E Zpass

Toll rates for many Maryland bridges, tunnels and highways, including Baltimore's harbor crossings and the Bay Bridge, are set to rise over the next few years, reports Michael Dresser of Getting There . These higher tolls will be phased in, with the first increase set for October and a second in 2013. The Maryland Transportation Authority 's decision also includes some potential good news for E-ZPass users --- they intend to research the impact of a 10 percent discount on tolls.

Maryland Transportation Authority officials are warning of an email phishing scam that asks E-ZPass holders to pay their toll debts online. The MdTA posted a sample of one of the phony emails, which claimed that the driver was "in arrears" and instructed the driver to "service your debt in the shortest possible time. " The MdTA says this is a scam email that seeks to obtain personal information and should be deleted. E-ZPass never asks for personal information in an email. Anyone receiving such an email can report it to the E-ZPass Maryland Customer Service Center at 888-321-6824.

The O'Malley administration is all for enforcing infractions on state residents - but holds itself to an entirely less stringent moral and legal standard. The push to double E-ZPass fines is a case in point. The Maryland Transportation Authority (MdTA) would like to increase late fees for E-ZPass infractions to $50 and potentially suspend vehicle registrations for nonpayment in legislation yet to be introduced this session. For starters, the proposed punishment far exceeds the crime.

A three-year state audit of the Maryland Transportation Authority found significant problems with how the organization handles purchases and an inadequate "disaster recovery plan" if its E-ZPass toll collection system fails. The authority, which operates state toll facilities and transportation infrastructure such as the Chesapeake Bay Bridge for the Maryland Department of Transportation, said it is addressing the issues. The report, released Wednesday by the state's Office of Legislative Audits, reviewed the agency's operations between January 2010 and March 2013.

A Rosedale man lost his license plates this week after he was found to have accumulated more than $10,000 in unpaid tolls and penalties on Maryland roadways, the Maryland Transportation Authority said yesterday. John Russell Bright III, 50, was also charged with driving with a suspended registration. The motorist was caught up in the fourth of a series of Maryland Transportation Authority Police enforcement exercises aimed at cracking down on chronic toll violators who breeze through E-ZPass lanes without paying.

Maryland may eventually do away with tollbooths on the state's highways, bridges and tunnels and switch to electronic toll collection. A preliminary report by the Maryland Transportation Authority concluded that converting its seven toll plazas is feasible but would cost as much as $180 million. Transportation officials initiated the study as they look for long-term savings and ways to reduce travel time and increase highway safety. "It's something we're interested in doing.

toll facility current 2011 2012 2013 Commuter rates? Fort McHenry tunnel $2 each way $3   $4 $1.80 in 2012; $2.80 in 2013 Harbor Tunnel $2 each way $3   $4 $1.80 in 2012; $2.80 in 2013 Key Bridge $2 each way $3   $4 $1.80 in 2012; $2.80 in 2013 Bay Bridge $2.50 eastbound only $5 ...

Del. Jon Cardin said Wednesday that he has reached an agreement with the Maryland Transportation Authority that will pre-empt a bill he filed requiring the agency to report how much money it failed to collect because of toll violations in E-ZPass lanes. Cardin said he had negotiated an agreement with Harold Bartlett, executive secretary of the authority, that will bring more transparency to the agency's toll collection efforts. The Baltimore County Democrat said the authority agreed to post on its web site information about its fine collection efforts as well as the amounts of uncollected fines.

When the universal product code bridge stickers are no longer accepted for those of us who regularly cross the Susquehanna River on the Route 40 bridge between Havre de Grace and Perryville, a sad day will have come. When Maryland adopted the E-Zpass system a few years back, it wasn't hard to predict that certain other toll systems would come to an end. Within a few years one way or another of the inception of the E-Zpass system, the old dime tolls around Richmond, Va., became a thing of the past.

Holiday weekend traffic on the Bay Bridge flowed more smoothly than in the past as travelers appeared to heed suggestions to avoid peak hours, Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. said yesterday. "I want to take this opportunity to thank Marylanders for their performance in the Memorial Day weekend," said Ehrlich, who launched a campaign encouraging vacationers to go to the Eastern Shore earlier or stay later to avoid bridge congestion. Last Thursday between 1 p.m. and 3 p.m., an off-peak travel time, 10,000 vehicles crossed the bridge, the governor said, up from 4,300 during the same period a year ago. On Friday between 3 p.m. and 10 p.m., a period of typically heavy use, 17,000 vehicles traveled the bridge, down from 22,000 a year ago. Use of E-ZPass, the high-speed electronic toll system, is on the rise, contributing to smoother travel, the governor said.

What happens is this: Crews, cranes and concrete trucks converge on Interstate 95 for months and sometimes years, and the typical motorist, unhappy about having to drive on the American autobahn at any time - much less when it is being repaired - curses the nuisance. The motoring life - too many cars, too many nuts, not enough lanes, not enough time - is fraught with opportunities to be myopic, ungrateful and angry. Interstate 95 is, in some stretches, what the British call "particularly vexing.

Rush-hour commuters could pay nearly $5 a day in tolls to travel back and forth on a seven-mile stretch of express toll lanes set to open next year along Interstate 95 east and north of Baltimore, according to proposed pricing approved Thursday by the board of the Maryland Transportation Authority. The new lanes, scheduled to open late next year, would offer a quicker travel option for commuters willing to pay. The suggested tolls vary by the time of day and the type of vehicle, but a car traveling on the toll lanes during peak hours would pay between 25 cents and 35 cents per mile.

I don't agree with Marta Mossburg's usual columns in The Sun, but on the matter of toll collection, I can't help but agree ("In toll crackdown, punishment doesn't fit the crime," Jan. 30). This is government for, by and of the people just taking advantage of ordinary folks. What makes it so bad is that this kind of penalty fee gouging is rampant in our society. Bank fees and the stretching of speed camera laws in Baltimore City, which goes well beyond the stated goal of protecting schoolchildren, are other prime examples.

Del. Jon Cardin said Wednesday that he has reached an agreement with the Maryland Transportation Authority that will pre-empt a bill he filed requiring the agency to report how much money it failed to collect because of toll violations in E-ZPass lanes. Cardin said he had negotiated an agreement with Harold Bartlett, executive secretary of the authority, that will bring more transparency to the agency's toll collection efforts. The Baltimore County Democrat said the authority agreed to post on its web site information about its fine collection efforts as well as the amounts of uncollected fines.

The O'Malley administration is all for enforcing infractions on state residents - but holds itself to an entirely less stringent moral and legal standard. The push to double E-ZPass fines is a case in point. The Maryland Transportation Authority (MdTA) would like to increase late fees for E-ZPass infractions to $50 and potentially suspend vehicle registrations for nonpayment in legislation yet to be introduced this session. For starters, the proposed punishment far exceeds the crime.

Maryland transportation officials say they are stepping up efforts to collect more than $6 million in tolls that have gone unpaid in the past five years, including hundreds of thousands owed by car rental companies that have ignored the state's bills. In response to questioning by Comptroller Peter Franchot, Acting Transportation Secretary Darrell B. Mobley pledged Wednesday to use all means at the disposal of the Maryland Transportation Authority to enforce its tolls. Franchot, speaking at a meeting of the Board of Public Works, pressed Mobley about a report in The Washington Post that the authority has been failing to collect tolls from many motorists who go through its toll turnstiles without E-ZPass transponders.

We Marylanders understand that there are two types of people in this state: those who make the laws, and those who are forced to follow them. The recent proposal by the Maryland Transportation Authority to raise tolls hits hard in all areas of the state, but hardest hit are Cecil and Harford counties. These two counties are remarkably intertwined; you don't realize how much one county depends on the other unless you actually live there. I hope to illustrate that the percentage of the increase these two counties will bear is far greater than that of any toll in Maryland and also requires an unending investment in the state's E-ZPass system.

Maryland transportation officials say they are stepping up efforts to collect more than $6 million in tolls that have gone unpaid in the past five years, including hundreds of thousands owed by car rental companies that have ignored the state's bills. In response to questioning by Comptroller Peter Franchot, Acting Transportation Secretary Darrell B. Mobley pledged Wednesday to use all means at the disposal of the Maryland Transportation Authority to enforce its tolls. Franchot, speaking at a meeting of the Board of Public Works, pressed Mobley about a report in The Washington Post that the authority has been failing to collect tolls from many motorists who go through its toll turnstiles without E-ZPass transponders.

The Maryland Transportation Authority says more than 26,000 E-ZPass Hatem Bridge plans have been opened since February, and this is the final week to sign up and save money on next year's renewal. MDTA is urging Hatem Bridge users to sign up for one of the Hatem Bridge E-ZPass plans now and avoid the rush as the Sept. 30 deadline to use AVI decals approaches. "Customers who open an E-ZPass Hatem Bridge Plan before July 1, 2012, will save $10 on renewals next year because their plans will renew before the price changes to $20 on July 1, 2013," MDTA Executive Secretary Harold M. Bartlett said in a news release Wednesday.

Maryland may eventually do away with tollbooths on the state's highways, bridges and tunnels and switch to electronic toll collection. A preliminary report by the Maryland Transportation Authority concluded that converting its seven toll plazas is feasible but would cost as much as $180 million. Transportation officials initiated the study as they look for long-term savings and ways to reduce travel time and increase highway safety. "It's something we're interested in doing.