New York State Thruway Toll Evaders to Have Registration Suspended

The Thruway Authority is no longer going easy on toll evaders.

The New York State Thruway is the fifth busiest toll road in the United States, and it's a major route for Hudson Valley travelers, and long-distance travelers, linking the cities of Toronto and Buffalo with Boston and New York City. Operated by the New York State Thruway Authority (NYSTA), the 496-mile mainline toll road extends from the New York City line at Yonkers to the Pennsylvania state line at Ripley, NY by way of I-87 and I-90through Albany, Syracuse, and Buffalo.

For anyone thinking of trying to avoid paying tolls the next time they're driving on the Thruway, think again.

Suspended Driver Registrations for Failure to Pay Tolls

According to Poughkeepsie Journal, the Thruway Authority has resumed a program to suspend a driver's registration for failure to pay their tolls. This comes after the rollout of the cashless tolling program that has seen its share of issues since being implemented.

The cashless tolling system was started on the Thruway in November 2020 with the installation of overhead cameras and sensors installed to read license plates so bills can be sent to the driver's home. The Thruway has been trying to collect on overdue accounts before the suspension.

There were reportedly $64 million in unpaid tolls between 2018 and 2021, some of which had to do with uncollected tolls during the pandemic. An amnesty program introduced in 2018 collected roughly $1.4 million in unpaid tolls, with another $1 million collected from some 386,000 accounts through a COVID relief settlement program, according to Thruway Executive Director Matthew Driscoll.

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So the moral of the story here is probably best to just get E-ZPass. I've used the Tolls by Mail program and it's a disaster, not to mention more pricey. Get the E-ZPass, save a little money, and avoid unpaid tolls so you aren't dealing with a suspended registration. My advice.