Kentucky, Indiana start lobbying effort after E-ZPass snub

FRANKFORT, Ky. (WDRB) – Kentucky officials said Tuesday they plan to lobby a New York transportation agency that blocked the state’s bid to join the E-ZPass Group.

Kentucky had applied to be a full member of E-ZPass, whose agencies operate toll roads primarily in the northeastern U.S. But the New York-based Metropolitan Transportation Authority used a rare veto to deny Kentucky’s membership last week.

The state plans to use E-ZPass transponders on toll bridges in the Louisville area that are set to open next year. Being a board member of the E-ZPass Group would give Kentucky input on policy matters as states across the country work to be “interoperable” – meaning, in theory, that transponders will work on any toll road.

At issue is the Louisville project’s use of two distinct transponders: One for local drivers, and a standard E-ZPass device used in other states. The local transponders costs less and employs different technology, said David Talley, the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet’s innovative finance manager.

“There’s a sense among the MTA that perhaps we aren’t fully committed to E-ZPass and that we may join the organization and then try to force this cheaper technology, which is not at all the intent,” Talley said at a meeting of the Kentucky Public Transportation Infrastructure Authority, an agency overseeing Kentucky’s financing of a new downtown bridge.

MTA spokesman Adam Lisberg said his agency “fully supports bringing Kentucky into the E-ZPass family. The only question is what form that membership takes.”

MTA notified other E-ZPass board members of its opposition to Kentucky’s membership before last Thursday’s meeting, he said. He wouldn’t rule out another vote on the application in the future.

“The only issue here is whether the type of membership that Kentucky has could -- through some sort of arcane processes -- could end up hurting the interests of older members of the group, in terms of maintaining the investment in the E-ZPass infrastructure,” Lisberg said.

Talley and Clint Murphy, the Indiana Department of Transportation's tolling oversight director, said both states have contacted MTA officials. Indiana plans to pursue E-ZPass membership next year for the Louisville bridges project; the Indiana Toll Road Concession Co., which operates a northern Indiana toll road, already is a board member.

Tolls will be charged on three bridges across the Ohio River – a new northbound Interstate 65 span downtown, a new crossing at Utica, Ind., and the Kennedy Bridge. Cameras and antennae near the bridges will record license plates or scan transponders on vehicles' windshields. For drivers who don't have toll accounts, invoices will be sent to the registered owner of the vehicle.

If Kentucky isn’t able to get the full membership, it can still qualify as a “national” member of E-ZPass. That designation would require a transaction fee of six cents each time a driver crosses a toll bridge using an E-ZPass national transponder.

Talley said those fees would be minimal, noting that he expects most Louisville-area drivers will use the local transponder. A 2013 study, for example, found that less than 5 percent of drivers that crossed the Kennedy Bridge had an E-ZPass transponder, he said.

“Ultimately we will become a full member and regardless of membership status, there will not be any impact to customers, there will not be any impact to toll rates,” Talley said. “So it’s something that we’ll continue to work through.”