Since the EZ-Pass is basically unavailable to Canadian residents (unless you are regular user of the Friendship Bridge at Buffalo), my son who lives in Boston got an extra pass and registered my car, with Quebec licence plate, as the extra user. Last summer I drove to Long Beach Island and back and at one of the toll areas on the Garden State, I got message: Pass didn’t register, continue driving (I don’t recall the exact wording, but that was the import of the message). So I did and expected to get a notice in the mail asking me to pay the toll and a fine. It is now three months later and nothing. My son has this idea that they have a database of all registered users, found my car on the list when they looked at the photo and automatically deducted the missing toll. I guess it is possible. Does anyone know if they actually work that way? Since there were a lot of tolls on that particular trip, I really cannot tell from the bill.
Not sure about your bridge or organization, but in Maryland, that is just what happens.
That’s how it works in Illinois with IPass, as well. The system takes photos of all cars passing through the toll plaza. If you go through an automated lane and there isn’t a triggered response from a transponder (either because it didn’t successfully read your transponder, or because there wasn’t actually a transponder in the vehicle), they check your plate (from the photo) against the database of registered transponders and their corresponding plates. If they find a match, they just place that toll deduction against the appropriate transponder’s account.
Yes, I guess that is what happened. I certainly never got a request to pay.
That’s how it works in California with FasTrak, our version of electronic toll. For many years I had a job where I had to commute across a toll bridge every day, so I got to know it very well. Usually the transponder worked but once in a while it wouldn’t be detected. I never got a fine or notice of any kind in the mail; they just read my license plate and charged my account that way.
I could tell because I got a quarterly statement in the mail, and for each charge it listed whether it was from the transponder or from the license plate.