This new tolling system, tenatively called "PeachPass", will be for the I-85 HOV lanes from Doraville to Suwanee plus a replacement for the GA 400 tollway's Cruise Card system.
As a Cruise Card user who has the stickers on both vehicles we own, I have to wonder if the stickers will be "grandfathered" into the new PeachPass system. Having already paid for the stickers, it seems to make no sense whatsoever to charge existing Cruise Card customers a fee for any new PeachPass stickers or transponders. (Frankly, I'd rather have a transponder similar to the Florida SunPass transponder we currently have.)
Should SRTA implement the new PeachPass (or whatever they decide to call it, though I do like the name), it is my hope that, at the very least, they will go through their database of active Cruise Card units and deliver new PeachPasses to existing customers.
As for tolls itself, I am not one to advocate tolling a road for any length of time, especially when the tolls are for paying off bonds such as those taken out by the State of Georgia for the GA 400 tollway.
As for the I-85 HOV lanes that will be converted to High-Occupancy Toll (HOT) lanes, it is my understanding that those who have at least 3 people (including the driver) in a vehicle would still be able to use them free-of-charge. Other drivers will be charged a variable per-mile toll. That being said, how will this new system differentiate between these 2 types of drivers in terms of tolling? If you do have a PeachPass and are driving on these HOT lanes with 2 or more passengers, then what if the system detects your sticker/transponder and charges you? If it did do so under such circumstances, then the driver would have to contact SRTA for a refund... and that, dear readers, would really, really suck!
On a much happier note, y'all, I produced my set of road videos taken during our "TRC" (Toastmasters, ROADS!!!, and Counties) roadtrip a couple of months ago and produced 5 new "ROADGEEK-CAM!!!" episodes from them. Please click here to see them.
That's it for now. Thanks for reading and watching, please come back again, and have a great weekend!
8/27/2009 7:55 AM
vbdenny wrote:
Peach Pass? You had best encourage them to use EZPass so it will work in other areas. Virginia tried using something different (smart tag) and it was pretty much a failure. Since, they have switched to EZPass which is the standard on the east coast. Reply to this
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