Skip to main content

Oklahoma turnpikes go cashless

OTA says there were 500 crashes at toll booths from 2015-21
By Adam Hill November 26, 2024 Read time: 2 mins
OTA says PikePass is the most cost-effective way to travel Oklahoma turnpikes (© Trong Nguyen | Dreamstime.com)

Tolling is now cashless on all 12 Oklahoma turnpikes - a conversion process which cost nearly $60 million over the last seven years.

Users will now pay via PikePass and PlatePay.

The last one to switch to open road tolling was the I-44/Will Rogers Turnpike corridor between Tulsa and the Missouri state line.

It means that motorists can travel through cash lanes and pay them later online instead, with signage in place alerting drivers to keep moving.

Demolition of the toll booths and toll plaza areas is expected to begin after Thanksgiving, and this will lead to some lane closures, says Oklahoma Turnpike Authority (OTA).

Safety was a factor in the move to all-electronic tolling: OTA says there were more than 500 crashes at tolling booths in the six years up to 2021.

PlatePay cameras photograph a vehicle’s licence plate, enabling the authority to send the vehicle’s registered owner an invoice.

Motorists without a PikePass will receive a bill in the mail or can pay online at www.platepay.com "about five days after travelling a turnpike".

OTA says PikePass is the most cost-effective way to travel Oklahoma turnpikes, and its toll tag offers seamless travel on turnpikes within states including Kansas, Texas and some toll roads in Colorado and Florida. 

The conversion began with testing on a small section of the Creek Turnpike in Tulsa in 2017. By 2021, the John Kilpatrick Turnpike corridor in Oklahoma City was the first to convert to cashless tolling. 

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • The red light camera choice: 60 killed or save US$231 million a year
    June 5, 2015
    David Crawford investigates new cost-benefit analysis of red light cameras. US states can now realistically calculate the economic benefits of using red light safety cameras, alone or in combination with other measures, to cut road traffic accident levels. The results could be of material value in making the case for the cameras as a number of state legislatures continue to debate their acceptability.
  • Figures show Express Lanes bring wider benefits
    August 12, 2015
    Drivers in the Washington DC area are realising time savings following the opening of Express Lanes on the I-95 - and not only those paying to use the new facility. Washington is ranked as being the worst gridlocked city in the United States. Every day its drivers face an average commute time of 39.5 minutes and they waste an average of 67 hours every year just sitting in traffic. In a move to counter these problems, late last December new Express Lanes were opened along 46.6km (29 miles) of the I-95 betwee
  • Sandra Phillips of Movmi: ‘We’re all trying to get people moving without a car’
    April 30, 2021
    Movmi founder Sandra Phillips talks to Adam Hill about why transport integration is sometimes a matter of trust – and how to empower women in transportation
  • AVs coming to Florida mobility corridor 
    March 4, 2022
    Jacksonville Transportation Authority project supported by $12.5m grant from USDoT