SunPass is an electronic toll collection system within the state of Florida, United States. It was created in 1999 by the

Florida Department of Transportation The Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) is a decentralized agency charged with the establishment, maintenance, and regulation of public transportation in the state of Florida. The department was formed in 1969. It absorbed the powers of t ...

's (FDOT's) Office of Toll Operations, operating now as a division of

Florida's Turnpike Enterprise Florida's Turnpike Enterprise (FTE) is a unit of the Florida Department of Transportation that operates toll roads in Florida. The current Executive Director is Nicola Liquori. History The Florida State Turnpike Authority was authorized by the F ...

(FTE). The system utilizes windshield-mounted

RFID Radio-frequency identification (RFID) uses electromagnetic fields to automatically identify and track tags attached to objects. An RFID system consists of a tiny radio transponder, a radio receiver and transmitter. When triggered by an electromag ...

transponders manufactured by

TransCore Roper Technologies, Inc. (formerly Roper Industries, Inc.) is an American diversified industrial company that produces engineered products for global niche markets. The company is headquartered in Sarasota, Florida. Roper provides a wide range ...

and lane equipment designed by companies including

, SAIC, and

Raytheon Raytheon Technologies Corporation is an American multinational aerospace and defense conglomerate headquartered in Arlington, Virginia. It is one of the largest aerospace and defense manufacturers in the world by revenue and market capitaliza ...

History

SunPass was introduced on April 24, 1999, and by October 1 of the same year, more than 100,000 SunPass transponders had been sold. In early 2009, all Easy Pay customers automatically became SunPass Plus customers if they opt-in and have the privilege of using their transponders to pay for airport parking at

Tampa Tampa () is a city on the Gulf Coast of the U.S. state of Florida. The city's borders include the north shore of Tampa Bay and the east shore of Old Tampa Bay. Tampa is the largest city in the Tampa Bay area and the seat of Hillsborough County ...

Orlando Orlando () is a city in the U.S. state of Florida and is the county seat of Orange County. In Central Florida, it is the center of the Orlando metropolitan area, which had a population of 2,509,831, according to U.S. Census Bureau figures rele ...

, Palm Beach,

Fort Lauderdale A fortification is a military construction or building designed for the defense of territories in warfare, and is also used to establish rule in a region during peacetime. The term is derived from Latin ''fortis'' ("strong") and ''facere'' ...

and

Miami Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a East Coast of the United States, coastal metropolis and the County seat, county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade C ...

airports. Customers can opt out of the SunPass Plus program.

Functionality

The Mini was introduced on July 1, 2008, and became available at retail locations. The Mini is a

passive transponder, about the size of a credit card, and requires no batteries. The transponder must be mounted on the glass windshield of the vehicle to work properly and, once applied, cannot be removed from a windshield without destroying the pass. The SunPass Mini sticker will not work on

motorcycle A motorcycle (motorbike, bike, or trike (if three-wheeled)) is a two or three-wheeled motor vehicle steered by a handlebar. Motorcycle design varies greatly to suit a range of different purposes: long-distance travel, commuting, cruising ...

windshields as they are not made of glass. SunPass Portable (or SunPass Pro) transponders can be transferred between vehicles. The Sunpass Pro portable transporter offers E-ZPass interoperability, unlike the Mini. Customers must establish an opening account of at least $10 to fund their tolls. Unused toll fees are only refunded if the user closes the account or takes advantage of a

money-back guarantee A money-back guarantee, also known as a satisfaction guarantee, is essentially a simple guarantee that, if a buyer is not satisfied with a product or service, a refund will be made. The 18th century entrepreneur Josiah Wedgwood pioneered many of ...

Technology

SunPass-only toll lanes on most

toll road A toll road, also known as a turnpike or tollway, is a public or private road (almost always a controlled-access highway in the present day) for which a fee (or ''toll'') is assessed for passage. It is a form of road pricing typically implemented ...

s in Florida allow a vehicle to proceed through the tollbooth at speeds of up to as a safety precaution. The Turnpike utilizes

all-electronic tolling Open road tolling (ORT), also called all-electronic tolling, cashless tolling, or free-flow tolling, is the collection of tolls on toll roads without the use of toll booths. An electronic toll collection system is usually used instead. The ma ...

(AET) and toll by plate which handles highway speeds. The mainline toll barriers have dedicated lanes capable of full-speed automatic toll collection at up to . Florida's Turnpike Enterprise converted the

Homestead Extension of Florida's Turnpike The Homestead Extension of Florida's Turnpike (HEFT), designated as unsigned State Road 821 (SR 821), is the southern extension of Florida's Turnpike, a toll road in the U.S. state of Florida maintained by Florida's Turnpike Enterprise (F ...

, the

Sawgrass Expressway Florida State Road 869 (SR 869) is a state road located in western and northern Broward County, acting as a de facto bypass of Fort Lauderdale as well as the northern coastal and southern parts of the county extending north from a junctio ...

, and the

Veterans Expressway State Road 589 (SR 589), also known as the Veterans Expressway and Suncoast Parkway, is a north–south toll road near the Florida Gulf Coast.

open road tolling Open road tolling (ORT), also called all-electronic tolling, cashless tolling, or free-flow tolling, is the collection of tolls on toll roads without the use of toll booths. An electronic toll collection system is usually used instead. The ma ...

, utilizing the SunPass transponders, in September 2010, February 2011, April 2014, and June 2014 respectively, ceasing cash collection. This allows free-flowing movement on both toll roads, moving through toll gantries at the former toll plazas. Motorists without a SunPass are billed through

toll by plate Video tolling (sometimes referred to as video billing, toll by plate, pay by mail, or pay by plate) is a form of electronic toll collection, which uses video or still images of a vehicle's license plate to identify a vehicle liable to pay a road ...

. Toll-by-Plate uses cameras and sends a bill to the registered owner of the vehicle. The bill consists of the toll and an administrative fee. If the person fails to pay the toll and accompanying fees at all, the person would be fined $100 plus the tolls owed; in some cases, court costs, points against the driver's license, and the suspension of the license and registration would also be levied.

Interoperability

SunPass is fully interoperable with E-Pass (from the

Central Florida Expressway Authority The Central Florida Expressway Authority (CFX) is a highway authority responsible for construction, maintenance and operation of toll roads in six counties of Greater Orlando (Lake, Orange, Osceola, Polk, Seminole, and Brevard Counties). It was ...

), O-Pass (from Osceola County, which has been folded into E-Pass), LeeWay (from Lee County toll bridges) and the

Miami-Dade Expressway Authority The Miami-Dade Expressway Authority (MDX) is an independent agency created in December 1994 by the State of Florida and the Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade County Commission. Since 1997 MDX has operated and maintained five expressways former ...

(MDX) toll roads. SunPass, like other electronic toll collection (ETC) systems in Florida, was not initially compatible with systems outside of Florida. The federal

MAP-21 The Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act (MAP-21) is a funding and authorization bill to govern United States federal surface transportation spending. It was passed by Congress on June 29, 2012, and President Barack Obama signed it o ...

transportation bill passed in July 2012 required all toll facilities to have interoperable road tolling systems by October 1, 2016, but it was not met. SunPass announced in 2012 for plans to eventually become interoperable with E-ZPass. As a step towards this, the older battery-powered SunPass transponders were phased out by the end of 2015; new batteryless models can work with tolling equipment in other states. In July 2020, E-ZPass announced that SunPass would be compatible with E-ZPass by the end of that year, along with Peach Pass in 2021. On May 28, 2021, the Florida's Turnpike Enterprise announced that its SunPass facilities would begin accepting E-ZPass. In addition, E-ZPass facilities began accepting SunPass Pro transponders (but not earlier SunPass transponders such as the SunPass Portable and SunPass Mini). On July 29, 2013, Florida's Turnpike Enterprise made an interoperability agreement with

North Carolina Turnpike Authority The North Carolina Turnpike Authority was created in 2002 to speed the implementation of needed transportation improvements by funding some projects with tolls. Governed by a nine-member authority board, it is located within the Department of Tra ...

and its NC Quick Pass, allowing SunPass holders to utilize North Carolina's toll roads and lanes. On November 12, 2014, an interoperability agreement was made with Georgia's

Peach Pass Peach Pass is an electronic toll collection system in use in the U.S. state of Georgia, which is currently used primarily for high-occupancy toll lanes and express toll lanes on Interstate 75 (I-75), I-85, and I-575 in metropolitan Atlanta. Pe ...

, allowing SunPass holders to utilize the I-85 Express lanes and any future toll roads or lanes in the state. The C-Pass system operated by Miami-Dade County Public Works on the

Rickenbacker Rickenbacker International Corporation is a string instrument manufacturer based in Santa Ana, California. The company is credited as the first known maker of electric guitars – a steel guitar in 1932 – and today produces a range ...

and

Venetian Causeway The Venetian Causeway crosses Biscayne Bay between Miami on the mainland and Miami Beach on a barrier island in the Miami metropolitan area. The man-made Venetian Islands and non-bridge portions of the causeway were created by materials which ...

s was replaced by SunPass and pay-by-plate on September 23, 2014.

References

External links