I consider myself an old school kind of guy; I like Alfred Hitchcock movies, prefer whiskey cocktails and have only had a smartphone for less than a year. If you’re someone like me, who often thinks the traditional ought to be the contemporary, you better get ready to modernize. The Tobin Bridge is going electric.

Starting Monday, July 21, the toll on the Tobin will only accept E-ZPasses – no more cash. The idea of strictly using the digital payment system is to curtail and bridge traffic and smoothly shuffle cars into the city without having to stop and fumble around looking for exact change.

“With the implementation of this innovative form of toll collection we are saying to our customers that their time is valuable,” said MassDOT Secretary & CEO Richard A. Davey in a statement back in May. “We are also increasing safety and reducing greenhouse gas emissions by cutting congestion and the time spent idling at the cash booth.”

If you don’t have an E-ZPass yet, fret not; you can sign up for one right here. Don’t want to sign up for one? Well, stop being stubborn. You’re going to get a bill in the mail, assuming the license plate they track is associated with your home address – which, if it isn’t, probably isn’t a good thing.

According to the Boston Globe, MassDOT “began testing license plate readers installed at the Boston end of the Tobin to ensure that the high-speed cameras were able to accurately capture license plate numbers.”

Unless you’re riding around in a stolen car, you’re going to have to pay one way or the other. So you might as well get yourself one of these dagnabbit transponders.

Image via Shutterstock

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