Transponders will become hot commodity in future

In the very near future, a new form of swap meet will be developing along our state's toll roads. Arranged by word of mouth, upraised printed signs or discrete ads on Craig's list, service areas parking lots accessible to both northbound and southbound traffic will become bustling centers of trade.

What will become the hot commodity? E-ZPass transponders, that's what.

Imagine: Into a Garden State Parkway service center will drive two cars. One man lives in Glen Rock and commutes to Red Bank every day for work. The other car carries a person who lives in Toms River, gets on the parkway at interchange 81 and travels to Kearny every day.

They meet by prearrangement during their morning commute to swap E-ZPass transponders. The driver from Glen Rock will exit at interchange 109 of the parkway using the transponder he was given. That transponder will register a toll for traveling the roadway between exits 81 to 109.

The Toms River man continues up the GSP and onto the NJ Turnpike. This driver exits at 15Wcausing that transponder to register a toll from the turnpike entrance number 18 to exit 15W.

The two drivers will meet again in the evening to swap back and both will pocket a large savings in tolls paid.

Far-fetched?

Not if one factors in the amount of money involved for the people who will be dependent on the turnpike and parkway to get to work, people whose commutation costs will be crippling by the proposed toll increases. I am not even hinting at what will be happening in the bus and truck portions of the traffic for those commercial vehicles that continue to use the toll roads. Realistically, most of the commercial will be driven off the toll roads and onto our already overcrowded local routes.

Not so far-fetched at all.

Thomas E. Scriven

Sea Bright