JAMESTOWN – Motorists be warned, the Rhode Island Turnpike and Bridge Authority has instated a $2 per axle fee for E-Z pass users, instead of the discounted rate, if they need a RITBA employee to raise the gate at the Newport Pell Bridge, the authority announced Wednesday.
At least 100 times every day, someone with an unmounted E-Z Pass transponder causes delays at the toll bridge, RITBA explained about the new charge which is already in effect. Most passenger cars will pay a total fee of $4 instead of the E-Z Pass discounted rate.
“We are trying to drive behavior. We’re saying: if you’re not going to use the E-Z Pass properly then you’re not going to get the savings,” said Buddy Croft, executive director of RITBA, to Providence Business News. “The revenue that we are going to generate is not significant for us; the benefit for other motorists and RITBA employees is much greater.”
Motorists that use the transponder in multiple vehicles (which is permitted) need to mount the device every time, said RITBA, which handles about 72,000 E-Z pass accounts.
“We try to be sensitive to the public as a whole; we found that a small number of folks were costing money unnecessarily,” Croft observed.
The majority of the public reacted to the news by requesting information on how to properly mount the transponders, Croft said, noting that the average 100 daily calls jumped to 225 calls on Wednesday. RITBA informed users through the E-Z pass e-mail list.
This newly instated fee seems to be a one-time occurrence for RITBA; currently there are no other motorist behaviors that would warrant a similar fee, Croft added.
RITBA added staff when E-Z Pass was first instated to help motorists learn the system; it was originally planned to phase-out the additional employees after a set period of time but hasn’t done so yet. If RITBA finds that the fee decreases the number of E-Z Pass incidents, RITBA may re-evaluate the status of the additional personnel.
