Toll avoidance scheme wouldn't work
Aletter on Feb. 14 suggests that tolls on the turnpike and parkway can be avoided if drivers traveling in opposite directions exchange E-ZPass transponders at a point between each of their entry and exit points.

Aside from whether the scheme is legal, the scheme will not work given the way the turnpike and parkway are configured.

For the parkway, each driver will go through a certain number of toll plazas with one of the E-ZPass transponders. The total amount of toll money registered on the two transponders together is equal to the sum of the tolls at the plazas the two cars go through. Assuming each transponder is registered to one of the drivers, exchanging the transponders in the way suggested may cause the amount of toll money registered on one transponder to increase and the amount on the other to decrease, but the increase and decrease will be equal. The total amount of toll money the state collects will remain the same.

For the turnpike, there are no rest areas common to the two directions where the drivers could meet to exchange transponders after they have entered but before they have exited. Therefore, any transponder used to enter is also used to exit, and the correct toll amount for the trip is registered. (The northern-most rest area is common to both directions; however, that rest area is north of the final toll plaza. If the drivers met there, one would have already exited and the other would not yet have entered.)

In the example given in the letter, the Toms River driver travels north on the parkway with the Glen Rock driver's transponder, enters the turnpike, and exits the turnpike at exit 15W. The writer claims that the transponder will register a toll from the entrance at 18 to exit 15W. This is not correct; the transponder will register a toll from wherever the Toms River driver enters (likely exit 11) to exit 15W. If the Glen Rock driver did use the turnpike earlier and entered at exit 18, the transponder would previously have registered a toll from exit 18 to wherever the Glen Rock driver exited (likely exit 11).

If the turnpike did have rest areas common to both directions, such a scheme could work if the drivers met at a common rest area (aside from the question of legality) because the turnpike collects tolls based on entry and exit points rather than toll plazas traversed at various intermediate points (as on the parkway). However, the turnpike does not have common rest areas and, therefore, the scheme as proposed will not work.

Geoffrey Garner

Red Bank