Pikepass to become compatible with K-Tag

[route56]

http://kfor.com/2014/08/04/oklahoma-pikepass-will-work-on-texas-tolls-in-a-few-days/

Does this mean K-Tag will also work in Texas, or TollTag will work in Kansas?

No and No. In fact, as noted above, the KTA will direct users to Pikepass instead of K-TAG if warranted.

[leroys73]

Sounds like Pike Pass.

[SteveG1988]

Just came through in the truck on the K-Turnpike, with my K-TAG and PikePass, i didn't get the company message to remove the K-TAG, seems we canceled it due to the PikePass being the better value, now i have just PikePass and E-ZPass on my rig, i have to get the two non NTTA texas ones tho.

The K-Tag only lanes do have booms on them. And i got stuck due to having the K-TAG and PikePass, it attempted to read the K-TAG and discovered that my company killed our account. I had to realy the PikePass id number to her.

As for interoperability...it could happen...but that would require one region to basically rip out their current equipment since the Mid-West ones like K-TAG/PikePass/etc are RFID, and the E-ZPass type are active transponders, E-ZPass does have advantages, like the ability to do FLEX where you can switch it if you are in a car pool lane to pay the toll or get a free ride if you have the right ammount of people in your car.

[mtantillo]

I'm not a fan of the new style interoperability. The old style (E-ZPass) relied on a central set of rules where all agencies had to agree to them. Once that happened, all any agency that joined was immediately completely interoperable with all the others. The new system relies more on peer to peer agreements, and first, they take forever to negotiate, and then you have different interop rules for each system.

And you wind up with crazy situations where OK and KS are connected, OK and TX are connected, but TX and KS are not connected.

We would all be on E-ZPass now if it weren't for the fact that E-ZPass, despite having the best back office agreements, has the oldest and most expensive front end technology.

My prediction is that by 2016 you might have KS/OK/TX/FL/GA/NC interoperable, and a plan devised to get everyone else connected. The ultimate plan will rely on dual-mode readers and dual mode transponders (which might be marketed as an "extra" to only those customers that want that functionality), heavy reliance on video tolling and linking license plates registered with an account to images captured at a toll plaza, and for it not to initially be available everywhere.

And FYI, there are portable versions of the passive transponders. Look up SunPass Portable to see what it looks like. So far only FL and WSDOT offer portable transponders, but my guess is that E-ZPass will insist on some level of portability being available. We will see what happens, but at least some progress is being made with FL/NC, NC/E-ZPass, TX/OK/KS.

[Bobby5280]

The original Oklahoma PikePass "soap bar" style transponder was portable. It was not meant to be used that way, but I took it along with me when driving up to OKC with a friend who didn't have a PikePass, just as a means of helping out with the trip cost by paying the tolls.