Call it Manifest Destiny, Brave New World or whatever you like, but E-ZPass is still spreading north and south one decade since its introduction in the Northeast.

Introduced at the New York Thruway toll plaza in Spring Valley, N.Y.,on Aug. 2, 1993, the electronic toll-collection system has grown from a service with a customer base of 40,000 in its first year to 9 million tagholders.

These nine million tagholders, in pursuit of a more fluent passage through toll crossings and a discount on tolls, install in their vehicles a technological marvel called a radio frequency identification (RFID) tag. It is this microchip-each with a unique frequency-that allows the toll authorities to identify when crossings have occured, deduct tolls from credit cards (or cash accounts) and track the movements of its customers.

Most of the readers of this magazine fall within the tagged nine million. In the Club's June 2002 member survey, 69 percent of members said they had an E-ZPass. The whopping majority of members who had not taken the E-ZPass plunge-77 percent-said they simply don't get out (or across bridges) very much, and so didn't think they would benefit from the convenience.

And what a convenience.

Shawn "Kwip" Williams, writing in his Web log at www.neenerneener.net, described a road trip in which E-ZPass became something of a main-and magical-character, inhabited, he wrote, by "fairies who make it possible for you to drive through toll stations-without stopping-while other, dirtier, smellier and much less loved people are left to deal with the infidels of Collection."

Crunching the Numbers

Statistics may not be as vivid as Kwip Williams' imagination, but they also tell a compelling story about the benefits of E-ZPass-which the Club has supported from its earliest planning phase.

Wilbur Smith Associates conducted the most recent study of the effects of E-ZPass, based on monitoring the tollbooths along the New Jersey Turnpike for a year. The benefits recorded are striking:

Drivers saved nearly 2.1 million hours.

Of the time saved by implementing the system, roughly two-thirds of that time was saved by E-ZPass users.

Due to less time idling in lines, drivers saved 1.2 million gallons of fuel worth roughly $27 million.

Every weekday, emissions of volatile organic compounds and nitrogen oxides (the main factors in the formation of ozone) were reduced by 0.35 tons and 0.056 tons, respectively.

Again, these improvements in the environment, as well as the quality of life and commuting costs of motorists, were judged by observing only one of the E-ZPass system's thoroughfares in the span of just a single year.

Motorists also save money in tolls by using the tags, which charge the user a lower fare than what cash-paying drivers are billed at the tollbooth.

The MTA Bridges and Tunnels have nearly 3 million E-ZPass customers, and the most active E-ZPass operation. In the first eight months of this year alone, nearly 138 million E-ZPass transactions were completed at its 10 New York City facilities. These tagholders were rewarded with more than $70 million in toll discounts.

The Port Authority's numbers are impressive as well. It recorded 390 million E-ZPass transactions at its five crossings from 1997 through August of this year. In the last three years alone, tagged motorists at Port Authority crossings saved a total of $348 million.

Financial figures are, for most people, the most crucial statistic, though a few relatively trivial numbers may be of interest to some.

The average trip through E-ZPass takes under 3 seconds to complete-or less than one-sixth the time required for cash customers at the manned lanes to pay up.

MTA's busiest E-ZPass lanes? At the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge, where an average of 150,378 vehicles passed through each weekday in August of this year.

The biggest share of E-ZPass customers? The Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel, where 82 percent of the vehicles carried tags during the morning rush hour in August.

Growing Pains

No one would deny that there have been growing pains in adopting the new system and administering it so that it accomplishes its task-the task that has always appealed to the Club-of easing traffic flow at chronically bottlenecked toll crossings.

New Jersey State Assemblyman Anthony Impreveduto, speaking at a public hearing in 2002, provided a memorable image for the challenges of sorting out traffic at a toll facility where some drivers must stop and pay, and others may glide by with an electronic wink: "It's like a cattle stampede."

It was an interesting choice of words, given that the need by cattlemen to better monitor their roving inventory is said to be the genesis of electronic toll-collecting technology. Dead or alive, cattle have an uneasy relationship with E-ZPass. The tags can be used not only at toll booths but to pay for burgers at two McDonald's drive-throughs in Centereach and Port Jefferson on Long Island (call it E-ZBurger).

Without resorting to the imagery of a cattle stampede, The Club's Traffic Safety department did mention the "turmoil of maneuvering vehicles" in its 1996 report, "E-ZPass Implementation at Four MTA Facilities." Many of the traffic engineering tactics for E-ZPass-enabled toll crossings outlined in that report have subsequently been put into effect by the toll authority, with positive results.

The Club recommended directing E-ZPass and cash customers into separate traffic lanes, which is now commonplace. It suggested routing E-ZPass customers to the left, because people are accustomed to moving left to pass and "E-ZPass, by definition, is a passing lane." (Ah, the clarity of thought of an engineer.) And it advised that E-ZPass drivers should be alerted to shift lanes to the left via advance signage and pavement markings.

While many of these changes have been made at many toll crossings, the standardization that motorists-and, of course, engineers-crave may not be feasible. As MTA spokesman Frank Pascual observes, no one configuration model can be adopted for all plazas-"the proximity of entrances, exits and approach roads requires a customized, not a cookie-cutter" way to solve the problem.

Thinking Outside the Gate

One of the Club's recommended changes that has been slow to meet with widespread acceptance: "Remove toll gates." The motive behind the suggestion is to speed up the passage of tagged vehicles through the E-ZPass lanes.

Just starting to appear are lanes with overhead electronic toll-collecting devices that allow E-ZPass holders to keep moving at prevailing highway speeds instead of slowing down to 5 mph or 15 mph as they approach the toll gates.

Such high-speed lanes now operate at New Jersey Turnpike's exit 6 and are scheduled to open this month at Interchange 18W at the turnpike's northern terminus.

This past summer, the Port Authority hiked speeds from 5 to 25 mph on three E-ZPass-only toll lanes on the Outerbridge Crossing. Similar plans are expected to be implemented on the Goethals Bridge and the Palisades Interstate Parkway approach to the George Washington Bridge by this coming spring and on the Bayonne and George Washington bridges by the end of 2004.

The New York Thruway Authority,likewise, plans to convert some of its mixed E-ZPass-cash lanes on the Tappan Zee Bridge into 20 mph tagholders-only pass-throughs by the end of this year.

The MTA resists this trend toward ungated express lanes. In defense of continuing the use of gates at toll barriers, Pascual says the 5 mph speed limit is dictated by the confined, crowded urban environment in which the MTA facilities must operate. "The No. 1 factor must be the safety of our workers," he says.

Does anyone envision a future of toll crossings with no workers at all, but only electronic toll collection? Not Mark Muriello, assistant director of tunnels, bridges and terminals for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.

"We reduced approximately 200 toll collectors after introducing the E-ZPass program," Muriello says, "but we maintain 250 toll collectors. It's an important part of our operation. Even though E-ZPass usage continues to grow-it's at 67 percent for all times, but more than 80 percent for peak periods-if we don't have adequate staffing the lines get so long at the cash lanes that it causes traffic jams," in effect defeating the purpose of the speedier lanes.

Big Brother, the Tag

Of course, unless E-ZPass is somehow made mandatory, human toll collectors will be required to process the tolls of those who refuse to get tagged. And the reluctant few will always be with us, according to Muriello: "We always have the resistant hardcore who fear Big Brother."

The spectre of Big Brother is a far cry from the good fairies that blogger Kwip Williams associated with E-ZPass. What's the Orwellian angle to a gizmo that lets you zip through a toll crossing without unfolding your wallet?

RFID tags are tiny, they can be tracked and each code is unique. So every individual tag can be easily embedded into almost anything and uniquely tracked. In terms of E-ZPass, that means the whereabouts of your car may be tracked by anyone who could get a hold of your E-ZPass records.

Who can do that, and under which circumstances?

"The MTA frequently receives court and police subpoenas for E-ZPass records," says Frank Pascual. "We will cooperate with authorities in capital cases without subpoenas, but will cooperate on civil cases only on court order." The same guidelines apply throughout the regional consortium of E-ZPass providers-which includes the MTA, Port Authority and the New York State Thruway Authority-according to a spokesperson for the Port Authority.

The most famous use of E-ZPass in law enforcement took place during the 1997 investigation of the kidnapping and eventual murder of New Jersey millionaire Nelson Gross. The MTA allowed the Federal Bureau of Investigation to track the movements of Gross' car using the E-ZPass in it. The vehicle was tracked across the George Washington Bridge and found in Manhattan, with the victim's body nearby.

The privacy policy for the E-ZPass consortium (the MTA, Port Authority and the New York State Thruway Authority) further states that requests for account records based on the New York State Freedom of Information Law will be denied. (The consumer's records are protected there.) The policy also notes that the consortium reserves the right to use account information in connection with civil lawsuits brought against a toll authority. (Sue the MTA or Port Authority, and your E-ZPass records can be used against you.)

AAA has always supported legislation that protects the privacy of information obtained from E-ZPass, taking the position that protection of privacy is good for both motorists and the efficiency of the system.

"If electronic toll collection systems are to be a success, the confidentiality of motorist records must be assured so that privacy concerns do not hamper the acceptance of this technology by the motoring public," wrote Marta Genovese, who chairs the legislative committee for AAA New York State.

EZ-Pass Into the Future

Thus far, electronic toll collection systems have proven to be a success, as witnessed by their spread across the map (see sidebar, "How Far Will It Get You?").

Some envision a universal transponder tag that will one day be accepted from coast to coast. For now, E-ZPass officials have set their sights just a little lower: one E-ZPass tag welcomed along the Eastern Seaboard from Maine to Florida.

As 2003 draws to a close, more than 20 regional toll authorities have banded together to extend E-ZPass as far north as Massachusetts and the U.S.-Canada border near Niagara Falls and as far south as Maryland and West Virginia.

And the network continues to grow. The Maine Turnpike Authority says it plans to make its electronic toll-collecting system compatible with E-ZPass by mid-2004. Virginia highway authorities anticipate a similar conversion by the fall of 2004. And New Hampshire hopes to introduce an E-ZPass system at it five toll locations late next year or in early 2005.

And those are just the roads and bridges. E-ZPass can now also be used to pay airport parking fees at JFK, LaGuardia and Newark. More than 350,000 people took advantage of the speedier service at JFK alone in the first six months of 2003. (E-ZPass account holders who replenish their accounts with credit cards are automatically enabled for the parking service; prepaid cash customers must call 800/333-8655 to enroll.)

As it continues to spread in use, E-ZPass becomes a feature of the landscape and even a mainstay of our consciousness. Like e-mail and cell phones, it is a new technology that has seeped into the way we live. To a new generation, lining up at toll booths every commuting day of their lives for the right to cross a bridge seems as unimaginable as getting up out of your seat to change the television channel.

Big Brother, magical fairie-or just a motorist convenience in a region that specializes in motorist inconvenience and fleecing-E-ZPass has turned 10 years old. Like it, love it or avoid it, it seems here to stay, a new character in the great American story: the road.