By Larry Higgs | NJ Advance Media

The New Jersey ritual of the toll basket coin toss is over.

Before there was E-Z Pass, drivers who wanted to pay their Garden State Parkway tolls quickly slam dunked quarters in the exact change lane toll basket and sped away.

Not anymore.

The last Parkway exact change lanes closed Monday at the Asbury Park toll plaza in Tinton Falls and were converted to full service and E-Z Pass lanes.

From now on, the choices are to wait in the “full service” lane, where someone takes the toll, or get an E-ZPass to pay.

Video may have killed the radio star, but E-ZPass made the exact change lane extinct as a T-Rex.

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(Larry Higgs | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com)

When was the decision made to end the exact change lanes?

It was announced on Sept. 12 by New Jersey Turnpike Authority officials. The Authority runs the Parkway.

Crews started systematically removing toll baskets and coin machines from mainline toll plazas starting on Sept. 24. Workers above are shown finishing the job Monday afternoon by installing a "full service" sign after removing the baskets, coin machines and signs from the Asbury Park toll plaza in Tinton Falls.

The familiar red cash lane signs also disappeared along with the exact change lanes. All cash customers will now use the full service lane.

Exact change lanes will not totally disappear.

They’ll continue to be used on the Parkway's 23 entry and exit ramps where it's not economical to have a toll collector on-duty 24/7. But toll baskets are now banished from the mainline highway.

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Why ditch the coin basket?

Slam dunking a fist full of coins in the exact change basket may be quick, but E-Z Pass is quicker and more popular.

About 85 percent of drivers pay Parkway tolls with an E-ZPass, 10 percent of drivers pay cash in a full service lane, leaving a meager five percent using exact change, said Tom Feeney, a turnpike authority spokesman.

Does that mean officials expect a spike in new E-ZPass accounts?

"Maybe, or they'll use the cash lanes," Feeney said. "There is no expectation there will be an uptick because of this."

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Why are they going away?

Making the decision to ditch the coin basket is a big deal. So big, that three academics wrote a research paper about ditching coins and cash and going electronic.

No surprise, it found electronic methods, such as E-ZPass. collected tolls the fastest, followed by exact change. Full service cash lanes were the slowest.

It’s no surprise that study was based on an examination of the Raritan Toll Plaza on the Parkway.

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(Larry Higgs | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com)

Why else are exact change lanes going away?

Another reason for replacing exact change lanes on the busy Parkway mainline is the machines that actually count the change, coin by coin, are old, cranky and hard to get parts for, Feeney said.

“Most are from the 1990’s. The manufacturers have not made parts for them for some time,” Feeney said. “Even the secondary market is difficult.”

It doesn’t help when drivers throw other stuff in the basket like slugs, foreign coins, garbage, a fish and used kitty litter. Yes, a driver, who lived in his van with a cat. used to dump a scoop full of used litter in the basket at the Red Bank toll plaza on a regular basis, Feeney said.

He was caught and prosecuted.

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Where can you still drop a coin in the basket?

It's hard to get an exact count, said Bill Cramer, spokesman for the International Bridge, Tunnel and Turnpike Association.

Of the 129 toll operators and 334 toll facilities in 35 states, 198 toll facilities collect some form of cash, in addition to electronic toll payments, he said. There are 20 facilities that accept cash only, these are mostly smaller bridges, where no electronic payment is accepted, Cramer said.

The South Carolina-Palmetto Parkway, the Central Florida Expressway and toll roads in West Virginia still let drivers drop their coins in a basket to pay tolls.

Virginia, Pennsylvania, Kansas, Ohio, New Hampshire and others are reducing the number of cash lanes and moving to all electronic tolling, Cramer said.

Only three of Virginia’s 15 toll roads and bridges have coin machines, according to state toll road website. Florida’s Turnpike still has some exact change lanes, but not everywhere, which is a sign they may be disappearing soon. The Miami section of that turnpike no longer accepts cash, according to the website.

The nine toll roads that make up the Pennsylvania Turnpike charge tolls based on where drivers enter and exit the highway. Cash is only accepted on four of the toll roads, according to the authority website.

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Who else has ditched exact change?

The Parkway has one entirely cashless toll at Exit 125 from the Parkway south.

Drivers who don't have an E-ZPass and use Exit 125 are sent a violation notice, which carries a $50 administrative fee and charges $1.50 for the toll. Large signs warn drivers it is an E-ZPass only exit.

The Parkway isn't alone. Our neighboring state of New York has given cash the heave-ho.

The Empire State is also the empire of cashless tolling. Drivers use E-ZPass or pay a toll by mail after a bill arrives. That includes the MTA bridges and tunnels in the city.

Going cashless is the current trend, Cramer said.

“States are and have been moving to all-electronic tolling for more than two decades,” he said. “States like Massachusetts and Colorado accept no cash and are all electronic.”

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(New Jersey Turnpike Authority photo)

Why doesn't New Jersey ditch cash entirely?

Kicking the cash habit isn't easy. The Parkway has let drivers pay tolls with exact change for more than 60 years.

Officials had plans to move to cashless toll collection, starting with the Parkway and Atlantic City Expressway. But toll road officials have stepped on the brakes.

One reason is concerns that unscrupulous drivers would do the highway equivalent of the “dine and dash” by zipping through cashless toll lanes.

Yes, a bill comes in the mail for the “cashless toll,” but if the driver is from another state, New Jersey has no enforcement power to get them to pay, turnpike officials fear.

The state doesn’t have agreements with other states to take punitive measures against out-of-state toll scofflaws, such as suspending their ability to renew their vehicle registration.

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Will we ever get cashless tolls here?

Pencil a big question mark next to that.

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey is replacing old toll equipment at its bridges and tunnels with technology that is capable of cashless collection.

They've started cashless toll collection at the Bayonne Bridge, but haven't said when they plan to do it at the big three, the Lincoln and Holland tunnels and the George Washington Bridge.

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Read More:

Parkway eliminates exact change toll collection after decades of debate.

Parkway exit goes cashless after only three people object.



Why N.J.'s toll plazas aren't going away anytime soon.

Port Authority wants to go after your license, registration if you cheat on tolls.

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