Starting March 1, 2023, drivers will no longer need to stop at a toll booth on the Dulles Toll Road as it debuts a pay-by-plate toll payment system for motorists not using E-ZPass or similar payment devices. 

The move transitions the toll road to an all-electronic and cashless payment system. Cash and coins will no longer be accepted, and coin baskets will be deactivated. Motorists who don’t pay tolls electronically will be identified by their vehicle license plate and receive an invoice to their registered address. Eliminating cash toll collection is expected to speed traffic flow and benefit the environment by reducing emissions that would have been produced by vehicles waiting in toll-booth lines.  

The Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority board of directors voted in 2022 to authorize an administrative fee to recover the costs of pay-by-plate transactions per the Code of Virginia, section 46.2-819.3:1. The fee will initially be set at $1.60 per transaction to cover the cost of preparing and processing invoices and will be reviewed annually to ensure the fee is covering the cost for processing pay-by-plate transactions.

In addition to the new pay-by-plate option, motorists have several other convenient alternative methods to pay tolls along the Dulles Toll Road: 

• E-ZPass customers pay the lowest toll rate. It is also accepted at many other toll facilities around the country.  
• Toll road drivers without E-ZPass can visit tollroadsinvirginia.com, operated by the Virginia Department of Transportation, to pay a toll online (Missed-a-Toll) before or after receiving an invoice. 
• Smartphone applications from private companies offer another way to pay. Examples include GoToll, Slora, Uproad and NextPass. Users can expect to incur fees set by the companies in addition to toll payment. Links to these apps can be found at the Dulles Toll Road website. 

Of all toll payments made at the plaza in 2022, roughly only two percent, or 726,367 Dulles Toll Road transactions, were cash payments. Signs posted along the highway and at toll plazas provide notice to drivers of the coming change to cashless operations.  

In April 2020, manual toll collection ended on the Dulles Toll Road in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2019, 34 toll booths were removed to create EZ-Pass express lanes. A phased removal of 25 toll booths and coin machines will be explored in the coming months.