The time of paying for a toll with cash at the toll booths is soon coming to an end in Southern California, with May 13 being the last day to pay with cash on California State Routes 133, 241, 261, and 73. The cash toll lanes will be barricaded at 12:01 a.m. Wednesday, and in the long-term repurposed for truck and trailer use. Cash tolling has been on a steady decline through recent years, both in and out of state. The Golden Gate Bridge recently went cashless last year, with numerous toll roads throughout the country in states such as Florida either making or considering the switch to all-electronic tolling. The change leaves State Route 125 in San Diego as the last standing toll road in the state of California to accept cash at toll booths.


A motorist pays cash on California State Route 73 in one of the last transactions the booths will process. (Photo: © 2014 Vartan Simonian)


Electronic tolling is not new to Orange County; for years, motorists have had the option of using FasTrak, a pre-paid account that collects tolls via an electronic car-mounted transponder, to pay tolls. Currently, according to the TCA, over 82 percent of drivers on the toll roads in Orange County already use FasTrak. "We opened the first phase of the toll roads back in 1993, and we've always offered electronic payment," explains TCA Chief Communications Officer Lisa Telles. "[But] what we [found] with all of our research with all of our cash customers is that they all like the idea that FasTrak customers were not stopping… but the rules associated with FasTrak didn't work for them… So we're creating some more options for cash customers."

The additional options are paying with Express Accounts, a toll collection system introduced by the TCA in January. With Express Accounts, drivers have the option of paying tolls without the use of a transponder. As detailed by San Joaquin Hills Transportation Corridor Agency chairman and Newport Beach mayor Rush Hill, "cameras take high-resolution pictures of the front and rear license plates, and connect that to your personal Express Account… no transponders required."


Signs have been posted around the toll booths, both informing motorists of the impending changes, and offering incentives to apply for FasTrak transponders or the new Express Accounts. (Photo: © 2014 Vartan Simonian)


However, Express Accounts do more than eliminating the transponder requirement. Express Account holders have the option of not only a pre-paid account, as is mandatory with FasTrak, but also allowing the collection system to automatically charge their credit cards, as well as the option of receiving invoices. According to Lisa Telles, "about 22,000 people have already signed up for an Express Account, and that we expect to grow in the next couple of days as we actually remove the cash toll collection." In addition, for visitors, tourists, and the occasional toll road user, the "One-Time-Toll" option of paying a toll online or via The Toll Roads' mobile app has been added, so long as the payment is made within 48 hours afterwards.