On Sunday, I’ll be driving from Washington, DC up to Harvard to help my son move his stuff into his room for grad school. Move-in ends at 6 pm, and then is available again on Monday. Neither of us drive toll roads on a regular basis so we don’t have transponders for toll charges, and I’ve been told that EZ Pass can charge $5-50 per transaction plus the cost of the toll. If we take the toll roads, it’s 9.5 hours to drive. If we do Mapquest’s suggested end run around the tolls, it’s 11.5 hours and arriving before 6:00 would be unlikely. I have an Airbnb in Cambridge for Sunday night and he can crash with me if we don’t get there in time, but it’d mean that all his stuff is inside a car overnight. What are your recommendations? Are the hefty transaction fees really that hefty? And is there a shorter way around the tolls than 11.5 hours of interstates through Harrisburg, PA, Albany and Southern Vermont to get to Cambridge?
We have done that drive many times. My suggestion….Get a transponder. This isn’t the only time you will make this trip.
been told that EZ Pass can charge $5-50 per transaction plus the cost of the toll>>
We use easy pass a LOT. Maybe I’m missing something on my statements but all I see are the costs of the actual tolls. Hoping someone else will clarify this!
If you don’t want to get a transponder, you can drive through and they will photograph your license plate and send you a bill. BUT the cost is more per toll doing it this way.
I agree with the suggestion to get a transponder. Also, I tried to drive from Maryland to Delaware recently using a no toll route and the directions were incorrect, they sent me through several tolls. There is no easy way to get through Baltimore without the tolls.
Also, I just took a trip that required many trips over the new Mario Cuomo Bridge (old Tappen Zee) and the tolls are now lowest for NY EZ-Pass then out of state EZ-Pass and highest for mailed bills. Thruway Toll Adjustment Proposal - New York State Thruway
A transponder is handy. Just be aware that Massachusetts has charged cash rates to out-of-state transponders since at least 2019, and other state may have followed suit.
So there is convenience, but while there may not be an explicit $5 charge, it may appear in the guise of a higher charge. But the alternative is paying cash, which is no different.
I think you mean now, not “not”
Massachusetts has NO toll booths. They have been removed on the Mass Pike. So…you can’t pay with cash….at least that’s what we have seen!
They don’t have toll booths. They do have higher non-transponder rates. Which out-of-state residents are charged, which was the point of my post. Apologies for the “cash rate” colloquialism. It can certainly be paid in other ways.
If you travelled through MA tolls without an account, you will be mailed a Pay By Plate MA Invoice. Once the toll trip is processed, an invoice is mailed to the registered owner of the vehicle approximately 7-10 business days after the trip.
Out of state E-ZPass accounts do not provide toll discounts on MA roadways. If you have an E-ZPass account with another state, you will be billed through your E-ZPass state agency.
I’ll ask for the OP. How do you get a transponder and registered by Sunday? It’s been awhile for me, I bought one on the turnpike but then had to register it and set it up. Is that possible to do by Sunday?
I know I’ve been told that you do not pay a monthly fee for the transponder but I do, it’s not much but I definitely am charged a fee. $.75 per transponder per month. My EZ Pass is registered in Ohio.
I guess it depends on the state. In PA you can get them at rest stops on the PA Turnpike, at local AAA offices, and local supermarkets. Accounts can be setup on line in a few minutes and is effective in 24 hours in PA/48 hours in other states.
I think PA has a $3 annual fee.
The last time I traveled without a transponder was in 2008 when D and I were looking at colleges (wow have I been on this site that long??). I vowed, NEVER EVER AGAIN….the cash lanes are so hard to get to, hard to spot, and there’s so few of them. Especially when you’re coming up to a busy tollbooth in unfamiliar territory. Yikes, I still shudder when I think about it.
We drive from CT to SC frequently with tolls in NY, NJ, DE, MD, VA…I don’t believe there are other charges…if there are I’ll gladly pay.
I don’t know if there’s a central list, or an update since this 2019 article
According to AAA, at least eight northeastern states — Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island and West Virginia — have a two-tiered system at least some of the time, for example during rush hour. Delaware, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Virginia do not.
I agree that the convenience is worth the surcharge.
Definitely get one, traffic in the northeast can be brutal, you just want the easiest way from A to B (we’re in NJ and can’t imagine not having an EZPass).
I drove my kid from CT to Philly and realized I had forgotten my transponder. Didn’t even remember the drive through and get billed option. So we did a GPS search for no toll roads. Instead of it being a 4 plus hour trip, it was almost 7 hours.
On the way back, we just drove through on the toll roads.
Geez I love the Parent Cafe - 13 responses in two hours! And Parent Cafe posters are the most knowledgeable nook of America that you can possibly find! It sounds clear that a transponder is the way to go, though I probably waited too late to make it viable on this trip. My son, a DC resident, will be driving his car and I’ll be flying up from GA to DC and driving a rental car alongside him. He’s keeping his car at Harvard (we’ll see how long that lasts), so he’ll probably get a MA transponder when he gets there. On Sunday, we’re thinking we’ll go DC to Gettysburg, Harrisburg, Scranton, across CT on I-84, to hook up with I-90 in MA. It’ll be longer, but perhaps less nerve-wracking than NJ/NY traffic, more scenic, and less chance of major slowdowns. We can always move him in on Monday if we get in late on Sunday. And Thumper, I’ll no doubt be making this trip again, but this is probably the only time I’ll do it by car. Thanks everyone, for your excellent advice!
Rather than going DC to Gettysburg, it might be quicker to take 95 out of DC to the Baltimore beltway (695 West) then up 83 to Harrisburg. You won’t hit any tolls going that way. The tolls in the Baltimore area are if you take the tunnels or the Key Bridge on the eastern side of the beltway but you wouldn’t be taking any of those to get to 83.
In NY, we picked up a transponder good NY and MA at a grocery store and (with much work) got it set up in the parking lot via cellphone … computer would have been easier. However we were warned that it could take up to 24 hours to be in the system. Phew - the bridge that day did have a cash lane.
There are no west to east interstates in southern VT, but on the MA pike you can let them send you a bill and I don’t believe that premium is terribly high. In NY there are cash only lanes. So you could take 15 uo Harrisburg, then get on I-81 to I-88 I-90 and you’ll only have a small NY toll. It’s 3 hours from Albany to Boston and about 7.5 hours from DC to Albany going that way - highly dependent on traffic. I-95 from DC to NYC always takes longer than google/waze says.
EZ Pass rates are actually lower than cash cost. 
Great - thanks.
In situations like these, if you have a laptop with you, you can always try using your cell phone as a wifi hotspot if wifi is not available. Been there, done that with sites that were not mobile-friendly! 