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Frustrated e-zpass users petition for billing system investigation.

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More than 12,000 E-ZPass users experiencing problems have signed a petition calling on Gov. Larry Hogan to create a task force to investigate the billing system.

| LINK : Petition requests creation of task force

The petition seeks a review of the leadership at the Maryland Transportation Authority and asks that fees be frozen until the investigation is complete.

| RELATED : Maryland E-Z Pass complaints persist over billing issues

E-ZPass users with billing problems are hoping their sheer numbers will finally get someone's attention.

| RELATED : Senate bill would offer options to motorists who owe E-ZPass bills

The petition asks Hogan to create a task force to investigate billing problems. It's calling for a review of MDTA administrators and seeks a hold on fines until the investigation is complete.

| RELATED : Maryland E-ZPass users report overbilling, inability to reach customer service

Queen Anne's County resident Caroline Huddleston organized the petition.

"It was my own frustration after receiving what was going to be $700 in tolls and fines for an E-ZPass that we had fully funded," Huddleston said. "I have thrown over $500 into my E-ZPass account just to make it go away."

But she said her billing problems involving her travel over the Bay Bridge persist.

Huddleston has tried calling. She has stood in line for more than an hour at an E-ZPass service center only to be told to take her complaint over late fees to court. She said based on her experience with the petition, she's not alone.

"You have people that are getting hit with these charges for literally thousands of dollars and if they don't pay their registration, their vehicle registration is being put on hold. They can't register their vehicle and there was also talk about their tax refund getting intercepted," Huddleston said.

Janice Carrell, E-ZPass user, said her bill used to be $28 a month for traveling over the Bay Bridge daily to work.

"I was almost in tears looking it, because I don't know what to do," Carrell said.

Carrell said E-ZPass is now charging her for something called "unused trips."

When asked what unused trips were, Carrell said: "I don't know, I'm coming across five days a week just like I always was. It seems like they are doing it every two or three weeks, they are just taking money out that for what? They've never done that before ever."

Huddleston said she thinks something is wrong with the billing system.

"It's the billing system itself is broken. There is something wrong," Huddleston said.

The petition will be sent to the governor after it reaches 15,000 signatures. In the meantime, the board of directors of the agency that oversees MDTA is holding a meeting Thursday. The agenda includes an update on toll operations and customer service.

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Where to buy E-ZPass and how to use it

December 24, 2022 // By Sharon Nolan

By Sharon Nolan Travel Expert December 24, 2022

Approaching toll booths and paying the ticketed amount can mean added travel time, inconvenience and the necessity of traveling with small amounts of cash at all times. The introduction of E-ZPass across many states offers anyone traveling the roads a better way to pay and keep their travel time to a minimum with less interruptions for toll payment.

Understanding and implementing the process is quick and easy, and it may be just the thing to simplify your road trips, whether they be short or long, frequent or not that often. Is E-ZPass the option that works best for you? Here’s what you need to know to see if this electronic option will make your trips easier.

Understanding E-ZPass

E-ZPass is a method of paying road, bridge and tunnel tolls faster, easier and more efficiently. This multi-state electronic toll pass system eliminates the need to stop to pay fees while traveling toll roads. Instead of toll booths, the system works via overhead readers that pick up account information and charge your fee via a transponder mounted on your windshield.

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It offers an easy, speedy, touchless way to handle tolls, and eliminates the need to get and keep track of a ticket, the time to stop to pay the amount due, as well as the hassle of finding the correct amount of money due. The system translates the steps to an electronic transaction and streamlines the entire travel toll process.

As an additional bonus, the transponders also work to provide traffic data. Readers provide information on the speed and flow of traffic so that traffic reports can be accurate. They do not work to track individual speeders but help to inform traffic reporters of congestion on roads, travel time, slowdowns and the like.

The concept of E-ZPass was introduced in 1987, and its goal was to unite several states’ toll collection systems into one. The current setup now includes 19 states and is the largest, most successful interoperable toll collection program anywhere in the world.

Where E-ZPass can be used

E-ZPass works in states from Florida up to Maine and west to Illinois. It’s good on toll roads, bridges and tunnels. More than 49 million E-ZPass devices are currently in circulation. Once you’ve received a transponder, simply adhere it to the windshield of your vehicle and, when passing through an E-ZPass-labeled toll center, observe as the reader detects and processes your toll due and sends you on your way.

Signs in states and gateways that participate will indicate appropriate lanes to be in to use the system, and then simply following the directions once you’re there will allow you to pass through quickly and easily. The toll amount will be deducted from your E-ZPass account (usually secured with a credit card or paid on a toll-by-toll basis). Should you want to see your charges at any times, you may log into your account and view them, update your payment information or a variety of other options.

How to get E-ZPass

Each participating state operates its own E-ZPass service center. You’ll want to decide if a personal or commercial account is best for your situation. E-ZPasses may be obtained by visiting the correct state’s E-ZPass website and applying via their online form. You may also print out the forms and apply by mail or fax. You may include up to four tags under each account.

Users receive their transponders typically within a few days to a week and can begin travel at that point. Additionally, E-ZPass Go Paks can be purchased locally for a small convenience fee, so you’re up and running faster. Merchants like Walmart, AAA and area supermarkets often carry them, making the process one that’s easily added to your daily to-do list and gets you out on the road in no time.

About Sharon Nolan

Sharon is a native to the Philadelphia area, but loves to wander from its familiar borders. She has traveled to more than 30 countries, trekked five continents, ventured out with family, friends and on solo trips and tackled numerous adventures that were both in and well out of her comfort zone. When she's not traveling, you may find her out on her bicycle on the local roads and trails dreaming up her next adventure. Her other works can be found at AAA The Extra Mile, Trekaroo.com, FWT Magazine, NJ Family and a variety of other online publications.

Read more about Sharon Nolan here.

Connect with Sharon via: Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | Pinterest

Okhotny Ryad station in Soviet times and today.

The Moscow metro system has 275 stations, and 28 of them have been renamed at some point or other—and several times in some cases. Most of these are the oldest stations, which opened in 1935.

The politics of place names

The first station to change its name was Ulitsa Kominterna (Comintern Street). The Comintern was an international communist organization that ceased to exist in 1943, and after the war Moscow authorities decided to call the street named after it something else. In 1946, the station was renamed Kalininskaya. Then for several days in 1990, the station was called Vozdvizhenka, before eventually settling on Aleksandrovsky Sad, which is what it is called today.

The banner on the entraince reads: "Kalininskaya station." Now it's Alexandrovsky Sad.

Until 1957, Kropotkinskaya station was called Dvorets Sovetov ( Palace of Soviets ). There were plans to build a monumental Stalinist high-rise on the site of the nearby Cathedral of Christ the Saviour , which had been demolished. However, the project never got off the ground, and after Stalin's death the station was named after Kropotkinskaya Street, which passes above it.

Dvorets Sovetov station, 1935. Letters on the entrance: "Metro after Kaganovich."

Of course, politics was the main reason for changing station names. Initially, the Moscow Metro itself was named after Lazar Kaganovich, Joseph Stalin’s right-hand man. Kaganovich supervised the construction of the first metro line and was in charge of drawing up a master plan for reconstructing Moscow as the "capital of the proletariat."

In 1955, under Nikita Khrushchev's rule and during the denunciation of Stalin's personality cult, the Moscow Metro was named in honor of Vladimir Lenin.

Kropotkinskaya station, our days. Letters on the entrance: "Metropolitan after Lenin."

New Metro stations that have been opened since the collapse of the Soviet Union simply say "Moscow Metro," although the metro's affiliation with Vladimir Lenin has never officially been dropped.

Zyablikovo station. On the entrance, there are no more signs that the metro is named after Lenin.

Stations that bore the names of Stalin's associates were also renamed under Khrushchev. Additionally, some stations were named after a neighborhood or street and if these underwent name changes, the stations themselves had to be renamed as well.

Until 1961 the Moscow Metro had a Stalinskaya station that was adorned by a five-meter statue of the supreme leader. It is now called Semyonovskaya station.

Left: Stalinskaya station. Right: Now it's Semyonovskaya.

The biggest wholesale renaming of stations took place in 1990, when Moscow’s government decided to get rid of Soviet names. Overnight, 11 metro stations named after revolutionaries were given new names. Shcherbakovskaya became Alekseyevskaya, Gorkovskaya became Tverskaya, Ploshchad Nogina became Kitay-Gorod and Kirovskaya turned into Chistye Prudy. This seriously confused passengers, to put it mildly, and some older Muscovites still call Lubyanka station Dzerzhinskaya for old times' sake.

At the same time, certain stations have held onto their Soviet names. Marksistskaya and Kropotkinskaya, for instance, although there were plans to rename them too at one point.

"I still sometimes mix up Teatralnaya and Tverskaya stations,” one Moscow resident recalls .

 “Both have been renamed and both start with a ‘T.’ Vykhino still grates on the ear and, when in 1991 on the last day of my final year at school, we went to Kitay-Gorod to go on the river cruise boats, my classmates couldn’t believe that a station with that name existed."

The city government submitted a station name change for public discussion for the first time in 2015. The station in question was Voykovskaya, whose name derives from the revolutionary figure Pyotr Voykov. In the end, city residents voted against the name change, evidently not out of any affection for Voykov personally, but mainly because that was the name they were used to.

What stations changed their name most frequently?

Some stations have changed names three times. Apart from the above-mentioned Aleksandrovsky Sad (Ulitsa Kominterna->Kalininskaya->Vozdvizhenka->Aleksandrovsky Sad), a similar fate befell Partizanskaya station in the east of Moscow. Opened in 1944, it initially bore the ridiculously long name Izmaylovsky PKiO im. Stalina (Izmaylovsky Park of Culture and Rest Named After Stalin). In 1947, the station was renamed and simplified for convenience to Izmaylovskaya. Then in 1963 it was renamed yet again—this time to Izmaylovsky Park, having "donated" its previous name to the next station on the line. And in 2005 it was rechristened Partizanskaya to mark the 60th anniversary of victory in World War II. 

Partizanskaya metro station, nowadays.

Another interesting story involves Alekseyevskaya metro station. This name was originally proposed for the station, which opened in 1958, since a village with this name had been located here. It was then decided to call the station Shcherbakovskaya in honor of Aleksandr Shcherbakov, a politician who had been an associate of Stalin. Nikita Khrushchev had strained relations with Shcherbakov, however, and when he got word of it literally a few days before the station opening the builders had to hastily change all the signs. It ended up with the concise and politically correct name of Mir (Peace).

The name Shcherbakovskaya was restored in 1966 after Khrushchev's fall from power. It then became Alekseyevskaya in 1990.

Alekseyevskaya metro station.

But the station that holds the record for the most name changes is Okhotny Ryad, which opened in 1935 on the site of a cluster of market shops. When the metro system was renamed in honor of Lenin in 1955, this station was renamed after Kaganovich by way of compensation. The name lasted just two years though because in 1957 Kaganovich fell out of favor with Khrushchev, and the previous name was returned. But in 1961 it was rechristened yet again, this time in honor of Prospekt Marksa, which had just been built nearby.

Okhotny Ryad station in 1954 and Prospekt Marksa in 1986.

In 1990, two historical street names—Teatralny Proyezd and Mokhovaya Street—were revived to replace Prospekt Marksa, and the station once again became Okhotny Ryad.

Okhotny Ryad in 2020.

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