They wore Bill Doyle down: Why he got an E-ZPass

I know most of you have been using E-ZPass for years, but I never wanted to participate because A) I didn’t take the toll roads often enough and B) I felt like I was contributing to the further entrenchment of tolls that were supposed to come down years ago.

A combination of factors changed my mind, though:

My son goes to school in Montclair, and now my daughter will be going to school in South Orange, and I have a new doctor at the Shore, so I have been taking the toll roads more frequently, and, frankly, I started to get jealous of the cars coasting through the toll plaza while I waited for the dolt in front of me to get out of his car to find the quarter he dropped.

I also got caught without change on, let’s say, one occasion and ran a toll (still no ticket, though).

There are fewer “Exact Change” and “Cash” toll booths than there used to be and I realize that is because the toll authority wants to make it as inconvenient as possible to not use E-ZPass. Cut I don’t care anymore; my time is valuable, too, and using E-ZPass saves me a lot of time.

I still don’t like it, but I’m glad I have it.