"Toll collectors are going to become obsolete," said spokeswoman Sharon Gordon.
Increasing rates of electronic collection have lessened the need for toll takers around the country, as more agencies turn to cashless tolling, aimed at lowering operational costs and boosting safety and convenience for travelers.
Cashless tolling is already used in parts of Texas, California, Colorado, and other states. Florida's Turnpike Enterprise is converting to all-electronic tolling, while the North Carolina Turnpike Authority is planning for cashless tolling on the Triangle Expressway, under construction.
The replacement Scudder Falls Bridge between Mercer and Bucks Counties on I-95 will have cashless tolls.
The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey this year authorized the construction of a new toll-collecting system that will be compatible with all-electronic tolling. The reason is "so that at some point in the future, if our board decides to go with a cashless tolling option, the equipment's in place to do so," said spokesman Steve Coleman.
Many toll collectors at the Port Authority earn between $70,000 and $80,000 a year with overtime, though more than 80 percent of the 121 million toll transactions last year were through E-ZPass.
Senate President Stephen Sweeney (D., Gloucester) this week introduced a bill to privatize the toll collectors' jobs at the New Jersey Turnpike Authority. The measure was among a series of recommendations in a report commissioned by Gov. Christie.
The report, released in July, said the authority was paying toll-takers on the turnpike and Garden State Parkway between 40 percent and 50 percent more than what a private vendor would charge. It recommended that outsourcing be used as a "stopgap" until the agency moves forward with cashless tolling.
E-ZPass accounts for about 70 percent of toll collections at the Turnpike Authority, where the base pay for most toll-takers ranges from about $60,000 to $70,000.
