Where Can You Use a Pennsylvania-Issued E-ZPass?
A Pennsylvania E-ZPass is a radio-frequency transponder mounted in your vehicle, enabling automatic toll payment at collection points on roads, bridges, and tunnels. It works with toll agencies across more than a dozen states, spanning from northern Illinois to New England. The device charges your account as you pass, eliminating the need for cash or coins.
By Harper Mitchell
New York's Verrazano-Narrows Bridge takes the Pennsylvania E-ZPass.
The Pennsylvania E-ZPass lets drivers handle tolls on highways, bridges, and tunnels without stopping or searching for cash or change. This radio-frequency transponder is installed in your vehicle, and whenever you go through a toll-collection point, the amount is deducted from your account automatically. If you obtain an E-ZPass from Pennsylvania, toll agencies in over twelve other states will recognize it, covering an area that stretches from northern Illinois all the way to New England.
Which States Accept It
When you buy an E-ZPass in Pennsylvania, you can use it for tolls on highways, bridges, and tunnels in 13 additional states beyond Pennsylvania itself. The full list includes Delaware, Illinois, Indiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Rhode Island, Virginia, and West Virginia.
How the System Works
Acceptance of E-ZPass is not determined by states as political entities, but by the departments, agencies, and contractors responsible for maintaining and operating highways and crossings. In Pennsylvania, for instance, E-ZPass is valid on every road managed by the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission, as well as bridges run by the Delaware River Port Authority and the Delaware River Joint Toll Bridge Authority, along with cooperative projects between Pennsylvania and New Jersey, which face each other across the Delaware River. However, if a toll facility is run by an agency that does not take part in E-ZPass -- a ferry or a city-owned toll bridge, for example -- your transponder will not be accepted there, even if the location is within an "E-ZPass state."
Participating Agencies
In addition to the three Pennsylvania entities already noted, 21 other agencies accept the E-ZPass sold in Pennsylvania. These are: the Buffalo and Fort Erie Public Bridge Authority in New York state; the Burlington County Bridge Commission in New Jersey; the Delaware Department of Transportation; the Delaware River and Bay Authority, a joint operation of Delaware and New Jersey; the Illinois State Toll Highway Authority; the Indiana Toll Road Concession Co.; the Maine Turnpike Authority; the Maryland Transportation Authority; the Massachusetts Department of Transportation; MTA Bridges and Tunnels, which manages crossings in New York City; the New Hampshire Bureau of Turnpikes; the New Jersey Turnpike Authority; the New York State Bridge Authority; the New York State Thruway Authority; the Ohio Turnpike Commission; the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey; the Skyway Concession Co., operator of the Chicago Skyway; the Rhode Island Turnpike and Bridge Authority; the South Jersey Transportation Authority; the Virginia Department of Transportation; and the West Virginia Parkways Authority.
Account Options
There are two types of E-ZPass accounts available in Pennsylvania: personal and commercial. Both function in every E-ZPass state. The state cautions recreational vehicle owners that an RV with a gross vehicle weight exceeding 15,000 pounds requires a commercial E-ZPass account.
