CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) -- The Illinois Toll Authority said it took in more than $150,000 extra in tolls last year than people owed, all of that money coming from exact-change toll machines.
According to tollway spokesman Dan Rozek, in 2017, the tollway system took in more than $400,000 more than toll users owed at exact-change machines.
Now, the amount of overpayments is less than half that, about $152,000.
Reasons for that include that there are more ways to pay tolls at exact-change machines than just putting in the correct coins.
"You can pay with bills, credit cards, and most recently rolled out proximity services like Google, Android and Apple Pay," he said.
And, Rozek said, if none of those options suit you, there is one more: pressing a button on the toll machine and getting a receipt reminding you to pay the toll online within seven days.
Those options are catching on.
"The amount of cash being used on the system is dropping because more people are paying electronically," Rozek said.
He said the Automatic Toll Payment Machines are a "vast improvement" over the old machines in which you threw coins into a basket.
Rozek said more than 90 percent of toll users have iPasses.
He said there were more than a billion iPass transactions last year. Of those, a small fraction, 3.2 million, were at ramp toll plazas.
