Now, here's the dirty little secrets about I-Pass. At the time of registration for I-Pass you have to open an account for your I-Pass with the state and pay into it a certain amount to fund your debits as you motor through the toll plazas. When your I-Pass account gets to a certain level, the state “reminds” you to fill ‘er up or pay the full toll at the manual lanes (currently TWICE the toll the I-Pass owner pays).
How well does I-Pass work? During its first 18 months of operation, I-Pass transponders were not recognized by the toll plazas and and about 50 percent of the then I-Pass users were sent tickets for not paying at the toll plazas (license plates were dutifully recorded by the “scofflaw” cameras there and tickets were mailed out). After convincing the authorities it was their toll plaza equipment that was malfunctioning, the tickets were rescinded and I-Pass got fixed. However, nonusers of I-Pass still are nailed twice the toll rate that I-Pass users pay to use the same roads.
We have I-Pass on our two vehicles. While we don’t travel the tollways a lot, it saves us paying double the fee, so over time it’ll be something of a savings. Especially after the fees doubled a year or so ago.