How easy is it for a tourist to get an EZ Pass? In London, it’s trivial for a visitor to get an Oyster card.
I believe that an Oyster Pass is good on the bus and train system in London, but EZ Pass is for paying vehicle tolls on public highways (and not good on public transit).
The Miami. Florida area highway system uses a something called a “Sun Pass.” You can buy a Sun Pass at the largest grocery store chain (Publix) easily. However, it is not available at the airport. So you have find some way of getting from the airport to a Publix store without passing through a toll point. Once you pass through even one electronic toll point, the car rental company will charge you as if you used their toll payment service every day. The Dolphin Expressway has gone all-electronic. The last time I was on the Airport Expressway, you could still pay cash, but it seems like they intend to phase that out.
Every city has its own public transit fare payment system. Chicago has a fare card system developed by the same company that does the Oyster system. You can easily buy a fare card (called a “Ventra Card”) from vending machines in both airports for a $5 fee. After jumping through some hoops, you can get the $5 fee credited towards your transit card account, good for future transit purchases. (But not too far in the future, as there is a $5 inactivity fee after 18 months.)
They can restrict a road to people with Texas license plates? Doesn’t this violate the Interstate Commerce clause or possibly the 14th Amendment?
“No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States”
“TxTag” is the name of the toll system’s transponder.
EZ Pass’s Wikipedia entry mentions that all US electronic toll-collection systems will need to be interoperable by October 1, 2016, per a federal funding bill from 2012.
I think you mean the Peace Bridge, not Friendship Bridge (of which there are many, but none on that border). I read some years ago that different organizations in the EZ Pass system charged different fees for the transponder and account, and the Peace Bridge’s organization had the best deal at the time (maybe free?). I assume they got lots of out-of-area requests from people looking for a deal subsidized by other peoples’ taxes, and added the rule to keep their good deal to just the locals. It looks like nowadays they have New York State handle all that, so no more special deals.
Oh, and it looks like Canadians can now buy an EZ Pass transponder.