Maryland State Wire

More than 28,000 E-ZPass transponders have been distributed to Marylanders since Gov. Larry Hogan announced they would be free to new customers.

John Sales, public affairs manager for the Maryland Transportation Authority, said there have been 28,457 free transponders distributed since May 23. He said the program saves time and money.

"That's just really a general benefit of having an E-ZPass account," Sale said in an interview with Maryland State Wire. "You save time going through the toll plaza by using the E-ZPass only lanes.

Sales said EZPass customers don't have to wait for people who are paying with cash.

"The lines are much shorter, if not even any lines at all, to get through the toll plaza, so that's saving people time instead of having to stop and pay with cash," Sales said.

Sales said Maryland E-ZPass accounts pay a lesser toll rate of 25 to 37.5 percent at all toll plazas across the state.

"For instance, if you were at the Bay Bridge toll, if you have an E-ZPass, the savings is 37.5 percent, so people who are paying with cash pay $4, but people with an E-ZPass transponder are only paying $2.50," Sales said. "That's where the savings come in."

Sales said, generally speaking, the E-ZPass transponders help traffic flow through the toll plaza.

"We not only have E-ZPass usage at our toll plazas, but there is also the fact that the Intercounty Connector road, as well as the I-95 express toll lanes in Maryland — those are the first two all-electronic toll collection roads that we have in Maryland," Sales said. "That means that we have no toll plazas — they have these overhead gantries that the vehicles pass under and their E-ZPass transponders are automatically read at highway speeds."

Sales said those two roadways are kind of unique in that regard, especially in Maryland.

"That's changed a lot of the way we do toll collection and the way that people pay for their tolls," Sales said.

Hogan announced that E-ZPass devices would be given free to new customers in May, instead of charging the previous $7.50 fee. He hopes it will save Marylanders $6 million in transponder costs while providing $40 million in discounts and helping reduce vehicle emissions by reducing backups at toll plazas.

Three years ago, Hogan engineered a toll reduction that he said would save Marylanders $316 million.