Using digital directions could cost you on Pa. Turnpike

If you don't have E-ZPass, you should be careful following your GPS or an online map when it comes to two interchanges on to the Pennsylvania Turnpike in our area.

The exits are E-ZPass only, and a Turnpike Authority spokesman says motorists who do not have E-ZPass tags could pay a lot more if they accidentally use them.

They are Exit 352, the eastbound only Street Road Interchange in Bensalem, and Exit 340, the westbound only Virginia Drive Interchange near the Fort Washington Office Center in Upper Dublin Township.

Another so-called All Electric Interchange is planned for the new Route 29 exit in Chester County.

Turnpike spokesman Carl DeFebo said the E-ZPass-only exchanges are clearly marked as such.

Still, he said, the authority has received calls from motorists complaining that their GPS or an online map directed them to the exchanges and they ended up on the turnpike without a toll ticket.

And motorists with toll tickets who got off at the exits have received E-ZPass violations in the mail. But more about that later.

The problem is if you get on the Turnpike without an E-ZPass transponder or a toll ticket, you will be required to pay the toll from the farthest point from where you exit.

For example, getting on at Virginia Drive and getting off at the Fort Washington Exit less than a mile away few miles away will cost you $37.90, if you don't have an E-ZPass. That's what it costs if you get on the Turnpike at the Ohio border and pay cash when you exit at Fort Washington. Get the picture?

Now for those who have tickets but receive an E-ZPass violation in the mail after exiting at an All Electronic Interchange, DeFebo has some advice. Save your ticket, he says, and use it to appeal the violation. That way you will only be billed what you owe.