Since the most convenient and affordable way to move around the states is by car, I’ll tell you about some of the local features that I had to meet while driving on American roads.
Express Lane in Florida ?” width=”789″ height=”933″ /> What Happens If You Accidentally Get On the Express Lane in Florida?
Most toll roads and tunnels are equipped with an electronic payment system
(cashless tolling), when tolls are collected using a transponder placed in a vehicle and linked to a credit card or bank account.
The most popular payment systems are EZ Pass (Eastern States), iPass (Illinois),
SunPass (Florida)
, K-Tag (Kansas), PikePass (Oklahoma), and others.
As a rule, most transponders work on the vast majority of toll roads, but there are exceptions.
For example, I own EZ Pass (Pennsylvania) transponders with which I can travel all over the US East Coast, including
Ohio
, Indiana, Illinois, and West Virginia, but my system will not work in Florida or Oklahoma, and I will have to search for other payment methods.
Toll Roads in Florida
No other
state in the US has as many toll roads and bridges
as Florida.
No wonder Florida now has a complex toll system.
Now in Florida, all toll roads are, as a rule, high-speed highways with at least two lanes in each direction and a dividing strip or a concrete barrier between oncoming flows.
Major highways in
Miami:
Florida’s Turnpike, Dolphin Expressway (836), and Airport Expressway (Route 112) Drivers pay for road tolls through the
SunPass system.
By the way, the Palmetto Highway (826) is free.
Whenever possible, I try to avoid toll roads, but sometimes it turns out to be “more expensive for myself”, because an alternative road will be longer and slower, with more difficult terrain, traffic lights, and smaller towns along the way.
Toll roads have fewer entrances and exits, so they are more passable; they rarely have traffic (except because of the weather or an accident).
The closer you get to Miami, the more toll stations you see.
You have to stop, pay, and get change.
All this takes time and money.
You can probably try to look for ways to bypass toll roads, but such a trip will take even more time.
Part of the payment problem can be solved by purchasing a SunPass system card.
With it, you can pass the payment points without stopping, but in order to use this pass, you must first buy it and then activate your account.
What Happens If You Accidentally Get On the Express Lane in Florida?
What Happens If You Accidentally Get on the Express Lane in Florida?
If you accidentally get on the express lane in Florida, you will need to pay a fine at the end, which is
$179.
You can only use the express lane if you have a prepaid pass and a transponder.
The current fee you pay is displayed by electronic signs when driving
in the express lane and depends on the current traffic jam.
When your car passes through the SunPass terminals, the fare will be automatically debited from your electronic account, which
must be topped up before you start your journey
.
Express lanes are well organized for avoiding traffic jams in the “free” right lanes.
In the same way, HOV lanes (high occupancy vehicles) work; these lanes are designed for cars with 2, 3, or more passengers.
Some tricksters put mannequins in cars or put baby car seats with dolls inside, covering them with a blanket.
The police, as a rule, have an excellent eye for such jokes, so it’s more expensive for yourself.
Buses and motorcycles are also allowed to move there.
Trucks are not allowed to enter there.
In Florida, fashion was born to go “hidden”, covering license plates and inventing various tricks.
But anyway, they are always caught, especially trackers.
From my experience, toll roads are organized in such a way that it is more profitable for the driver to turn onto the toll road and not waste more fuel and time driving around it.
What Happens If You Drive in the Express Lane Without a SunPass?
Those who do not have a transponder and drive in the express lane are automatically recorded by cameras at toll stations.
The owner of the car is identified by the license plate and receives an invoice to their home address, and this amount must be paid within a certain period of time or penalties will apply.
If you have a rented car in Florida, your license plate is photographed, and the bill goes to the rental company first.
After you return the vehicle, they will deduct the fare from your credit card that you provided at the time of booking.
What Happens If You Accidentally Get On the Express Lane in Florida?
How Much is an Express Lane Ticket in Florida?
It is an extra $25.
00; it is a
daily violation charge in addition to the toll.
On toll roads, there are frames—gates—where they will take money from you.
As a rule, the right lanes of highways under these frames are adapted for paying in cash (there are both cashiers), and the left lanes are for SunPass or E-Pass express travel.
Our Experience With Toll Roads
When we saw the sign “toll road ahead” ,my husband, in a panic, was trying to bypass the toll road, turned onto the first exit, and… we ended up on another section of the toll road.
The congress turned out to be extremely unsuccessful and took us away from the intended route; we had to go back.
As a result, we managed to pass the paid site twice, which we were immediately notified of by a repeated flash of the camera.
Surely the miser pays twice.
The only consolation was that it was written on the sign that the fare on the road can be paid within 5 days on the site.
The mood finally deteriorated when it was not possible to pay for the road on site; a message appeared that the car was rented and all bills would be sent to the rental office directly.
In general, there is an agreement between our rental office and the services that charge tolls on the roads, so there should not be any fines from road owners.
But!
If you don’t take a special device (a transponder) at the office itself when renting a car, then the rental offices themselves take the
fine for using toll roads
(if you could not pay them on the spot in cash or by card).
They profit from the ignorance of tourists.
Therefore, in order not to get fined, I recommend clarifying all issues related to paying for roads directly at the office of the rental company.
I think you can even show them your route so that they can advise which option of paying for roads will be more profitable for you.
In our case, payment on the spot was not possible; there were no booths accepting cards or cash.
After a long phone conversation with our rental company, we found out that the fine for each violation is 10 bucks (+ payment for the road itself), but it will be possible to write a tearful letter with the text “We are not local,” and there is a chance that the fine will be canceled (at least that’s what a company employee told us).
All fines, including fines for speeding and other violations, come within three weeks after the delivery of the car.
At the end, our rental company charged us a $3.
96 service fee; this is their daily rate for using the toll road without warning.