The Tobin Bridge tollbooths are slated for removal in the spring of 2014. (Jesse Costa/WBUR)

In the near future, drivers in Massachusetts may no longer need to worry about having cash on hand as they hit toll roads.

The state Department of Transportation is planning on replacing every tollbooth in Massachusetts with electronic tolling systems that read E-ZPass transponders in cars and send monthly bills to drivers who use toll roads without passes. The new system would be entirely cashless and faster, but could put some 400 toll workers out of a job.

‘But We've Always Done It This Way'

In 2009, two months after a lack of tollbooth workers along the Mass Pike on Easter Sunday had traffic backed up for miles, leaving drivers in some locations waiting as long as two hours to pay, Gov. Deval Patrick signed legislation creating a new Department of Transportation. MassDOT puts highways, mass transit, civil aeronautics and the Registry of Motor Vehicles into one streamlined organization.

"We're trying to look at doing things faster, more efficiently and provide more information to the public," said MassDOT Highway Administrator Frank DePaola. To emphasize the change in thinking his department gives out buttons that read: "But we've always done it this way." The slogan has a red circle and slash through it.

"This is a campaign we started to try to encourage our employees to starting thinking differently," says Mass. Highway Adminstrator Frank DePaola. (Jesse Costa/WBUR)

"This is a campaign we started to try to encourage our employees to starting thinking differently, out of the box, so to speak," he said.

That's figuratively and literally out of the box — the Highway Department is planning on doing away with every tollbooth in Massachusetts. MassDOT says by spring 2014* the tolls on the Tobin Bridge will be gone, and within three years so will the rusting toll plaza boxes on the the Mass Pike. They'll be replaced with state-of-the-art electronic tolling — a system of over-the-road sensors to read E-ZPass transponders in cars. And for those without the devices, DePaola says, a monthly bill will come in the mail.

"The high speed cameras will capture very high resolutions of the license plates," DePaola explained. "Through the national database we'll look up the registration of that vehicle. The technology is such now that it is possible to take cash out of the system, and cash transactions take time."

And time is big money on Massachusetts toll roads. On an average weekday, tolls are collected from 574,000 cars on the Tobin Bridge and Mass Pike. Last year, the state took in $325 million.

The new electronic system will be entirely cashless and faster. No longer will you have to slow down for a sensor to read your E-ZPass transponder, or squirm in search of loose change.

Tollbooth Workers

Forty-five to 50 cents of each cash transaction on the Pike and Tobin Bridge goes to pay toll workers' salaries. There are 410 unionized toll takers working Massachusetts roads and their average wage is $33 an hour — costing the state $55 million a year.