[davephan]

Does the EZ transponder and other toll transponders also give you the toll discount that you get with the SunPass?

An example of the discount, is the toll on the Sunshine Sky Bridge that connects St Petersburg to the south. The cash toll for cars is $1.50. The SunPass toll is $1.07. That’s a 29% discount. I think that the read by plate tacks on an extra charge, that you pay more than the cash rate, but I’m not certain about the extra charge for read by plate.

Saving 43 cents isn’t a big deal. But nobody goes through just one toll, one time. On average, we spend almost $10 a month on road tolls. If we traveled around the Orlando area more often, we’d spend many times that amount, on a monthly basis on tolls. It’s also a hassle to stop to pay cash tolls, and even more of a hassle to keep stocking your car with a pile of coins.

Back in Minnesota, in the Twin cities, they were proposing a 11 mile toll road. The proponents of the toll road were saying that the toll as only 10 cents a mile, which costs almost nothing. But no one drives only one mile on an 11 mile toll road, then stops. A daily commuter that regularly drives that proposed toll road would end up paying about $30 to $40 a month, on a monthly basis.

I was shocked how many toll roads are in the Dallas Ft Worth area in Texas, on my last visit to Texas. The toll roads are operated by a company in Europe, and Texas gets a piece of the action. The European company is motivated to keep increasing the tolls and has poor customer service, because they don’t care about the Texas residents having to pay more and more money.

Having a toll transponder is a no brainer in Florida. Yet, you see many vehicles in the cash toll lanes. Most of them are probably Florida residents, who never get around to setting up a toll transponder, or can’t figure out how to set up the account.

I don’t like the new mini SunPass transponders. The old SunPass mini transponders are a dull silver color as viewed from outside your windshield. The new SunPass mini transponders are a very loud bright green color, as viewed from outside the windshield. The bright green color makes the front of the new car look ugly. I’d like to find a place to buy the old dull silver SunPass mini transponders.