Should you drive an RV on a toll road?

When traveling the interstate system across this great country, we sometimes encounter toll roads. Google Maps lets us easily avoid them to save money if we desire, but we’ve learned there can be great benefits to driving an RV on a toll road. 

What is a toll road?

If you’ve spent most of your life in Arizona, the Great Plains, or the Northwestern U.S. outside the Pacific Northwest, you may not have encountered toll roads. As the name implies, a toll road is a route that requires a fee to drive on it. You can think of it as paying the troll under the bridge from “Three Billy Goats Gruff.” 

What does the money go to? It’s intended to cover the costs of road construction, operations, and maintenance.

Toll roads have been in existence since the 1920s, according to the Federal Highway Administration. They were created to help pay for the expansion of highways, tunnels, and bridges. Today, all but 13 of the United States include toll roads, according to the World Population Review. 

Let’s look at some of the benefits of driving an RV on a toll road.

Routes and road conditions

When hauling a 42-foot fifth wheel across any part of the country, we like to avoid traffic congestion whenever possible. That typically means skirting big cities. Although most toll roads are found in cities, they tend to route travelers outside the downtown area. This is a significant perk when towing a big rig. 

Staying outside the city can also help prevent clearance issues. Although driving the New York State Thruway from one end of the state to the other can cost upward of $50 with our four axles, it keeps us free from low-clearance overpasses and provides a lot of convenience. 

Because toll roads collect money for upkeep, they’re typically — but not always — in better condition than highways that don’t. This makes for better driving with an RV. Every time we move our fifth wheel from one location to another, all the contents inside effectively experience an earthquake. Smoother roads mean fewer mishaps inside the rig during travel.

Toll roads also include convenient travel plazas. If we need to make a pit stop or pick up some food or fuel, we can pull off the road and easily get right back on when we’re ready without having to worry about paying another toll. Each travel plaza usually includes clean restrooms, a handful of eateries, and other shops for snacks and vehicle needs. 

Payment procedures

In the early days of toll roads, drivers had to have exact change to throw into a basket as they passed a toll booth. Digital technology has revolutionized that. No longer do you need to collect quarters, dimes, and nickels to enter these for-fee roads; you just need a registered license plate. 

Overhead cameras read license plates, which are linked to a person’s name and address. Toll bills are then sent in the mail to the address on file. Alternatively, drivers can proactively pay the fee online based on a website advertised as they pass a toll station.

Transponder options

Another thing that can streamline toll payments is a transponder that suctions to the inside of a vehicle’s windshield. Instead of the toll booth cameras reading a license plate, they can read a transponder, which is also linked to a name and address.

In 2022, we traveled to Florida and all the way up the East Coast to Maine. Our route included a number of toll roads. Before setting out that year, we obtained an E-ZPass transponder to adhere to our windshield. It worked from North Carolina up to Maine and even in Illinois when we visited there. 

For our time in Florida, we had to secure SunPass. Since then, however, E-ZPass has expanded to cover the state of Florida as well. As of this writing, E-ZPass is available in 18 states. 

That leaves 19 states with toll roads that aren’t covered by E-ZPass. We wanted a more comprehensive solution and found that the trucker fleet we belong to, TSD, which allows access for RVers under the Open Roads name, has a partnership with Innovative Toll Solution. For a transponder setup fee, which includes a small account on the transponder itself, and an annual fee, we get coverage of all toll roads across the country. 

For us, toll roads are well worth the cost to keep us outside busy cities on better roads with easy payments and decent food options. 

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