Remember when NJ feared E-ZPass would track you? Now it may be a sticker

I was an E-ZPass early adopter. When it came to New Jersey in the late ’90s, I signed up right away.

Back then, the phones here at New Jersey 101.5 lit up with callers who were afraid E-ZPass would track their every move. I never got it. My thinking was, if I’m not doing anything wrong, what’s the big deal?

And I’ll admit it: I felt a little superior flying through the toll plaza while everybody else waited in line to hand over their hard-earned cash. Now it’s out of sight, out of mind, with the tolls coming straight out of my E-ZPass account. They say the only things certain are death and taxes. In New Jersey, add tolls.

Now that little plastic box on your windshield may be on its way out.

SEE ALSO: That AC Expressway merge you hate is finally getting fixed

E-ZPass transponder

A sticker instead of a box

The New Jersey Turnpike Authority will decide in early 2027 whether to replace E-ZPass transponders with a sticker, NJ.com reported. The agency has been testing sticker tags on its own vehicles since April. Executive Director Kris Kolluri said testing should wrap up in the next three to four months.

The sticker is a thin plastic strip with a chip and an antenna. It doesn’t need a battery.

Kolluri told NJ.com the sticker costs about 75 cents to a dollar, compared with about $6.50 for a transponder. Batteries in the old boxes last eight to 10 years. In 2022, the Turnpike Authority spent $8.4 million replacing 920,000 transponders with worn-out batteries.

The catch: It stays put

The sticker is made to stay on your windshield for good. Peel it off and you damage the chip, so you can’t move it from car to car. Aftermarket companies sell adhesive strips that make a sticker removable.

Five other states already use stickers. Massachusetts started switching on March 1 and gives drivers the sticker free when they replace a transponder.

Who it would affect

Almost everyone with a New Jersey E-ZPass. The state’s E-ZPass consortium serves:

• New Jersey Turnpike
• Garden State Parkway
• Atlantic City Expressway
• Delaware River Port Authority
• Delaware River Joint Toll Bridge Commission
• Delaware River and Bay Authority
• Cape May County Bridge Commission
• Burlington County Bridge Commission

How far we’ve come

E-ZPass debuted at the Bayonne Bridge in June 1997, and only about 10% of drivers used it at first, Patch reported. The Garden State Parkway rolled it out starting at Hillsdale in 1999.

Now the cash lanes are disappearing. The Atlantic City Expressway went cashless in January, and the Parkway and Turnpike are set to follow. That feeling of flying past the cash lines? Pretty soon there won’t be any.

Were you an E-ZPass early adopter, or one of the holdouts worried about being tracked?