Tolls in the United States: transponders, rental company packages and the roads to know
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In the West, you can drive for three weeks without meeting a single toll. On the East Coast and in Florida it’s the opposite: tunnels, bridges and toll motorways follow one another, almost always with no booth or barrier.
We found that out when driving out of Manhattan, on our road trip from New York to Florida.
Where are there tolls?
| Region | Situation |
|---|---|
| Utah, Arizona, Nevada, Wyoming, Montana, New Mexico | None or almost none |
| California | The bridges of San Francisco Bay, a few motorways in Orange County, express lanes |
| Colorado, Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas | A few motorways around the big cities |
| Illinois | The motorways around Chicago |
| Northeast (New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Delaware, Maryland) | Very many: motorways, bridges, tunnels |
| Florida | Very many: Florida’s Turnpike, the motorways of Miami and Orlando |
The scenic roads in the parks, Route 66, Highway 1 and the Overseas Highway to Key West are free.
Tolls with no booths
Most tolls are now entirely electronic. There’s no barrier, no booth and no change to give: a gantry reads the transponder stuck to the windscreen or, failing that, photographs the number plate and sends the bill to the vehicle’s owner. For a rental car, the owner is the rental company.
The main transponder systems:
| Transponder | Where |
|---|---|
| E-ZPass | The whole Northeast and part of the Midwest, also accepted in Florida. |
| SunPass | Florida. |
| FasTrak | California. |
| TxTag, TollTag, EZ Tag | Texas. |
| I-Pass | Illinois, compatible with E-ZPass. |
With a rental car
Almost all cars rented in toll regions are fitted with a transponder or registered by their number plate. The rental company pays the toll, then charges it to your card, with a service fee.
The packages noted in 2026, to be checked in your contract:
| Rental company | Package | Fee, on top of the tolls |
|---|---|---|
| Alamo, Enterprise, National | TollPass | $3.95 per day of use, capped per rental |
| Hertz, Dollar, Thrifty | PlatePass | $5.95 per day of use, capped at $29.75 |
| Avis, Budget | e-Toll | $6.95 per day of use, capped at $34.95 |
What to look at
- Per day of use or per rental day? Some packages charge the fee for every day of the contract from the first toll onwards. Over three weeks, the difference is enormous.
- The rate for the toll itself. It’s often charged on at the highest rate, the one for vehicles without a transponder.
- The unlimited package offered at the desk (10 to 25 dollars a day) only pays for itself for someone driving through tolls all day long.
- The bill arrives after you return the car, sometimes several weeks later. Don’t be surprised by a charge from the rental company.
With Alamo, our car had a box fixed to the windscreen: all you had to do was open it to activate electronic tolling.
Over the whole journey from New York to Florida, with the various bridges, the TollPass cost us 88 dollars extra. We didn’t use the paid express lanes.
Can you avoid the rental company’s fees?
- Avoid tolls. In Google Maps, switch on the “Avoid tolls” option. In the West, it changes nothing. On the East Coast, the detour can be long.
- Pay online yourself. Some agencies let you settle a passage by number plate in the days that follow, before the bill goes to the rental company (see the cases below). Check that your contract allows it.
- Buy your own transponder: possible for a long stay, but you have to link it to the car’s number plate and deactivate the rental company’s. Too complicated for two or three weeks.
For most travellers, the simplest thing is to accept the “per day of use” package and group the toll journeys into as few days as possible.
Special cases
New York. The tunnels and bridges linking New Jersey to Manhattan (Lincoln, Holland, George Washington) cost around fifteen dollars, only in the direction of entry into New York. Since 2025, congestion pricing for central Manhattan has been added: 9 dollars a day to drive into the zone south of 60th Street, during the day. One more reason to pick up the car only when leaving the city.
From New York to Washington. I-95 crosses New Jersey (the New Jersey Turnpike), Delaware and Maryland, with a toll in each state. Allow 30 to 40 dollars for the journey.
Florida. Florida’s Turnpike and the motorways around Miami, Orlando and Tampa are tolled, often a few dollars at each gantry. The road through the Keys is free.
The Golden Gate Bridge. The toll is paid only when entering San Francisco from the north, around ten dollars, with no booth. You can settle it online by number plate, before crossing or within 48 hours afterwards, on the bridge’s website.
Orange County, California. Highways 73, 133, 241 and 261 are tolled, with no booths. Online payment is possible within five days.
Illinois. A passage without a transponder can be paid online by number plate within 14 days.
Express lanes
On the big urban motorways, the left-hand lane is sometimes a tolled express lane (Express Lane, HOT Lane), whose price varies with the traffic. The rate is displayed at the entrance.
Not to be confused with carpool lanes (HOV or Carpool), marked with a diamond: they’re free for two occupants or more, sometimes three. With two of you in the car, you’re entitled to use them, and they save a lot of time in Los Angeles.
You only enter and leave these lanes at the designated places, where the line is broken.
If there are still booths
A few tolls keep their booths: choose the queue marked Cash or Cards, never the one reserved for transponders. Keep a few one- and five-dollar notes in the car.
The rest of the rules of the road are in driving in the United States, and the rental companies’ other fees in renting a car.