Cash Payments End In March On Dulles Toll Road, Electronic-Only Tolling To Begin

VIENNA, VA — Cash payments will no longer be an option on the Dulles Toll Road in March, the toll road operator Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority announced.

As of March 1, drivers can no longer pay tolls with cash at toll booths. Instead, drivers can pay tolls electronically or receive an invoice using the pay-by-plate option.

Dulles Toll Road, which runs between Tysons and Dulles International Airport, is the region's only toll facility that continued to accept cash payments. According to the toll road's website, 1 percent of transactions are paid with cash, and an estimated 94 percent of customers have EZ Pass.

"Fully eliminating cash toll collection will increase safety and convenience for the traveling public by eliminating the sometimes-dramatic speed reductions and congestion that can occur at toll plazas," an information sheet on the electronic tolling states. "[All-Electronic Tolling] will also help improve air quality by reducing emissions from vehicles idling in toll lanes or accelerating and decelerating in manual collection toll lanes."

E-ZPass is recommended as an electronic payment option on Dulles Toll Road. There are also smartphone applications for electronic toll payments, but these may come with fees paid to the private companies.

For those who do not pay tolls electronically, pay-by-plate technology will capture a vehicle's license plate information and send a toll invoice to the vehicle owner's registered address. Pay-by-plate invoices will include a $1.60 administrative fee. Drivers may pay a toll before or after receiving an invoice at tollroadsinvirginia.com.

A Virginia law states a toll road operator may charge a fee for the cost of a video monitoring system and the cost of an invoice for a pay-by-plate transaction. The fee may not exceed double the base toll, provided that the toll road operator provides notice with signage before entering.

Drivers can continue to pay cash with exact coin change at toll booths through Feb. 28. Manual collection of cash toll payments stopped in April 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Toll booths at 59 locations are planned to be removed in phases.

The Dulles Greenway, which connects to the Dulles Toll Road beyond Dulles International Airport in Loudoun County, accepts EZ Pass and credit card payments but not cash.

The move away from cash tolling comes after the airports authority increased toll rates at the start of 2023. The toll rate for two-axle vehicles, which are typically most cars, SUVs and pickup trucks, increased from $3.25 to $4.00 at the main toll plaza and $1.50 to $2.00 on ramps. That equates to the total cost increasing from $4.75 to $6.