Drivers will be able to pay toll road by mail

Motorists who drive the Denver-area toll road E-470 will no longer have to dig for change or purchase a toll pass come Jan. 1.

That's when the highway, which provides the quickest route to Denver International Airport, adopts a camera-and-computer system that captures drivers' license plates and then sends a bill to the registered owner of the vehicle. Coins and cash will be accepted at toll booths until July 1, 2009, when all booths will be closed.

Non-stop tolling is now used on other toll roads in the U.S., Canada and Europe.

The 11,000 drivers from Colorado Springs who now purchase EXpressToll passes can simply reload their passes with money and the tolls will be automatically deducted from their balance, much as they are now. As of mid-August, there were 277,951 EXpressToll accounts and more than 526,000 vehicles with transponders that allow the roadway to track a customer's use of the toll road.

Toll road operators say non-stop tolling will help eliminate accidents that occur when cars slow, stop and accelerate away from toll booths, reduce fuel consumption and exhaust pollution, and will be less expensive for the toll road to administer. E-470, owned by eight governments, now pays 30 cents to process each cash toll versus 13 cents for an automated EXpressToll transaction.

Those who use the toll will be billed about 30 days after their first transaction and will have 30 days to pay the balance. If the tolls aren't paid, E-470 will issue a toll violation, which is much like a city parking ticket. The system links to driver registration information in all 50 states.

Toll operators have coordinated with rental car companies to create a system in which tolls — plus an administrative fee — will be added to a customer's rental bill. Drivers are encouraged to ask how tolls will be paid if they rent vehicles from places such as U-Haul and Penske.

The camera system will take a picture of both the front and rear license plates of a vehicle, in part to verify ownership of a vehicle and in part to try to snare drivers seeking to evade paying the toll by obscuring a license plate.