Drivers without E-ZPass see red over confusing lane signs at N.H. toll plaza

HAMPTON, N.H. – New, color-coded signs at the Interstate-95 Hampton tolls should help E-ZPass users find E-ZPass lanes. But some drivers without the electronic toll-paying gear still are landing in the lanes and incurring $25 fines.

The signs read: “E-ZPass only” in purple; “Cash” in green and “E-ZPass both” accepted. On other state highways, there also is an exact change only lane in yellow with “no E-ZPass.”

It’s enough to confuse drivers, and often does, especially at night, and particularly the 54.5 percent of drivers without the electronic toll billing system using the main Hampton tolls.

Barbara Rowell of West Roxbury, Mass., has received one $25 fine and is expecting another for going through an E-ZPass-only toll without a transponder or an account.

She thought Lane 5 was a cash lane because the sign read: “EZ Pass only, Lanes 3 and 4.”

“I got in Lane 5 and Lane 5 was no cash also,” Rowell said. “At that point, I would have gotten killed trying to change lanes. On Feb. 16, the same thing happened. I stopped and talked to the tollbooth people. They said, ‘Lady, you’d better get moving, you’re going to get hit.”‘

Another driver from Newburyport, Mass., said he has seen a tractor-trailer back up from the wrong toll lane. People who pay cash sometimes have to cross the three lanes of fast-driving E-ZPass users to get to a cash-only lane, he said.

“They have to cross traffic to pay someone a dollar,” he said. “They’re like big turtles in the road.”

The state is still fine-tuning the color, said Bill Boynton, a spokesman for the state Department of Transportation.

“When you approach the plaza, you’ll see large overhead signs, see yellow on the left, purple in middle, green on the right,” said Boynton. “There’s some sentiment by lawmakers that E-ZPass should be on the left, rather than center.”

Florida started E-ZPass in the center and went to the left lanes, said Boynton.

The New Jersey Turnpike and Garden State Parkway appear to have the E-ZPass lanes worked out, seven years after the system was implemented.

E-ZPass is always on the left in New Jersey, said Walter Kristlibas, chairman of the E-ZPass Inter Agency Group Executive Committee. New Jersey drivers know E-ZPass will be on the left, he said, but also, if they’re stuck in the right lane, there will be an E-ZPass lane there and one in the middle.

E-ZPass is in effect in 11 states from Maine to Florida. It allows a driver to slow down, rather than stop at a tollbooth.