I-Pass
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

I-Pass (stylized as I-PASS) is the electronic toll collection system utilized by the
Illinois State Toll Highway Authority The Illinois State Toll Highway Authority (ISTHA) is an administrative agency of the U.S. state of Illinois charged with building, operating, and maintaining toll roads in the state. The roads, as well as the authority itself, are sometimes referr ...
(ISTHA) on its toll highways that launched on November 18, 1993, with the opening of
Interstate 355 Interstate 355 (I-355), also known as the Veterans Memorial Tollway, is an Interstate Highway and tollway in the western and southwest suburbs of Chicago in the U.S. state of Illinois. Like most other toll roads in the northeastern portion of th ...
(Veterans Memorial Tollway). It uses the same transponder as the E-ZPass system used in the Northeastern US, the
Chicago Skyway Interstate 90 (I-90) in the US state of Illinois runs roughly northwest-to-southeast through the northern part of the state. From the Wisconsin state line at South Beloit, it heads south to Rockford before heading east-southeast to the ...
, and the
Indiana Toll Road The Indiana Toll Road, officially the Indiana East–West Toll Road, is a tolled freeway that runs for east–west across northern Indiana from the Illinois state line to the Ohio state line. It has been advertised as the "Main Street of the ...
, along with the Indiana State Road 912 (Cline Avenue)
Indiana Harbor and Ship Canal The Indiana Harbor and Ship Canal is an artificial waterway on the southwest shore of Lake Michigan, in East Chicago, Indiana, which connects the Grand Calumet River to Lake Michigan. It consists of two branch canals, the 1.25 mile (2 km) L ...
bridge.


Usage

I-Pass transponders can be used at all toll plazas, including those located on entrance and exit ramps. The main advantage to the system was the eventual withdrawal of full-length tollbooths from the tollway system for full-speed
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 ...
, while customers paying cash continued to have to slow down onto exit-like automated tollbooths until the spring of 2020. Likewise, entering or exiting the tollway system with an I-Pass allows continuous movement through the toll gate, albeit at a decelerated speed of . Starting with a toll rate increase which came into effect on January 1, 2005, a significant discount was granted if an I-Pass was used to pay the toll. In June 2005, I-Pass became compatible with toll collection on the
Chicago Skyway Interstate 90 (I-90) in the US state of Illinois runs roughly northwest-to-southeast through the northern part of the state. From the Wisconsin state line at South Beloit, it heads south to Rockford before heading east-southeast to the ...
. If a vehicle registered with I-Pass passes through a toll collection without the transponder, the vehicle will be considered in violation only if the vehicle's license plate is not registered on an I-Pass account. Each I-Pass account can register multiple vehicles under the account. If a driver does not have a transponder in the car, the license plate still registers under the system as being affiliated with an account and, as long as there are funds in the account, the driver will not be in violation, although if more than three instances occur in a month, the discount will not be granted and each subsequent pass without a transponder will result in the cash fee being deducted from the account. If the driver does not have funds in the account and are not set up for auto refill on a credit card, the toll will be considered unpaid and a $20 fine will be levied, in addition to the cash rate (non-discounted) cost of the toll. Once the license plate holders accrue three violations, they will receive a notice of violation from ISTHA with a demand to pay. I-Pass account holders have a window of time to contact ISTHA and remedy the violation by having the cost of the unpaid toll deducted from their account balance and can have the $20 fee waived. It is up to the account holder to contact ISTHA. If the account holder fails to contact the tollway authority by the due date on their violation notice, additional fines will be levied, eventually leading to having their vehicles plates, drivers license, or both, suspended. Fines have reportedly often escalated into thousands of dollars due to the failure of the account holder to act by contacting ISTHA about the violation. Users of the system can manage their accounts through the I-Pass web site. Normally, the system will keep a credit balance on account for users, tied to a credit card and replenished as the balance drops below a preset threshold. Alternatively, users can choose to manually replenish their accounts via the site. I-Pass desks at many service plazas on Illinois tollways can also assist system users.


Tollways and bridges that accept I-Pass

All tollways that accept E-ZPass also accept I-Pass. Controversy surrounded the reciprocal use of I-Pass by Illinois motorists and
I-Zoom i-Zoom was the former name for the electronic toll collection system used on the Indiana Toll Road (ITR), which now uses the E-ZPass system. On June 27, 2007, the system was implemented from mile 1 to mile 23 of the road under the un ...
(now branded as simply E-ZPass) by Indiana motorists on the other state's toll road. Each state charges the other a transaction fee when the out-of-state transponder is used to pay a toll. About 70% of all electronic transactions on the
Indiana Toll Road The Indiana Toll Road, officially the Indiana East–West Toll Road, is a tolled freeway that runs for east–west across northern Indiana from the Illinois state line to the Ohio state line. It has been advertised as the "Main Street of the ...
are done with I-Pass transponders, according to Tollway Authority figures. Until January 1, 2010, the fee was absorbed, and I-Pass users paid twice as many Indiana tolls as I-Zoom users paying Illinois tolls. To address this imbalance, ISTHA began charging I-Pass users a three-cent surcharge on each of their Indiana tolls, effective January 1, 2010. , I-Pass transponders are accepted for the payment of tolls on the E-ZPass system. I-Pass transponders cannot be used to pay for other services such as airport parking where E-ZPass transponders are currently accepted. In the case of older units, only car and motorcycle I-Pass transponders are compatible with the E-ZPass system, and other users with older units (e.g. semi truck operators) must swap their current I-Pass transponder for a transponder compatible with both I-Pass and E-ZPass. (The reverse—use of Northeastern state E-ZPass transponders in I-Pass facilities in Illinois—was actually working as early as May 2005.)


Privacy concerns

In September 2019, NPR radio station
WBEZ WBEZ (91.5 FM) – branded ''WBEZ 91.5'' – is a non-commercial educational radio station licensed to serve Chicago, Illinois, and primarily serving the Chicago metropolitan area. Financed by corporate underwriting, government funding and lis ...
revealed that the Illinois Tollway had been divulging I-Pass records to lawyers and law enforcement. These records included specific transponder usage instances and personal information about account holders. The Illinois chapter of the
ACLU The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is a nonprofit organization founded in 1920 "to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed to every person in this country by the Constitution and laws of the United States". T ...
responded negatively to this use of I-Pass data, referring to it as "
mission creep Mission creep is the gradual or incremental expansion of an intervention, project or mission, beyond its original scope, focus or goals, a ratchet effect spawned by initial success. Mission creep is usually considered undesirable due to how each s ...
". After reading the WBEZ report, state representative
Margo McDermed Margo McDermed is an American politician. Education In 1973, McDermed earned a BA in Communications from Simmons College. In 1976, McDermed earned a JD in law from DePaul University College of Law. Career McDermed is a Republican member o ...
introduced a bill to prevent the release of tollway records for drivers involved in lawsuits, and to require law enforcement to obtain a warrant to access the records.


References

* This article incorporates material from
Illinois State Toll Highway Authority The Illinois State Toll Highway Authority (ISTHA) is an administrative agency of the U.S. state of Illinois charged with building, operating, and maintaining toll roads in the state. The roads, as well as the authority itself, are sometimes referr ...
.


External links

*{{official website, http://www.getipass.com
Using I-Pass on other Tollways
1993 establishments in Illinois Electronic toll collection Toll roads in Illinois