the price at many of the turnpike's 21 interchanges increase from 60 cents to $1.

Turnpike officials said that when tolls rise to $1 or above, fewer people use the exact change lanes, now used by about 10 percent of all motorists.

When tolls are $1, motorists also sometimes try to throw dollar bills rather than coins into the automatic machines, which jams them. That is why some toll collectors who empty the machines are happy to see them disappear.

Carl Gobeil, a toll collector at the Biddeford interchange, said bottle caps and other items often wind up in the machines.

"I found a dirty diaper once and a piece of pizza," he said.

Other states have started to phase out the machines as well. New Hampshire got rid of many when it raised tolls in 2007. With 60 percent of New Hampshire motorists using the electronic toll system, it made sense to get rid of the machines, said Harvey Goodwin, administrator of the N.H Bureau of Turnpikes.

Maine Turnpike officials say an analysis of each of the turnpike's interchanges shows that the removal of the machines will not cause any new traffic delays or require extra personnel to staff the manned toll booths.

Paradee said that is because the turnpike expects large numbers of motorists to start using E-ZPass when tolls increase next month, in order to take advantage of the lower rates available to electronic payers.

Katie Keener of Eliot, who was driving south on the turnpike Wednesday with her friend Joe MacGinnis of Eliot, said she had noticed confusion at the toll booths, generally in the left lanes where people expect to find automated coin machines.

But MacGinnis said adding more E-Z Pass lanes is a good idea.

"As long as they allow equal amounts of all-vehicle lanes, " he said.

Glenn DeMott of North Berwick, driving home in the snow from the Portland International Jetport after a vacation in Florida, said he would like to see even more cash lanes removed.

"It should be all E-ZPass," he said.

Paradee said that probably will never happen. He said that for safety reasons, the policy is to keep the traffic moving and avoid backups.

Turnpike officials warn cash-paying motorists who inadvertently find themselves in the E-ZPass lane against the dangerous practice of backing up or getting out of their cars to try to pay the toll at the next booth. He said motorists are not fined for inadvertently failing to pay a toll once.

"You have to violate it more than once before you get a notice," Paradee said.

By BETH QUIMBY, Staff Writer, Portland Press Herald, January 8, 2009


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